A Walz family photo went viral recently because members of Tim Walz’s family supports Donald Trump. Did you catch the typo?
After Kamala Harris and Tim Walz shared the stage at the Democratic National Convention, a curious photo surfaced. The Walz family photo shows eight extended relatives all wearing the same T-shirt. The navy blue shirt features white text that reads, “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump.” The appear to be standing on a porch with a big Donald Trump 2024 banner behind them.
It’s worth noting that the photo does not represent Walz’s entire family, as some on the right have suggested. It’s also not unheard of that family members of a candidate wouldn’t support that relative’s politics. Some relatives of Trump have come out against him.
Things like this are why politics is often a forbidden topic at family gatherings like Thanksgiving!
So here we go again with another apostrophe controversy concerning a Democratic candidate.
A couple of weeks ago, when Harris was about to name her running mate, a debate began. Should it be “Harris’s running mate” or “Harris’ running mate”? In that case, at least, the answer depends on the style guide that you follow. Since I mostly follow The Associated Press Stylebook, which favors Harris’, that was my answer.
But no matter what style guide you choose, no respectable one would approve of “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump.”
Why? Because of a basic grammar rule:
You don’t use an apostrophe to make things plural.
When you are dealing with a name that ends in a Z, an apostrophe-S makes it possessive, not plural. Since the intent of the message on the shirt was that these are multiple members of the Walz family, they wanted plural, not possessive.
So instead of “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump,” they should have had the shirts read “Nebraska Walzes for Trump.”
Like every family, they’re entitled to their political opinions.
But at least get the basics of grammar correct! It’s a shame their T-shirt printer didn’t catch the error and at least let them know before the shirts came rolling off the line!
Of course, a grammar mistake shouldn’t be enough to disqualify their voting “advice.” But it shouldn’t give that advice more credence, either.
It still seems like a long way until November!