Claim: In an image released online by Politico on September 18, relatives of 2024 vice presidential candidate Tim Walz wearing T-shirts reading, “Nebraska Walz Supports Donald Trump”, can be seen. But given this context and with two photos showing relatives wearing such T-shirts at his campaign events. (Rating 4.9/5.)
Associated Press confirmed the eight people visible are distant cousins of Walz.
Tim Walz was running for Democratic vice-president in 2024. On September 1, just weeks before election day in November 2024, an image purporting to show members of his family wearing pro-Trump T-shirts made waves online.
People found the photo fascinating due to Walz, Minnesota’s governor, running on the Democratic ticket with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump who is an opposing Republican candidate. Furthermore, T-shirts in question featured slogans reading: ‘Nebraska Walz Supports Trump.”
Matt Wolking (@MattWolking), one of X users who archived the image posted it. Wolking’s post read, “Tim Walz’s family members in Nebraska are voting for Trump”, garnered nearly 16 million views and is still up.
One rumor claimed someone manipulated the image using artificial-intelligence tool, leading some people to misinform others and spread misinformation. A post on X showed yellow circles and arrows on it which purported to highlight discrepancies between peoples hands’ numbers of fingers compared with what could have been expected based on genetic predisposition – thanks to Walz Family For Trump we know this wasn’t AI at all – the Walzs are genetically predisposed towards having four fingers! (archived) user posted (archived) “Thanks Walz family genetic predisposed four fingers.”
Though some users raised questions over the appearance of an apostrophe on T-shirts worn by Walz’s family members, others, including conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec (archived) and conservative commentator Benny Johnson (archived), claimed it depicted Walz and all her relatives.
According to The Associated Press (AP), however, this photograph was legitimate and that its eight visible participants are all distant relatives of Walz – further implicating Posobiec and Johnson for providing false information in their posts.
The AP’s reporting relied heavily on Rod Edwards, a spokesperson for Charles Herbster who had received Trump endorsement during Nebraska gubernatorial race and campaigned on that candidate’s behalf in 2014. Herbster posted the photo online during early morning hours on Sept 4 and captioned it: “Tim Walz’s family in Nebraska wants you to know something… @realDonaldTrump @JDVance #SaveAmerica.”
The high-quality nature of the original image upload helped show that any claims about AI and people both having “four fingers” were simply due to certain fingers being obscured by others.
Edwards told the AP, that those seen in the photo are descendants of Francis Walz – brother to Tim Walz’s grandfather and all Walzes and spouses.”
Subsequently, some descendants confirmed to The Associated Press their connection with Tim Walz through text messaging.
Shortly after Governor Tim Walz was named as Democrat Party Vice Presidential nominee, our family held an informal get-together and designed custom T-shirts in support of President Trump and J.D. Vance t-shirts were produced, taking group photos that we then shared with friends who asked permission for us to post,” according to written statements released from our attorney.
“This photo and shirt are real. We are Nebraska Walz family, related to Governor Tim Walz through two brothers as our grandfathers had shared DNA.” As shown on their shirts, our family stands united behind Donald Trump.”
Edwards provided this photo and will update this story if we hear any additional details from her or receive further responses from Edwards about its subject matter. We previously covered a similar event between Tim and Gwen Walz giving their neighbor a car as an unexpected Christmas present, also reported here at Inside Edition.
