STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Distant Branch

By: Uliana Malashenko and Alan Duke

Does an image showing eight people in "Walz's for Trump" T-shirts prove that the majority of the Democratic vice presidential nominee's family supports the Republican presidential candidate? No, that's not true: The image portrays a fraction of the dozens of Tim Walz's extended family members identified by Lead Stories through analysis of census records and obituaries. Lead Stories spoke to Tim Walz's first cousin, who identified her late brother's family in the photo and said that her other Walz cousins do not support Trump.

The claim appeared in a post that was published on Instagram on September 4, 2024. It is no longer available but is archived here. It shared an image under the following caption:

🚨 BREAKING- The majority of Tim Walz' family

comes out in support of Trump wearing 'Walz's for

Trump' shirts 🙌🇺🇸

This is what the post looked like on Instagram at the time of writing:

(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Wed Sep 4 23:35:11 2024 UTC)

Using records found on Ancestry.com and obituary records found on newspaper.com, Lead Stories staff estimated Tim Walz' fellow ancestors of his great-grandfather John Francis Walz could easily number in the hundreds, since John Francis Walz had 23 grandchildren (see family tree below) including Tim Walz's father. At common birth rates for each generation, Walz could have more than 500 second, third and fourth cousins. Even at the low modern birth rate of two children per family, he'd have more than 100 cousins, which means the eight people in "Walz's for Trump" T-shirts is not a majority of them.

(Source: Lead Stories staff montage)

Herbster's spokesperson told Lead Stories by phone on September 4, 2024, that the photo was taken in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, at the end of August 2024 and that it portrays descendants of Joseph Francis Walz.

On September 4, 2024, after researching the Walz family tree, Lead Stories phoned Joseph Francis Walz's daughter: Virginia Walz Heal, now 93. She confirmed Lead Stories' research, saying the Democratic nominee is: "... my first cousin once removed, my dad's brother's son."

She explained who was portrayed in the image:

There were five children in my family, and I'm the oldest ... My brother, John, was the next one, and that's his family. He passed away about 20 years ago.

Virginia Walz Heal confirmed that the image included her sister-in-law, Judy Walz, who was married to her deceased brother John Henry Walz, adding:

I don't think they're all in there, but I know the girl ... Yeah, that's my brother's family.

Asked about the photo, which went viral after Herbster posted it, Virginia Walz Heal said:

I'm very, very, very upset.

She said that her other Walz relatives support Tim Walz:

I have other cousins up there, and they all think he's wonderful.

She called me today to tell me about this picture, so upset.

The ancestor those in the photo have in common with the Democratic candidate for vice president is John Francis Walz, who was born in Illinois in 1877, according to census records obtained by Lead Stories via Ancestry.com. Publicly available documents suggest that other people in the photo -- besides Judy Walz -- are likely to be third or fourth cousins of Tim Walz, if not connected to the family by marriage.

Other Lead Stories fact checks about Tim Walz can be found here. Stories about the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign are here.