Political commentators were in an uproar on social media Wednesday after a picture purportedly showing eight relatives of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz expressing support for former President Donald Trump went viral.
“Tim Walz’s family back in Nebraska wants you to know something…,” Cornhusker State Republican Charles W. Herbster wrote on X Wednesday morning alongside the photo, which The Post has not been able to independently confirm shows Walz’s relatives.
A political operative who helped disseminate the image, told The Post the people in it were related to Walz through his paternal great-uncle, but declined to give their identifies, claiming that they were overwhelmed by the attention.
All eight people in the photo posed in front of a “Trump 2024: Take America Back” flag while wearing navy blue “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump” t-shirts.
None were willing to be named or speak with The Post Wednesday. The Harris-Walz campaign declined to comment.
A mutual friend of the operative and one of Walz’s supposed relatives helped ensure the picture wound up in the hands of Herbster, a two-time candidate for Nebraska governor who has faced past controversy over sexual misconduct allegations that he denied.
The image quickly spread on social media, with conservative commentators quick to note the incongruency.
“Now, do we think this will get the same coverage Mary Trump or Kerry Kennedy has received?” podcaster Megyn Kelly mused on X, referring to famous relatives who have spoken out against the Republican nominee and his endorsement by the former independent presidential candidate.
“In the last few days, Walz’s brother and multiple other members of his extended family have come out publicly against him and for Trump. Is anyone in the leftwing media going to cover this?” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on X.
“So Tim Walz’s brother doesn’t want him to be vice president. His extended family doesn’t want him to be vice president. Members of his National Guard unit don’t want him to be vice president. I’m starting to think this guy isn’t the stand-up midwestern family guy that he claims to be,” conservative Greg Price wrote.
Tim Walz was born in West Point, Neb. and grew up in rural Valentine. He previously described his upbringing as coming “from a town of 400 — 24 kids in a class, 12 cousins, farming, those types of things.”
After a stint teaching in China, Walz met his wife Gwen at Alliance High School in Nebraska while teaching and working as an assistant coach for the school’s football as well as basketball teams.
Tim and Gwen moved to Minnesota in 1996, but he has many relatives still living in Nebraska, including his sister, 63-year-old Sandy Dietrich, who told The Post Wednesday that the governor’s immediate family are pretty much “all Democrats,” except for their older brother Jeff, who has made multiple disparaging Facebook posts about the vice presidential hopeful.
Jeff Walz, 67, a father of two, lives in the Florida Panhandle with his wife, Laurie. Multiple attempts by The Post to reach him Wednesday were unsuccessful.
“I’m 100% opposed to all his ideology,” Jeff Walz wrote on Facebook Aug. 30 about his brother.
“I’ve thought long and hard about doing something like that! I’m torn between that and just keeping my family out of it,” he replied to one user who suggested he “Get on stage with President Trump and endorse him.”
“The stories I could tell,” Jeff Walz added. “Not the type of character you want making decisions about your future.”
Since his posts went viral, the elder Walz brother has expressed regret that his private remarks blew up in the public eye, but contended that he stands by his views.
“Sounds like a really great guy!” Trump wrote on Truth Social after The Post reported on Jeff Walz’s comments.
A source familiar with the family dynamic suggested to The Post that the Walz family had hoped Jeff would refrain from badmouthing his brother to the press ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Jeff and Tim Walz haven’t spoken in eight years, the older brother previously posted on Facebook and reiterated in a recent interview with NewsNation.
The Minnesota governor has made quips on the campaign trail about awkward family political discourse at the Thanksgiving table.
“Remember the time when you could go to Thanksgiving with your relatives,” he said last month, “and not complain about politics the whole time?”
Maybe they should learn some punctuation rules. The plural of "Walz" is "Walzes" not "Walz's." Also, they don't seem to be particularly closely related.
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