Election News

Conservatives are outraged that Tim Walz provided free tampons for all students who need them

Progressives are defending the law that provided menstrual products in public school restrooms.
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Gov. Tim Walz spoke at the St. Cloud Veterans Center Outstation grand opening on June 13, 2024.
Gov. Tim Walz spoke at the St. Cloud Veterans Center Outstation grand opening on June 13, 2024. Photo: Corey Schmidt / St. Cloud Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Republicans quickly coalesced yesterday around one line of attack against Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz (D) yesterday: tampons.

“#TamponTim,” wrote Chaya Raichik, who’s behind the conservative “Libs of TikTok” account. She included a picture of a box of tampons with Walz’s face on it.

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“No holes left unfilled. Tampon Tim Walz to the rescue,” conservative influencer Ian Miles Cheong posted with a picture of Walz’s face on a tampon.

“She actually chose Tampon Tim,” Stephen Miller, a former advisor to Donald Trump, wrote on X.

Popular MAGA account @catturd2 posted a laughing emoji with the hashtag “#TamponTim” when sharing a message from another right-winger calling Wals “#TamponGuy.”

They were likely referring to H.F. 2497, a bill that Walz signed last year that went into effect this year that requires “menstrual products” be placed in school bathrooms “at no charge.” The law says that they have to be available for “all menstruating students…. in grades 4 to 12” in accordance with a plan developed by each school district.

It’s unclear why Raichik, Cheong, Miller, @catturd2, and other conservatives think this is so damaging to Walz other than a general unease with the concept of menstruation and particularly the idea that men could help get others period products.

But some conservatives, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), have said that the issue is that the law could require schools to put tampons in boys’ restrooms because some trans boys menstruate, and the law says that “all menstruating students” should have access to period products.

“Walz also signed a bill to require schools to stock period products in boys bathrooms,” Greene wrote, accusing Walz of supporting “insane gender ideology.”

Trump-Vance campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt also brought up the trans connection in this law on Fox News yesterday.

“As a woman, I think there is no greater threat to our health than leaders who support gender-transition surgeries for young minors, who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” she said. “Those are radical policies that Tim Walz supports. He actually signed a bill to do that.”

Progressives, though, pointed out how helpful it can be when period products are available at school.

“Every person who has started their period unexpectedly, or had it be heavier than usual, or run out of products mid-day, knows how clutch it is to have free hygiene products in schools,” said media consultant April Reign. “#TamponTim isn’t the ‘sick burn’ republicans think it is.”

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