Tim Walz Takes Bitter Jab at ‘Conspiracy Theorist Right-Wing YouTubers’ as He Drops Re-Election Bid

(AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson) (Screengrab via X)

Governor Tim Walz railed against Republicans and, rather pointedly, “conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTubers” in a statement announcing he would not seek re-election in 2026 on Monday.

The Democrat did not name MAGA-friendly independent journalist Nick Shirley in the lengthy statement but clearly couldn’t resist taking a jab at the man whose viral report investigating alleged welfare fraud at daycare centers in Minneapolis brought national scrutiny to his administration.

In his announcement, Walz slammed the “political actors” he said were trying to “take advantage of the crisis” and accused President Donald Trump of seeking to “poison our people against each other.”

In one portion, he wrote:

My administration is taking fast, decisive action to solve this crisis. And we will win the fight against the fraudsters. But the political gamesmanship we’re seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder to win.

We’ve got Republicans here in the legislature playing hide-and-seek with whistleblowers.

We’ve got conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTubers breaking into daycare centers and demanding access to our children.

We’ve got the President of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongly confiscating childcare funding that Minnesotans rely on.

It is disgusting. And it is dangerous.

Walz went on to acknowledge that political focus on him could be detrimental to his party in what is an election year, stating this as his primary reason for dropping his bid.

Shirley’s investigation was amplified by Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk, drawing more than 137 million views on X since being posted on December 26. The footage shows him visiting multiple daycare centres across Minneapolis that appeared largely empty or inactive.

Attention on the video raised questions about the legitimacy of several Somali-run daycare operations that had reportedly received millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.

As a result several Republican state lawmakers called on Walz to step down, arguing that the governor had failed to address what they described as a “crisis.”

In an interview on The Ice Coffee Hour podcast on Saturday, Shirley said that he had been concerned for his safety since his video went viral and that he wore a bulletproof vest when travelling.