Diet Dew, piglets, and Beyonce Day: VP candidate Tim Walz has had his share of viral moments

Beyond his now-viral branding of former president Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance as “weird,” Walz has appeared alongside his daughter in social media posts to highlight Minnesota policies and traditions and established himself as an animal lover and Diet Mountain Dew drinker.

Here are some of Walz’s notable moments.

Walz has presented a folksy, down-to-earth side in social media posts with his daughter, Hope.

A resurfaced video clip from last fall features Walz and his daughter enjoying a ride on “The Slingshot” at the Minnesota State Fair, where they jokingly discussed fair food and her vegetarianism.

“We’re going to get some food — corndog?” Walz asks Hope.

“I’m vegetarian,” his daughter replies.

“Turkey then,” Walz says.

“Turkey is meat,” Hope says.

“Not in Minnesota — turkey is special,” Walz jokes.

When Walz signed a law requiring motorists to use their cellphones in hands-free mode while driving in 2019, he posted a video with his daughter showing his struggle to tape a driving video about the hands free driving law.

“My daughter, Hope, and I put our car in park to give some tips on going hands-free and show just how distracting phones can be,” Walz wrote on X.

“We’re making sure to remind all of you [the] ‘hands free’ driving [law] starts on the first of August. We want to make sure our teen drivers are not texting and — ,” Walz says while filming in the passenger seat.

“No, no, no, I think it’s actually mostly bald men,” his daughter interrupts from the driver’s seat.

He got a hug from school children after signing one bill

Video clips have resurfaced online of schoolchildren hugging Walz when he signed a bill that provided free breakfast and lunch for all K-12 students at schools in Minnesota regardless of their parents’ income.

Walz loves the Diet Dew

Like Trump’s running mate JD Vance, Walz enjoys Diet Mountain Dew. He prefers the soda over coffee, and has often brought the beverage to interviews with reporters.

At a Ohio rally last month, Vance referenced Diet Mountain Dew in a speech where he said Democrats “say it’s racist to do anything” regarding voter identification.

“I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday, and one today,” Vance continued. “I’m sure they’re going to call that racist too, but — it’s good.”

The Midwesterner frequently shares photos and videos of his adopted pets, including his dog, Scout, and his two cats, Afton and Honey.

And after Walz was selected to be Harris’s vice presidential running mate, photos have resurfaced showing him hugging piglets at the Minnesota State Fair in 2019.

He proclaimed a Beyoncé Day in Minnesota last year

When music superstar Beyoncé stopped at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis during her Renaissance World Tour in 2023, Walz declared it “Beyoncé Day” in the state.

“I might be Governor of Minnesota, but we all know who runs the world,” Walz said. “Welcome to Minnesota, Beyoncé!”

He also signed a “Taylor Swift bill” into law earlier this year that issued protections for people buying tickets for concerts and sporting events online, a response to the frustration Swift fans faced when trying to buy tickets to her sold-out stadium tour.

His ‘weird’ criticism went viral

Walz first used the term “weird” in relation to the Trump-Vance ticket last month during an interview with MSNBC and later posted the interview clip on X, captioning it: “I’m telling you: these guys are weird.”

“These are weird people on the other side,” Walz says in the clip. “They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room…. These are weird ideas.”

In an appearance last month on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Walz was asked whether “weird” was a more effective line of attack than others the Democrats have employed, to which he responded, “it’s an observation.”

“Listen to the guy,” Walz said of Trump to CNN’s Jake Tapper. “He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind.”

“We just give [Trump] way too much credit,” Walz said. “When you just ratchet down some of the scariness or whatever, and just name it what it is…. Have you ever seen the guy laugh? That seems very weird to me that an adult can go through six-and-a-half years of being in the public eye. If he has laughed, it’s at someone, not with someone.”

“That’s very weird behavior,” the governor added. “I don’t think you call it anything else. It’s simply what we’re observing.”

Conservative backlash to Walz statement on fundraising call

While media clips have highlighted his folksy side, Walz faced conservative backlash on social media for a statement he made during the recent “White Dudes For Harris” fundraising call.

“Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness,” Walz said during the Zoom call. His comment was met with widespread criticism from conservatives on social media.

Material from a previous Globe story was used in this report.

Alyssa Vega can be reached at [email protected].