MEXICO CITY, August 7 (EL UNIVERSAL).- “Tampon Tim.” That’s how Republicans mock Tim Walz, Democratic candidate for vice president, but Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and former Democratic candidate for the White House, responded in this way.
Stephen Miller, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, posted on X: “He actually picked Tampon Tim.”
Chaya Raichik, who runs the far-right social media account Libs of TikTok, photoshopped Walz’s face onto a box of Tampax tampons.
“Tampon Tim is, without a doubt, the best political nickname of all time,” conservative commentator Liz Wheeler posted. “It’s so… wildly effective. In a word, it tells you EVERYTHING you need to know about Tim Walz’s dangerous radicalism.”
NPR recalls that “the nickname refers to a law that Minnesota Gov. Walz signed last year requiring public schools to provide menstrual products, including pads and tampons, to students in grades 4 through 12.”
However, “Republicans took issue with the legislation’s language, which acknowledges that people who menstruate are not necessarily women and that not all women have periods. Some opponents tried, unsuccessfully, to limit the law to only women’s and gender-neutral bathrooms,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The law went into effect in January and has also been widely celebrated, making Minnesota one of 28 states to pass laws giving students access to menstrual products. As NPR noted, as president, Trump signed a 2018 package requiring federal prisons to provide them.
“Under Walz (…) Minnesota was one of the first states to protect gender-affirming care through an executive order, while other states banned or limited access to it,” The Philadelphia Inquirer recalled.
After Harris announced Walz as her running mate, former President Donald Trump’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt criticized him for supporting the law and repeated common GOP talking points and transphobic tropes about gender-affirming care:
“This bill exemplifies what we can accomplish when we listen to students to address their needs,” Minnesota Democratic State Representative Sandra Feist posted. “I’m excited to see MN representation at the top of the ticket! #TamponTim.”
Hillary Clinton also responded: “How nice of the Trump camp to help spread the word about Governor Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to Minnesota public school students! Let’s do this everywhere.”
