Democrat vice presidential nominee's wife Gwen Walz calls on teachers to get out the vote

Gwen Walz made her first Arizona trip of the 2024 presidential race on Monday, telling a group of educators that teachers can significantly impact the election if they join the campaign’s get-out-the-vote effort.

“This is a moment to bring our country together, and no one is better than bringing us together than our teachers,” Walz said during a meet-and-greet with members of the Arizona Education Association in Phoenix. “I am so proud to support a ticket with a vision for the future that everyone can be a part of. Not just some, everyone.”

The Minnesota first lady hit the campaign trail for her husband, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Vice President Kamala Harris. She encouraged educators to recruit volunteers, make phone calls and even talk to neighbors on the other side of the aisle to build support for Harris and Walz.

“If you have an undecided neighbor, have that conversation again and again. If there's a lawn sign maybe you don't love in someone's yard, don't avoid those conversations. Let's have them anyway. So much is at stake,” Walz said.

Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego were on hand for the Phoenix event, along with Arizona Education Association President Marisol Garcia.  Many attendees wore blue shirts that read “Education Votes” on the back.

Walz and Gallego began their remarks by acknowledging the apparent assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump on Sunday, saying violence has no place in politics. A man is accused of pointing a rifle through a fence toward the former president as he golfed at his Florida property.

“Violence has no place in our country, and we are grateful to the efforts of Secret Service and law enforcement officials,” Walz said. “We are grateful Donald Trump is safe.”

During her speech, Walz highlighted her own background as an educator and told the story of how she and Tim Walz met when they were young teachers in Nebraska. She also made an education-focused case against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance.

“Their extreme Project 2025 agenda will devastate a generation of students,” Walz said, tying the Republicans to the Heritage Foundation’s sweeping policy plan, which Trump has disavowed. “Their plan is to slash public school funding, as if we haven't heard that before, right? And they want to tell parents what books their children can read.”

Walz hammered Vance on recent comments he made in Arizona in the wake of a deadly school shooting. Vance said that he doesn’t like it, but school shootings are a “fact of life” in the United States.

“I refuse to accept school shootings as a fact of life,” Walz said, to applause.

She also hit the GOP ticket over their record on reproductive rights, and asked the group to use their “stern teacher voice” to join her in saying: “Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance, please mind your own business.”

Chavez Rodriguez, the Harris campaign manager, echoed Walz’s praise for teachers in her own remarks.

“You’re the X factor in this election. Educators are some of the most trusted messengers in our communities,” Chavez Rodriguez said.

Educators who came to hear Walz speak said that education is on the line this November.

“What really struck me was how well I feel like she relates to us as a teacher, and then also just that vision for the future,” said T.J. Buckley, a 35-year-old middle school teacher in Scottsdale who serves as the Scottsdale Education Association president. "That positive vision for the future, I think, would be the best for our schools and our students.”

After the educator meet-and-greet, Walz was off to Flagstaff for a “Women for Harris event.” She was set to finish her Arizona campaign swing in Kingman to meet with supporters in Mohave County. It’s a notable stop because the area is so reliably Republican. Trump won Mohave County with 75% of the vote in the 2020 election.

The daylong trip was set to cover significant ground in Arizona — Phoenix and Kingman are some 200 miles apart.

Tim Walz was in the state last week for a Phoenix visit, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff stumped in Tucson on Thursday. Harris came to Arizona in August for a rally at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale.

Republicans also have been paying close attention to Arizona as the election draws closer. Trump has visited the state twice in the past month, including a Tucson event on the same day as Emhoff. The former GOP president has dispatched Vance to the state twice since selecting the Ohio Republican as his running mate.

“The future of public education, I think, is really at stake here,” said Jennifer Tracy, 44, a special education secretary who lives in Phoenix. “Kamala has a plan for that, whereas the other candidate has plans to dismantle it.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gwen Walz campaigns across Arizona on Monday: Here's where she'll be