In politically divided America, even the Walz family has painful rifts

FREEPORT, Florida – On the campaign trail, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has lamented the political divides in American families, recalling a time when relatives could show up at Thanksgiving dinner and “not complain about politics the whole time, not be on each other’s necks”.

As he and Vice-President Kamala Harris launch their “New Way Forward” tour of battleground states, Mr Walz has said they aim to “bring up the joy” and try to bridge those gaps.

Mr Walz, the governor of Minnesota, knows first-hand how politics can pull families apart. His own family is a prime example.

In recent days, his brother, Mr Jeff Walz, has spoken out on social media and in an interview with the right-leaning outlet NewsNation about the rift between them, noting that he is “100 per cent opposed” to Tim Walz’s political ideology.

“The stories I could tell,” Mr Jeff Walz said in a recent Facebook post about his brother. “Not the type of character you want making decisions about your future.” In another, he said he had “thought hard” about getting on stage and endorsing former president Donald Trump, to whom he donated US$20 (S$25) in 2016.

“I’m torn between that and just keeping my family out of it,” he wrote.

The divide between the Walz brothers is not the only political rift among the families at the top of the ticket in the 2024 election. Trump sued his niece, Ms Mary Trump, a vocal critic of his politics, after she turned over his confidential tax returns to The New York Times. Ms Trump’s second memoir, which describes toxicity and dysfunction in their family, was released on Sept 10.

The siblings of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, supporters of the Democratic ticket, denounced his recently abandoned presidential campaign as well as his subsequent decision to publicly support Trump, which they called “a betrayal”.

In some ways, the splits in families at the nation’s highest rungs of politics are no different from the divisions that have torn apart many families in this deeply divided moment in the nation’s history, one where it has become normal to argue over politics at gatherings with relatives or to avoid the topic altogether in hope of preserving harmony.

“Every family has got people who don’t agree with each other,” said Mr Jack Considine, a former Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota who became friends with Mr Walz after he coached his children in various sports.

But for candidates in the middle of a high-stakes election, such rifts can create additional headaches – a dynamic that Mr Walz’s brother appeared to appreciate after his initial Facebook posts drew wide attention. In his subsequent interview with NewsNation, Mr Jeff Walz said that his reference to “the stories I could tell” referred merely to the fact that Mr Walz often got carsick as a child and that no one wanted to sit beside him on trips.

Mr Jeff Walz did not respond to numerous attempts to contact him by phone, online and at homes he owns in Florida and Tennessee. A representative from Mr Walz’s campaign declined to comment.

The breach in the Walz family has been painful, according to the men’s sister, Ms Sandra Dietrich, who lives in Nebraska, where the siblings were raised. Mr Jeff Walz has said he has not spoken with his brother, beyond a brief phone call, in years.

“They all have their own opinions, and I have mine,” Ms Dietrich said. “They’re my brothers and I love them.” She added that she was a Democrat and planned to vote for her brother and Harris.

“We’ve always agreed to disagree,” she continued. “That’s where I’m at with Jeff. I just wish things were different – that it didn’t wreck people.”

She said her father emphasised to his children the need to respect other people’s opinions. For him, she said, the golden rule was key.

“Be kind. Be good,” she said he told them. “We were taught to respect everybody, no matter what.”

The four Walz children were close growing up and adored their father, Mr James Walz, who worked as a superintendent of schools in Valentine, Nebraska, Ms Dietrich said. His lung cancer diagnosis uprooted the family. They moved to Butte, Nebraska, to be closer to relatives while Mr Walz was in high school.

Mr James Walz’s death in 1984 was difficult for the siblings: Jeff, who was 27 at the time; Ms Dietrich, 23; Tim, 19, and Craig, 11.

Mr Walz has described how the family struggled to pay his father’s medical debt, saying his mother, Darlene, who had for years stayed home to care for her children, needed to find work. Social Security benefits helped the family stay afloat, he has said.

In better years, the family vacationed together, traveling to Colorado, Washington, DC, and Florida, where Mr Jeff Walz now lives.

As the children started their own families, they drifted apart somewhat as they became busy with their family lives, Ms Dietrich said.

They stayed in touch, however, and visited their mother, who still lives in Butte.

“The mother is very close to her kids and loves them dearly,” said Ms Norma Vanderbeek, who works at the library in Butte and is a friend of Ms Darlene Walz.

All of the siblings became educators, a testament to the legacy of their father. Mr Walz became a social studies teacher and coached football and other sports in Nebraska and Minnesota. Ms Dietrich moved to the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. She taught second grade there for a couple of years, and then taught at a country school outside Alliance, Nebraska, where she lives now. Craig taught in Nebraska and in St. Charles, Minnesota, and Jeff became assistant principal at a middle school in Citrus County, Florida.

The family came together in 2016 for a funeral after a terrible accident.

Mr Craig Walz, the youngest sibling, was on a Father’s Day camping trip with his son Jacob and two other people in the Boundary Waters region in Minnesota when a powerful storm swept through the area. According to news reports at the time, a large white pine tree snapped and fell on the group, striking Craig, a popular maths and science teacher, and killing him. Jacob was critically injured. Nearby campers helped Jacob get to a place where rescuers were able to reach him, and he eventually was flown by helicopter to a hospital for treatment for a broken back and other bones. But the wind was so severe that night that rescuers had to wait until the next morning to evacuate the body of his father.

“We lost our baby brother,” Ms Dietrich said.

The Walzes comforted one another. But it was at some point near the time of the funeral that relatives became aware of the political breach in the family.

Mr Doug Reiman, a cousin, said Ms Dietrich and Jeff Walz were not on speaking terms during that time. He did not know if politics was the sole reason for the split. Jeff Walz said on Facebook that he spoke to Tim in a quick phone call in July when Tim was being vetted as a potential vice-presidential candidate. Other than that, they had not spoken in eight years.

Ms Dietrich did not want to talk about her strained relationship with Jeff.

“People need to realise we come from a large family, but we were taught to respect other people’s opinions,” she said.

She said when she thinks about the political conflicts across the country, she channels her brother Craig’s voice. He liked to say, “breathe in, breathe out” as a reminder to stay calm and handle adversity.

And, Ms Dietrich said, she remains hopeful that the rift would eventually heal.

“This too will pass,” she said. “Family is forever.” NYTIMES