Tim Walz’s Viral Friendship Bracelets at VP Debate Were a Gift from Daughter Hope. Here’s What They Say (Exclusive)

Tim Walz was seen sporting two friendship bracelets while participating in the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, Oct. 1. But what did they say, and where did he get them from?

The Harris-Walz campaign now tells PEOPLE that Walz’s daughter, Hope, gave her father the bracelets as a gift shortly before the Minnesota governor left for the debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.

One of the bracelets says "Joyful Warrior" and the other says "Coach" — both phrases that have been used to describe the VP nominee since he joined Vice President Kamala Harris' White House ticket.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff has long called Harris a "joyful warrior," and after both Harris and Walz received criticism from the right for bringing laughter to the 2024 campaign trail, Walz adopted the nickname too. The Harris-Walz campaign has also leaned into the name "Coach Walz" for the governor, referring to his previous role in coaching the Mankato West High School football team to their first state championship.

Debate viewers got a few brief glimpses of the friendship bracelets while Walz debated against Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and as he waved to supporters outside the event — though they were difficult to see in detail.

Friendship bracelets are popular among fans of Taylor Swift, who made waves for endorsing Harris and Walz in the upcoming election. Walz mentioned Swift during his closing statement at the end of Tuesday’s debate.

"And I’m as surprised as anybody of this coalition that Kamala Harris has built,” the governor said. “From Bernie Sanders to Dick Cheney to Taylor Swift, and a whole bunch of folks in between there. And they don’t all agree on everything, but they are truly optimistic people.”

He added, “They believe in a positive future of this country, and one where our politics can be better than it is.”

Walz threw out another pop culture reference during his closing statement — an apology to fans of the reality competition series Dancing with the Stars, which was canceled on Tuesday night to not compete with the debate.

Walz shares daughter Hope and son Gus with his wife, Gwen Walz, whom he met while they were both teaching in western Nebraska.

Hope was born in January 2001, and was reportedly named after the feeling that her parents got when they were finally able to conceive following years of fertility treatments. Gus, now 17, was born more than five years later, in October 2006.

Walz won his first election, for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, the same year his son was born, according to the governor’s online biography.

Walz has credited Hope with influencing his perspective as a lawmaker, including after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., when she approached him about gun control.

"Dad, you’re the only person I know who’s in elected office, you need to stop what’s happening with this," he previously recalled her saying, as seen in a clip reshared by March For Our Lives co-founder David Hogg, who survived the Parkland shooting.

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Reflecting on the moment during an episode of Pod Save America that same July, Walz said “For me, it was both a reckoning and an embarrassment."

Two weeks after the interview, Walz announced in an op-ed for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he’d donated $18,000 that the National Rifle Association (NRA) had donated to his past campaigns and vowed not to take their money again in the future. He also supports bans on bump stocks and assault weapons, and has signed multiple gun safety measures into law as governor.