Minnesota governor Tim Walz’s daughter, Hope Walz, said the sport of running is “privileged.”
The 24-year-old posted a two-minute tirade against the idea of running to her TikTok account. “Running as an act is political. And you know who taught me that? Tim Walz,” she said. “The first thing he told me when I was getting into it in high school — granted, I don’t really do it as much anymore, I go in spurts — but when I first [was] getting into it in high school, the first thing he told me was that running is a privilege and being part of the running community is a privilege that not all people have access to.”
@hopewalz
Walz went on to explain some of the “privileged” aspects of running, which include “time to run,” “access to funds to buy the gear,” “access to … healthy, quality food,” and “access to a safe, stable situation that allows you to be in a good mental state to be able to run.”
“All of those things are hard to come by, and if you have them and you are a part of the running community, that is a privilege,” Hope Walz said. “That, again, was the first thing he taught me.”
Walz’s rant comes just after running influencer Kate Mackz filmed a video with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. This seemed to especially trigger the former vice presidential candidate’s daughter, as her dad also did an interview with Mackz, which is still “pinned” to Mackz’s page.
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Walz attacked the running influencer for “platforming” the current administration, then went on to list her grievances with President Trump and his policies.
“Cutting funds to climate initiatives, sending people away without due process, villainizing minorities, all of those things are preventing people from getting into the running community, which is what I thought Kate’s platform was for, but it’s also just damaging to society as a whole,” she said. “We should not be normalizing these people.”
“You don’t get to ‘both sides’ this. It’s not both sides. We are quite literally talking about good versus evil here,” Walz said, adding how it’s “extremely disappointing.”
