This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz made her first solo stop of the Kamala Harris-Tim-Walz campaign in Manassas Friday, speaking with local leaders, educators and labor leaders about the Democratic ticket’s plan for education.
Walz and her husband, Gov. Tim Walz, are both former educators, a point that was emphasized by many of the speakers at the rally.
“Public schools are the foundation of our democracy, and that is why I am so delighted, along with I know everyone in the room that the Harris-Waltz campaign is centering [on] public education,” said Anne Holton, Virginia’s former first lady and former Virginia secretary of education. Holton is the wife of U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who also delivered remarks at the event.
Two of the featured speakers were local educators and union members. Alyce Pope, an education support professional for Fairfax County Public Schools and member of the National Education Association, said the Harris-Walz ticket will prioritize public education.
“This is what we need for America’s schools, leaders who support educators and who fight to make our schools the best they can be,” Pope said at the event, held at the Park West Lions Club in Manassas.
Pope and others drew contrast between both Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz’s records on education compared to that of former President Donald Trump.
Walz, for example, signed legislation as governor to guarantee universal free meals for students in Minnesota schools.
Kaine, who’s seeking reelection to a third term this year, spoke about his experience working with Harris in her roles as both senator and vice president.
Kaine works on the Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee in the Senate, also called the HELP committee. The senator said when Harris became a senator, despite not being a member of the HELP committee, she was passionate about the topic of maternal mortality in America. Kaine and he and Harris worked closely with other committee members to try to create a bill to help tackle that issue.
“We have worked patiently and persistently under her leadership as senator, but also as vice president, to make huge advances and begin to bring down unacceptable rates of maternal mortality,” Kaine said.
Harris ultimately cast a tie-breaking vote as vice president to extend Medicaid coverage for low-income moms who deliver babies.
“Before Kamala Harris, if a low-income child was born, that low income child would get Medicaid and get pediatric care … but the mom’s Medicaid would cut off after 60 days. Because of Kamala and her tie-breaking vote and her advocacy, we now cover mother’s post-delivery for a full year,” Kaine said.
“So what do I know about Kamala Harris?” Kaine quipped, “Identify a problem, gather the stakeholders, challenge us all not to go small, go big, persist. Get something done, get a result.”
The headline speaker of Friday’s rally, however, was first lady Walz.
“Thank you for all being so kind and patient with me as I get my footing here. I wanted to start with teachers and educators, and I thought Virginia would be a great place,” Walz said.
Walz likened the feelings most teachers, students and families have when returning back to school for a new year to the feelings of this election season.
“It sort of feels like that beginning of the school year — that hopefulness, right? That energy that anything is possible … through hard work, of course, we’re feeling that joy, and we’re feeling that hope, and we are ready for that fresh start. We are ready for a new way forward,” Walz said.
Walz shared a story about a former student when she was an English teacher and Gov. Walz was a social studies teacher and football coach at the same school. One of her students, a football player, was struggling behaviorally in class because he was reading far below his grade level.
The two teachers worked together to devise a tutoring plan for the student, to help him learn to read and still be able to play football.
“As teachers, we believe — we know — that everyone deserves a chance to get ahead, every single one,” Walz said.
That vision, she said, is shared by her husband and Harris.
“They will build that opportunity … one where everyone who works hard can have the chance to succeed, and one that lifts up hard working middle class families like our own,” Walz said.
The Minnesota first lady emphasized the difference between the Harris-Walz vision for education and other issues compared to that of the opposing Trump-JD Vance ticket.
She recalled a story she read that Vance said he was “really disturbed” by teachers who don’t have biological children.
“Well, for a long time, Tim and I were teachers who struggled with infertility, and we were only able to start a family because of fertility treatments,” Walz said. “So this is really personal for me, and I think it is for millions of Americans. We do not take kindly to folks like JD Vance telling us when or how to start our family.”
One rally attendee, 41-year-old Woodbridge resident Elizabeth Marlowe, told InsideNoVa she was moved to tears by this portion of Walz’s speech.
“I have struggled with infertility, and I am now a hashtag ‘childless cat lady,’ so her comments about Vance and Trump and the limitations on reproductive health and just women’s health care in general, it hits very close to home for me,” Marlowe said.
She continued, “The fact that not only does she care about education, but she cares about women’s bodily autonomy and protecting an individual’s right to start a family, how and when they can, even if that doesn’t end up successful … it was really beautiful that she spoke on that in such a genuine way to share her experience.”
Marlowe, a high school English teacher in Prince William County, said she was excited Walz had chosen to make Virginia and education the focus of her first solo event.
“I know how important education is to the Walz family, having come from a family of educators, having been educators, and I think it’s incredible that they chose, that she chose Virginia to start meeting with people,” Marlowe said.
Early voting in Virginia begins on Sept. 20, and Marlowe said she is awaiting the arrival of her early-voting ballot.
