When VP candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz introduced his family to the world at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, he said, “Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world and I love you.”
As the crowds cheered, it was 17-year-old Gus who stole the show with his emotional display of pride and love for his dad.
Walz and his wife have shared publicly their son has a nonverbal learning disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and an anxiety disorder. In a statement to People this month, the couple said those conditions were “not a setback” but rather “his secret power.”
Tim and Gwen explained that they discovered when he was growing up that Gus was “different from his classmates,” and as a teenager he was diagnosed with “conditions that millions of Americans also have.”
Gus, they continued, “is brilliant, hyper-aware of details that many of us pass by, and above all else, he’s an excellent son and brother to his sibling.”
Gus Walz is a senior at Saint Paul Central High School, and his sister Hope graduated from Montana State University in 2023. Hope works as a ski instructor at Big Sky and is a social worker at a homeless shelter in Bozeman.
