Claim:
In the early 2000s, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, gifted their former vehicle to a family living in their neighborhood.
Rating:
Context:
A popular meme told the credibly reported story of the Walz family giving one of their old cars to a next-door neighbor. One aspect of the story shared in text and memes said Tim Walz picked up an extra coaching job so his family could manage to give away the car. Local and national news articles also credibly reported that aspect but it was unrelated to the story about the car.
An online rumor tells the story of a time when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, purchased a new car and then gifted their old vehicle to a next-door neighbor in need.
This rumor circulated online with just weeks to go until the November 2024 U.S. elections. Walz was campaigning alongside Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate on the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket.
For example, on Aug. 28, a Facebook page supporting Harris and Walz named Ridin’ With Kamala posted (archived) a quote meme telling the story. By the next day, the post had received over 39,000 reactions, 1,300 comments and 11,000 shares.
Other prominent social media accounts and websites that shared the same meme included the progressive Facebook page The Other 98% (archived), X user @EastEndJoe (archived) and AmericasBestPics.com.
Users appeared to primarily share this rumor in the form of the quote meme, which credited a man named David Fink as its author. Fink’s original Aug. 25 Facebook post (archived) and automatically crossposted Threads post (archived) read as follows:
Tim Walz story from a cousin who knows him personally.
Tim and Gwen have always only had one car. In the early 2000s their next-door neighbor, who is a single mom, had her car break down. Tim and Gwen decided to get a new car and then gave their car to the next-door neighbor. Tim was teaching at the time and picked up an extra coaching job in order to do it. Tim has never told the story, but his neighbor has.
I love first-hand stories like this one. I admire this kind of altruism.
By email, Fink described to Snopes what such first-hand stories mean to him and shared news articles reporting on the matter that provided credibility for us to establish a “True” rating for the central claim about the gifted car, with one clarification. The aspect about Walz picking up an extra coaching job referenced a different act of kindness unrelated to the car story.
We contacted a Walz campaign official to ask about this matter but did not receive a response before publication time.
A Buick Named ‘Laverne’
On Aug. 6, Minneapolis-based TV station KARE 11 reported details about the gifted car. The article documented the story of Sherri Blasing, a former next-door neighbor of the Walz family and the current principal of Mankato West High School, where Tim Walz taught social studies and coached football.
KARE 11’s Morgan Wolfe reported, “Blasing said when her family was struggling with getting their four children cars in high school to drive themselves to sports, Walz offered them one of their old cars for free.”
Wolfe also filed a video report, in which Blasing said, “Tim and Gwen were [getting] rid of this old Buick. And Tim just said, ‘You guys just want to take this car?'”
The Associated Press and Mankato Free Press also published articles about the gifted Buick. The AP reported:
The current high school principal, Sherri Blasing, did not teach with Walz, but she and her family lived next door to him for 22 years. When Blasing’s four children became teenagers, her family found themselves short on transportation. Walz gave them an old Buick they named “Laverne” that she said was a testament to Walz’s generosity.
“You see that common theme with Tim over and over again,” Blasing said, “That he values every person for who they are, and he is going to do what he can to help them be the best that they can be.”
We contacted Mankato West High School to interview Blasing and will update this story if we receive further details.
Fink: ‘Tugged at My Heartstrings’
During Snopes’ phone conversation with Fink, he told us, “I have a cousin who is very active politically and he lived in Minnesota for a very long time. And so, I sent him an email and said, ‘Hey, do you have any stories about Tim Walz? Personal stories. I’m curious.’ And, he sent me an email with a few stories. And I just picked the one I liked the most and I posted it.”
Fink continued, “I’ll tell you, I like personal stories from people I know that have met candidates. To me, the personal stories carry more… they resonate more with me than mainstream media. More [than] I think if it comes from a publicist or if there’s a spin on it or whatever it is, a direct source who knows the person, to me, is more reliable or meaningful, personally, than a stranger.”
“I have a friend from college who worked for the State Department for his whole career. He told me Hillary Clinton was the best boss he ever worked for. That meant a lot to me. That was, to me, just valuable information. So, when I have the opportunity to have that direct information particularly from someone I know and trust, to me that’s important. All politics are grassroots, supposedly, and what’s more grassroots than somebody from Minnesota who knows him?”
“Do I think a nice person makes somebody a good candidate? Not necessarily,” he said. “Does it make him a good person? Probably. Do I care? Yeah, I kind of do. I kind of care about values and morals and ethics. And that story, to me, was a very short way of kind of defining a person’s values. A couple’s values. And, to me, that kind of tugged at my heartstrings a little bit. I thought, ‘I need to share this.’ This is interesting to me. Maybe my friends will find it interesting, too.”
Sources:
Fink, David. “Tim Walz Story from a Cousin Who Knows Him Personally.” Facebook, 25 Aug. 2024, https://www.facebook.com/DavidSamuelFink/.
“From the High School Football Field to National Presidential Race, Mankato Reacts to Tim Walz.” YouTube, KARE 11, 6 Aug. 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aeZNJFHT6U.
Goldberg, Michael, and Margery A. Beck. “Former Students and Colleagues Recall High School Teachers Tim and Gwen Walz as Allies and Advocates.” The Associated Press, 11 Aug. 2024, https://apnews.com/article/tim-walz-teacher-coach-lgbtq-minnesota-mankato-4e03b28f956e7862dc72d25b852af448.
Lagerquist, Michael. “Walz Remembered Fondly as Teacher, Neighbor.” Mankato Free Press, 6 Aug. 2024, https://www.mankatofreepress.com/news/local_news/walz-remembered-fondly-as-teacher-neighbor/article_932b21d0-5419-11ef-80da-972a8613a20c.html.
Moser, Riley. Gov. Tim Walz, VP Nominee, Introduced by Former Student before DNC Speech – CBS Minnesota. 21 Aug. 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/tim-walz-introduced-by-former-student-dnc-speech/.
Wolfe, Morgan. “22-Year-Long Neighbor of Walz Believes He Is the Perfect VP Candidate.” KARE11.Com, 6 Aug. 2024, https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/22-year-long-neighbor-of-walz-believes-he-is-the-perfect-vp-candidate/89-15fe0577-6128-415c-a47d-3b9aa9337bc5.
Updates:
Aug. 30, 2024: We updated this fact check’s rating from “Unproven” to “True” after reviewing credible reporting about the story of the Walz family gifting the car.
Source Agencies
