On Wednesday, November 6, 2024, a majority of young voters woke up to a sharp, unsettling reality: a decisive Trump victory. The emotional hangover was immediate — shock, disbelief, and a deep sense of loss. Some took refuge in resharing Instagram graphics or scrolling through pundits' dissection of the results. Others simply mourned. Amid this turbulence, Hope Walz, the 23-year-old daughter of Minnesota governor Tim Walz and 2024 vice presidential hopeful, emerged as an unexpected yet profoundly necessary figure. In a world that demands we power through pain, Hope has used TikTok to model something radically different: a permission slip to feel, grieve, and then, when the time is right, get back to work.
As the daughter of the losing vice presidential candidate, Hope may seem like an unlikely source of solace following this political defeat. She is a social worker at a homeless shelter in Bozeman, Montana, and a ski instructor at Big Sky Resort. And in the wake of this tumultuous election, it turns out she’s a kind of emotional guide we didn’t know we needed.
The first glimpse into Hope’s post-election processing came on November 8 on TikTok, just two days after the results were announced. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a car beside her brother, Gus. As they drove, they played the defiant anthem, "I Won’t Back Down" by Tom Petty. Speaking directly to the camera, Hope tried to reassure her followers: “We’re going to be okay, everyone.”
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The next video, posted on the same day, shows Hope sitting on her couch, eating SpongeBob mac and cheese, and watching Outer Banks, an all-too-relatable escape post-election. She opens by admitting she’s reached “the point of anger.” It’s not the kind of anger we’re used to seeing on social media — no rage-fueled diatribes or calls for the world to burn. Instead, it’s a quieter, more reflective kind of anger, one that acknowledges the complexity of this moment. “This country does not deserve Kamala Harris,” she says, her tone layered with both admiration and frustration. “That woman should go live her best life.”
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Hope didn’t stop there. She called the election results a betrayal of Black women, who voted for Harris/Walz at higher rates than any other demographic. “The only people who delivered this election were Black women, and we failed them,” she said. Then, she turned her attention toward Trump and JD Vance, acknowledging that they face a punishment worse than any public reckoning: “To live in their own skin.”
But amid this anger, Hope ended with a message of resilience. “We’re on the side of love, hope, joy, and progress,” she said. While it’s important to grieve, she reminded us, “The work doesn’t stop here. We got this. We’re going to be okay.”
Over the next few days, Hope continued to model what it looks like to sit with grief without letting it swallow you whole. In one video, she shares that she hasn’t had the energy to do anything other than wear the same blue sweatshirt she’s been living in since election night. Conversations in the Walz household, she added, revolve around the “hierarchy of needs,” and the fact that you have to take care of yourself in order to take care of others. In the spirit of taking care of herself, she’d made small strides: a shower, brushing her teeth, doing her skin care, going to Pilates.
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Hope isn’t here for the narrative that we just need to “move on” from the election. On November 9, from the comfort of her bed, she hit us with a hard truth: “Having big feelings is a superpower.” She’s acknowledged that it’s not only okay to feel sadness, worry, and panic — it’s essential. “It shows that you care,” she said, granting us permission to experience the full range of human emotions in a world that insists we ignore them and press on. “Feel those feelings,” she urged. “That’s how we build the motivation and power to move forward.”
The next day, as she got ready to head back to Montana, Hope offered a simple, practical piece of advice: “Get involved at the community level.” Whether you’re donating to food banks, volunteering at a homeless shelter, or working the concession stand at a high school football game. Those seemingly small actions are what lay the foundation for a better future, she said. It’s the kind of grounded, work-from-the-bottom-up approach that often gets drowned out by political spectacle. Hope Walz gets it: It’s the small things that sustain the fight, the ways we connect and build power together.
As part of a generation hammered with messages about how destructive social media is for the psyche, Hope has offered a different approach. Her most recent TikTok is, fittingly, a moment of quiet reflection — a video of plants in a greenhouse with the caption: “Go sit by some green things, or eat some green thing … it’ll make you feel better.” It’s a perfect, subtle encapsulation of everything she’s been telling us: Healing doesn’t always come in grand gestures. It can be revolutionary to simply sit with something green and alive, a reminder that we can find small ways to heal when the big picture looks bleak.
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