Right-wing media outlets are trying to manufacture a meaningful connection between the alleged gunman who killed Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman on Saturday and the state’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz. They are wrong.
Multiple media sources have identified the alleged perpetrator of what Walz called “a politically motivated assassination” as Vance Boelter, an employee of a private security group in the Twin Cities.
The New York Post described Boelter in a headline as “former appointee of Tim Walz,” reporting that the suspect served as a member of a panel called the Governor’s Workforce Development Board until 2023.
Other right-wing media outlets quickly pushed the message that Boelter was somehow tied to Walz, with Breitbart publishing a sensational headline: “REPORT: Gov. Walz Appointed Alleged Assassin of Minnesota House Speaker to Workforce Board.”
Blaze Media, founded by former Fox News host Glenn Beck, took it further in its headline: “Suspect tied to Walz? Democrat governor may have appointed alleged Minnesota shooter to state board.”
And Elon Musk shared a baseless tweet that the violence was perpetrated by “the left,” adding his own commentary, “The far left is murderously violent.”
But Boelter’s service on the workforce board does not shed any light on his beliefs, nor does it indicate any personal connection to Walz. (The Post also notes deep in its article that Boelter “last registered to vote in 2004, as a Republican.”)
As law professor Quinn Yeargain explains, every state is required to create such a board thanks to a federal law called the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which was passed by wide bipartisan majorities and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014.
That law, which is intended to promote career services and training opportunities, directs every governor to establish a workforce development board. These boards are purely advisory in nature: Yeargain notes that members’ “responsibilities are quite minimal” and says the boards have “no significant powers.”
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act also determines how exactly these boards should be constituted, specifying that they include a variety of elected officials as well as gubernatorial appointees, “of which a majority shall be representatives of businesses” in each state.
A companion Minnesota law fleshes out the board’s makeup but also incorporates the mandates of the federal statute, instructing that a majority of members must be business owners or executives; business representatives; or “individuals nominated by state business organizations and business trade associations.”
It’s that last category into which Boelter fell. Boelter was originally named to Minnesota’s board by Gov. Mark Dayton, Walz’s predecessor, for a two-year term starting in June of 2016. Walz reappointed Boelter for three more years at the end of 2019, along with 17 others. A Walz press release announcing the appointments identified Boelter as a “Business & Industry Representative.”
As Yeargain notes, when Boelter rejoined the board, he was just one of 60 members on the panel. In a “grim coincidence,” he points out, one of Saturday’s victims, Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman, served on the board along with Boelter. Hoffman, who is reportedly recovering after surgery, is still a member.