Before Tuesday, vice presidential contender Tim Walz was hardly a household name. Now that the Minnesota governor has been the subject of round-the-clock news interviews and viral videos, he has also picked up a new nickname. Enter “Tampon Tim,” conservatives’ response to the 2024 state law Walz signed that requires public schools to provide menstrual products in student bathrooms.

The right has seized on that nickname to draw attention to a piece of legislation Walz signed into law as governor of Minnesota. The law, which went into effect at the beginning of this year, requires that students have access to menstrual products at school. Specifically, products like tampons and pads “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades four to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.”

The issue enjoys broad popular support: 30 states have eliminated state sales tax on menstrual products, and Trump himself signed a 2018 package that requires federal prisons to provide them. But Republicans appear to be taking issue with the wording of the legislation, which says the products must be available “to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students.”

The bill’s inclusive language reflects that not all people who menstruate are women, and not all women get periods, which was important to those who lobbied for the legislation. But some in the Republican Party — which has increasingly promoted anti-transgender policies and rhetoric — see that aspect of the bill as a reason to attack Walz.

“Tim Walz is a weird radical liberal,” the MAGA War Room account posted on X, formerly Twitter. “What could be weirder than signing a bill requiring schools to stock tampons in boys' bathrooms?”

The Minnesota students who lobbied for the bill testified last year about having to miss class because they were unable to afford menstrual products, being distracted from schoolwork and tests and feeling that adults didn’t take their concern seriously.

“We cannot learn while we are leaking,” high school student Elif Ozturk, then 16, told a legislative hearing in 2023. “How do we expect our students to carry this burden with them during the school day and still perform well? The number one priority should be to learn, not to find a pad.”

Why the Tampon Tim Outrage?

So why the Tampon Tim uproar? Mostly it is about the language of the Minnesota law, which states that pads and tampons must be available to “all menstruating students” and “in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12,” rather than qualifying that only “female restrooms” stock the products. Though an amendment to alter the wording failed, it did not set off a culture war, nor did it stymie support for the bill. One Republican lawmaker, Dean Urdahl, remarked, “Just talking with my wife and family members, they felt like it was an important issue I should support.”

A Bipartisan Issue

In an era of often intractable political polarization, menstrual policy has proven something of a unicorn. Hardly the butt of jokes, “menstrual equity” is a bipartisan agenda on which the two major parties have found common ground — and agree that ameliorating the economic burden and easing the stigma of menstruation is plain common sense.

Walz’s Response

Walz, who once earned the title “most inspiring teacher” at the high school where he taught and coached football, hasn’t responded publicly to the “Tampon Tim” taunts. But he had strong words for his Republican opponents on Tuesday night.

“I'll just say it: Donald Trump and JD Vance are creepy and, yes, weird,” he tweeted, repeating the put-down he helped popularize in recent days. “We are not going back.”

Beyond the Nickname: A Look at Menstrual Equity

The government should spread information about and expand access to hormone therapy, the best option for most of the 55 million Americans in menopause. Making menstruation into an internet meme seems destined to backfire now too. To begin with, who but silly preteens does that? As Walz would say, it is just plain weird.

Second, recent elections and polling show that reproductive health and rights are wildly popular to voters. As a presidential candidate, Kamala Harris is a strong, steady voice — including on an array of adjacent issues like menstrual literacy and the need for data protection regarding period tracking apps. (I joined a White House discussion with her on those topics after the Supreme Court decision that reversed Roe vs. Wade.)

Republicans know their positions on reproductive rights are out of step with popular opinion — so much so that they barely whispered it at their national convention last month. They have more substantive damage control to do for their own vice presidential candidate. JD Vance’s controversial commentary about “childless cat ladies” and assisted fertility might just be bested by his own congressional voting record — which includes … wait for it … enabling menstrual cycle surveillance by state law enforcement agencies. And lest we forget Trump’s own crude remarks on the matter: On Aug. 8, 2015, he accused newscaster Megyn Kelly of having “blood coming out of her wherever.”

Gone are the days when periods were a punchline. In 2024, they may well prove to be the most powerful political rallying cry. Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton posted this week that it was “nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy.”

She added, “Let’s do this everywhere.” Hear, hear.

Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at New York University School of Law, is the author of “Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity” and the forthcoming “Period. Full Stop. The Politics of Menopause.”

The Future of Menstrual Equity

As a matter of political gamesmanship, zeroing in on any issue that implicates reproductive health, menstruation among them, is a risky gambit for Republicans. Poll after poll shows that the majority of Americans support reproductive rights and turn out to vote on the issue. In her role as Vice President, Kamala Harris has taken up the discussion around menstrual literacy and data protection as it pertains to abortion, for example. With Gov. Walz as a champion for fighting period poverty, it is a drum the ticket is wise to beat.

And finally, as Walz reminds us—anyone who thinks that period jokes are appropriate or funny is just plain, well, weird.