For these voters, Tim Walz is a reminder of their dad - before they were lost to partisan division

He’s got jokes, enthusiasm and a smiley face that’s not even remotely trying to hide how he’s feeling. He’s Tim Walz — and he’s bringing major Midwestern dad energy to the Democratic ticket.

At least that’s how many white women feel when they see Walz in videos, riding the Slingshot at the state fair with his daughter, signing legislation to give kids in Minnesota free lunches or tweeting about his pet cat.

It’s in stark contrast to what some see in their own fathers — who often have more conservative political views.

“He is silly. My dad used to be very, very silly and goofy,” Pamela Wurst Vetrini, a woman who recently compared Walz to her father, said in a viral TikTok video. 

“[My dad] is really friendly, he loves people,” social media user Lydia said. “Except when he goes to the voting booth.”

When Kamala Harris introduced Walz as her running mate, he appeared with energy that, for some, was a nostalgic reminder of fathers cheering at soccer games or pushing the swing.

For Vetrini, 40, a wash of emotion came over her after she started to research Walz and found that so much of his identity reminded her of her dad — a man she loves but who has leaned far-right in recent years that she can no longer have a conversation with him about anything other than the weather.

“He represents the dad that a lot of liberal women lost,” Vetrini said in her TikTok video.

“A lot of us had moderate to conservative, educated, sensible fathers that we lost to Rush Limbaugh. That we lost to Fox News. That we lost to Donald Trump. And the cult of conservatism that has grown and grown and grown has driven a wedge between millennial woman and her father,” she said.

Vetrini’s articulation resonated with millions online.

Her comment section