Influencers baselessly implicate Governor Tim Walz in Minnesota shootings

"Governor Tim Walz's team did the political hit," a June 14, 2025 Instagram post claimed.

Right-wing online personalities such as Laura Loomer, Mike Cernovich and Rogan O'Handley -- who goes by @DC_Draino -- also speculated on X about the governor's involvement with the shootings, receiving tens of thousands of interactions. 

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Screenshot of an Instagram post taken June 15, 2025

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Screenshot of a post on X taken June 15, 2025

Others focused on a seeming connection between Walz and the suspect, including commentator Benny Johnson who claimed: "Gov. Tim Walz personally knew and appointed the 'No Kings' Killer who just committed multiple assassinations of Tim Walz political enemies in the state of Minnesota." 

But Minnesota Department of Public Safety Superintendent Drew Evans told a June 15 press conference that despite ongoing investigations, officials are "confident" Boelter, carried out the shootings alone (archived here).

Boelter faces six federal charges, including two counts of murder by firearm, punishable by life imprisonment or the death penalty, acting US Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joe Thompson told a press conference on June 16 (archived here).

Boelter was captured on June 15 about an hour southwest of where the shootings occurred, following a massive manhunt. 

He allegedly killed Melissa Hortman, leader of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and her husband Mark. As Walz announced their deaths he said: "Our state lost a great leader, and I lost a dearest of friends" (archived here).

Boelter also allegedly shot state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette who are recovering in hospital from multiple gunshot wounds.

Is Boelter connected to Walz?

An archived version of an official state document signed by Walz shows that Boelter was appointed in December 2019 to serve on the Governor's Workforce Development Board. This followed an earlier appointment signed by then-governor Mark Dayton in 2016.

Archived versions of the board's website from June 2022 and April 2017 both show Boelter listed as a member.

The board has about 60 members who, according to its bylaws, serve three year terms "without compensation." 

A spokesperson for Walz told PolitiFact that the governor has no relationship with Boelter. The spokesperson differentiated the thousands of unpaid appointments to boards and commissions from decisions the governor makes personally to appoint people in his office or cabinet.

Former board members Elizabeth Kautz and Rita Albrecht both told AFP neither Dayton nor Walz had a personal hand in interviewing or selecting them for the position.

In June 15 emails, both said they did not regularly interact with the governor as part of their work on the board, a fact also noted in comments to local media (archived here) by Steve Kalina, who has been a board member since 2019.

AFP reached out to the governor's office and Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, which houses the board, for more information, but a response was not forthcoming.

What motivated the shooting?

Several posts attempted to link the shootings to a recent vote on the state budget, which included a provision to remove undocumented adult immigrants from the state's MinnesotaCare health program.

Hortman voted to change the public health coverage eligibility (archived here), the sole Democrat to do so. She said the vote was necessary to get Republican support to pass the state's budget. The measure had previously passed the Senate without support from Hoffman (archived here).

There is no evidence this vote caused a rift between Hortman and the governor.

On June 10, Walz told reporters it was clear in negotiations that the "only way" Republicans would deliver votes on the budget was to repeal the expansion health care coverage (archived here). He signed the two-year budget into law on June 14 (archived here).

And while authorities have thus far been reluctant to ascribe a clear motive to the shootings, some officials have hinted Boelter was opposed to abortion rights.

On June 16, US Attorney Thompson said they had found hundreds of pages of documents that did include "some abortion rights supporters," but he emphasized that there were "dozens and dozens" of names listed. 

The documents have not been made public, but Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar told NBC's Meet the Press on June 15 that the targets followed "some through line with abortion because of the groups that were on the list" (archived here).

Hortman had worked closely with Walz to pass 2023 legislation that codified the legality of abortion in the state.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, told Minnesota Public Radio he was on the list of individuals found in Boelter's car, as did Democratic US Senator Tina Smith.