Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, pictured at a marketing campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, is getting consideration for a regulation he signed final yr 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 really 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 palms down the very best political nickname ever,” tweeted conservative commentator Liz Wheeler. “It’s so… savagely efficient. In a single phrase tells you EVERYTHING it’s worthwhile to learn about Tim Walz’s harmful radicalism.”
The moniker refers to a regulation that Walz, the governor of Minnesota, signed final yr, requiring public faculties to present menstrual merchandise — together with pads and tampons — to college students in 4th via twelfth grades.
The merchandise are free for college kids, with the state paying about $2 per pupil to maintain them stocked all through the varsity yr.
The regulation, 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 faculty districts than others.
It makes Minnesota one among 28 states (and Washington D.C.) which have handed legal guidelines geared toward giving college students entry to menstrual merchandise in faculties, in keeping with the Alliance for Interval Provides.
The problem enjoys broad well-liked 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 difficulty with the wording of the laws, which says the merchandise have to be out there “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 bogs, however had been unsuccessful. Even the writer of that modification finally voted for the ultimate model of the invoice, saying his relations “felt prefer it was an vital difficulty I ought to help.”
The invoice’s inclusive language displays that not all individuals who menstruate are girls, and never all girls get intervals, which was vital to those that lobbied for the laws.
“It would make it extra snug for everybody … then folks can use no matter restroom they need with out being concerned,” Bramwell Lundquist, then 15, instructed MPR Information final yr.
However some within the Republican Celebration — 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 may very well be weirder than signing a invoice requiring faculties to inventory tampons in boys’ bogs?”
Trump marketing campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt made an identical argument in a Tuesday look on Fox Information.
“As a girl, I feel there isn’t any larger menace to our well being than leaders who help gender-transition surgical procedures for younger minors, who help placing tampons in males’s bogs in public faculties,” she mentioned. “These are radical insurance policies that Tim Walz helps. He really signed a invoice to try this.”
LGBTQ rights teams have cheered Walz’s choice and praised his observe document, 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 robust phrases for his Republican opponents on Tuesday evening.
“I am going to simply say it: Donald Trump and JD Vance are creepy and, sure, bizarre,” he tweeted, repeating the put-down he helped popularize in latest days. “We’re not 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, bought it as a “sensible funding”, explaining to her colleagues final yr that “one out of each 10 menstruating youth miss faculty” 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 deal with interval poverty.
“This regulation exemplifies what we are able to accomplish after we hearken to college students to deal with their wants,” she wrote. “Excited to see MN illustration on the prime 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 unhealthy 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 commonsense 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 instructional outcomes.
“This makes me a fair larger fan of Tampon Tim,” she added.
Almost 1 in 4 college students have struggled to afford interval merchandise in america, in keeping with a 2023 research commissioned by Thinx and PERIOD. Consultants say interval poverty is greater than only a problem: It’s a problem of public and private well being, dignity and extra.
The Minnesota college students who lobbied for the invoice testified final yr 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 significantly.
“We can’t be taught whereas we’re leaking,” highschool pupil Elif Ozturk, then 16, instructed a legislative listening to in 2023. “How will we anticipate our college students to hold this burden with them through the faculty day and nonetheless carry out nicely? The primary precedence needs to be to be taught, to not discover a pad.”
