Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, pictured at a marketing campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, is getting consideration for a legislation he signed final 12 months requiring public faculties to supply free interval merchandise.
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Matt Rourke/AP
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Republican critics of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz have given him a brand new nickname: “Tampon Tim.”
After Vice President Harris introduced her decide, Stephen Miller, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, tweeted, “She truly selected Tampon Tim.” Chaya Raichik, who runs the far-right social media account Libs of TikTok, photoshopped Walz’s face onto a Tampax field.
“Tampon Tim is arms down the very best political nickname ever,” tweeted conservative commentator Liz Wheeler. “It’s so… savagely efficient. In a single phrase tells you EVERYTHING you might want to find out about Tim Walz’s harmful radicalism.”
The moniker refers to a legislation that Walz, the governor of Minnesota, signed final 12 months, requiring public faculties to present menstrual merchandise — together with pads and tampons — to college students in 4th by twelfth grades.
The merchandise are free for college kids, with the state paying about $2 per pupil to maintain them stocked all through the college 12 months.
The legislation, which was the results of years of advocacy by college students and their allies, took impact on Jan. 1, although college students say the rollout has up to now been smoother in some college districts than others.
It makes Minnesota one in every of 28 states (and Washington D.C.) which have handed legal guidelines aimed toward giving college students entry to menstrual merchandise in faculties, in response to the Alliance for Interval Provides.
The problem enjoys broad fashionable help: 30 states have eradicated state gross sales tax on menstrual merchandise, and Trump himself signed a 2018 bundle that requires federal prisons to supply them.
However Republicans seem like taking challenge with the wording of the laws, which says the merchandise should be accessible “to all menstruating college students in restrooms usually utilized by college students.”
Some Minnesota Republicans initially tried to restrict the initiative to female-assigned and gender-neutral loos, however had been unsuccessful. Even the creator of that modification finally voted for the ultimate model of the invoice, saying his relations “felt prefer it was an essential challenge I ought to help.”
The invoice’s inclusive language displays that not all individuals who menstruate are ladies, and never all ladies get durations, which was essential to those that lobbied for the laws.
“It’s going to make it extra snug for everybody … then folks can use no matter restroom they need with out being concerned,” Bramwell Lundquist, then 15, advised MPR Information final 12 months.
However some within the Republican Social gathering — which has more and more promoted anti-transgender insurance policies and rhetoric — see that side of the invoice as a purpose to assault Walz.
“Tim Walz is a bizarre radical liberal,” the MAGA Struggle Room account posted on X, previously Twitter. “What could possibly be weirder than signing a invoice requiring faculties to inventory tampons in boys’ loos?”
Trump marketing campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt made an analogous argument in a Tuesday look on Fox Information.
“As a girl, I believe there isn’t a better menace to our well being than leaders who help gender-transition surgical procedures for younger minors, who help placing tampons in males’s loos in public faculties,” she mentioned. “These are radical insurance policies that Tim Walz helps. He truly signed a invoice to do this.”
LGBTQ rights teams have cheered Walz’s choice and praised his observe file, which features a 2023 government order making Minnesota one of many first states to safeguard entry to gender-affirming well being care, as dozens of states search to ban it.
Walz, who as soon as earned the title “most inspiring instructor” at the highschool the place he taught and coached soccer, hasn’t responded publicly to the “Tampon Tim” taunts. However he had sturdy phrases for his Republican opponents on Tuesday evening.
“I will simply say it: Donald Trump and JD Vance are creepy and, sure, bizarre,” he tweeted, repeating the put-down he helped popularize in current days. “We aren’t going again.”
Many on the left see “Tampon Tim” as a praise
Democratic Minnesota Rep. Sandra Feist, the chief sponsor of the invoice within the state Home, offered it as a “clever funding”, explaining to her colleagues final 12 months that “one out of each 10 menstruating youth miss college” as a consequence of an absence of entry to menstrual merchandise and sources.
She defended it once more in a tweet on Wednesday morning, saying she was grateful to have partnered with Walz to handle interval poverty.
“This legislation exemplifies what we are able to accomplish after we take heed to college students to handle their wants,” she wrote. “Excited to see MN illustration on the high of the ticket!”
Feist ended the tweet with the hashtag #TamponTim.
Different Democratic figures have embraced each the hashtag and the coverage behind it.
Many social media customers responded that offering tampons in faculties isn’t the dangerous factor that Republicans are making it out to be — and actually, they see it as the alternative.
Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton mentioned it was “good of the Trump camp to assist publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common sense coverage,” including, “Let’s do that all over the place.”
Former Georgia State Rep. Bee Nguyen mentioned Walz, as a former instructor, understands how the dearth of entry to menstrual merchandise impacts academic outcomes.
“This makes me a good larger fan of Tampon Tim,” she added.
Almost 1 in 4 college students have struggled to afford interval merchandise in the US, in response to a 2023 research commissioned by Thinx and PERIOD. Specialists say interval poverty is greater than only a trouble: It’s a problem of public and private well being, dignity and extra.
The Minnesota college students who lobbied for the invoice testified final 12 months about having to overlook class as a result of they had been unable to afford menstrual merchandise, being distracted from schoolwork and assessments and feeling that adults didn’t take their concern severely.
“We can not study whereas we’re leaking,” highschool pupil Elif Ozturk, then 16, advised a legislative listening to in 2023. “How will we anticipate our college students to hold this burden with them throughout the college day and nonetheless carry out effectively? The primary precedence needs to be to study, to not discover a pad.”