- In October 2024, two allegations that Walz sexually abused former students went viral. One concerned a March 1995 Indigo Girls concert; the other concerned a Mankato West High Student allegedly manipulated into a sexual relationship with Walz.
- No credible evidence has been presented to substantiate either of these claims or any claim that Walz has ever sexually abused any of his students.
- The former claim relied on fabricated documents. The latter claim is based on an AI-created deep-fake video linked to a Russian propaganda unit that used the identity of an American citizen.
In early October 2024, a wave of unfounded allegations concerning Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — the vice-presidential running mate of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris — sexually abusing students during his time as a teacher in Nebraska or Minnesota saw aggressive promotion on X and other social media platforms.
These claims followed an existing campaign of homophobic innuendo built upon casting Walz’s time as the faculty adviser of the Gay Straight Alliance at Mankato West High School as nefarious. As Snopes has previously reported, posts describing the GSA as “a high school sex club” for which Walz “recruited” students went viral in August 2024. In the October 2024 wave of claims, two specific allegations of impropriety went viral, alongside continued and unfounded innuendo.
The first allegation was a “tip” from a former Walz student, allegedly received by a since-deleted anonymous X account named Black Insurrectionist (@DocNetyoutube), previously responsible for pushing other viral hoaxes. The tip, broadly speaking, alleged that Walz abused a 14-year-old boy at an Indigo Girls concert he took him to in March 1995…