Rumors have swirled this past week about the political affiliations of Vance Boelter, the 57-year-old man now facing state and federal charges for the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses.
This photo made available by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office shows Vance Luther Boelter, the man accused of assassinating the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, as he was arrested late Sunday, June 15, 2025. (Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office via AP)
One of the most prevalent is that Boelter had ties to Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Tim Walz — and that he may have been a Democrat himself — because of his appointment to a state workforce development board by Walz in 2019.
National conservative social media figures and even Republican President Donald Trump have noted Boelter’s appointment to the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, an advisory body of around 60 members from business, labor groups and state government.
Some, like U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, have implied Boelter aligned with the political left, though later deleted posts after backlash from Democrats, including Minnesota’s U.S. Sen. Tina Smith.
Based on the nature of state board appointments and reports of Boelter’s political background, claims of ties to the DFL are spurious.
First appointed by Gov. Dayton
Boelter, who has a history of voting for Republicans, attending Trump rallies and expressing anti-abortion views, was first appointed to the workforce board by DFL Gov. Mark Dayton in 2016. But his personal political views had no bearing on his appointment to a state board.
“(Board) volunteers are selected without regard to political party or affiliation,” the state Department of Employment and Economic Development said in a statement. “Individuals are not required to declare their political party when applying through the Secretary of State’s Boards & Commissions, and people of all political persuasions serve on them.”
The Minnesota governor’s office says it appoints hundreds of people to more than 130 boards, commissions, task forces and advisory councils every year. Boelter was one of those appointees. Members apply to be on the board through the Minnesota secretary of state’s office.
Thousands serve on the boards, and they don’t have a close connection to the governor’s office or make policy decisions for the state. Boards instead gather input from groups to produce reports to help guide policy-making.
In a 2023 report including Boelter’s name, the board recommended policies including more collaboration between job programs and higher education and more support for immigrant job programs.
Minnesota’s workforce development board exists because of a requirement from the federal government. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act compels the state to have such a body to advise the governor on the state workforce system.
Served with Sen. Hoffman
Boelter was on the workforce board from 2016 to 2023, and during his tenure, he served with many business leaders, labor group representatives, university officials and state lawmakers of both parties, including state Sen. John Hoffman, the DFL lawmaker from Champlin he is accused of shooting.
This combo from photos provided by Minnesota Legislature shows from left, Senator John A. Hoffman and Rep. Melissa Hortman. (Minnesota Legislature / Associated Press)
As of last weekend, investigators were exploring whether Boelter and the victims knew each other, according to Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
“There is certainly some overlap with some public meetings, I will say, with Sen. Hoffman and the individual, but we don’t know the nature of the relationship or if they actually knew each other,” Evans said.
Republicans also have served on the board.
State Sen. Carla Nelson of Rochester remains on the board. Rep. Bernie Perryman, R-St. Augusta, is on the board now, but Rep. Barb Haley, R-Red Wing, served at the same time as Boelter. Lawmakers of both parties from the House and Senate are appointed to the board.
Board members meet in person quarterly and remotely a few other times a year for subcommittees on disability equity and other areas like manufacturing. They occasionally publish reports on workforce and labor issues.
Boelter appears in public meeting records of the board a few times. Records from 2018 and on show he participated through rote actions like seconding a motion to approve previous meeting minutes.
Members of the workforce board are volunteers and only receive compensation upon request, according to Mary Haugen, a spokesperson with DEED. That includes car mileage, parking, $55 per diem, hotels and meals.
Background
When Boelter first joined the workforce development board in 2016, he described himself as an executive at Western Refining, later acquired by Tesoro, a Texas-based oil and gas corporation that also operated convenience stores.
Over the years, his listed affiliation on the board website evolved — first into a “general manager” at Marathon-Speedway, which acquired Tesoro in 2018 and owned the Speedway convenience store chain. Later, his listed affiliation changed to “general manager” with 7-Eleven, which acquired Speedway in 2021.
Boelter had been involved in the convenience store food business for years, according to his LinkedIn profile and other online sources.
At one point, he worked for Greencore, an Ireland-based convenience store food company, which acquired a site in Shakopee in 2014 and exited the U.S. in 2018. In an email, Greencore confirmed he was a former employee. 7-Eleven didn’t respond to multiple emails seeking details of Boelter’s involvement with the company.
Boelter has not been on the workforce development board after his last three-year term expired in 2023. He’s run a private security company with his wife, known as Praetorian Guard Security Services, since 2019.
Boelter once engaged with Minnesota Africans United, a nonprofit supporting African immigrant communities in the state, though the organization said he “was never hired, paid, or contracted by Minnesota Africans United. He has never served in any official (or unofficial) capacity as a representative of our organization,” and participated in a virtual webinar once in 2022.
Boelter’s LinkedIn page lists a bachelor’s degree in international relations from St. Cloud State University and a master’s degree and doctorate of education from Cardinal Stritch University, a defunct Catholic institution in Milwaukee. It also states experience with 7-Eleven; Greencore; Del Monte; Johnsonville Sausage of Wisconsin; and Nestle/Gerber. The precise nature of his work was unclear. The online résumé also lists him as CEO of the Red Lion Group.
Boelter referenced three years of work with the Red Lion Group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and his interest in getting involved in the U.S. food industry again. It’s unclear what the company did.
Boelter faces federal charges in the shooting spree that killed former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and her husband, Mark, and injured Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Boelter visited the homes of two additional lawmakers that same night and had notebooks naming dozens more targets, federal prosecutors said Monday.
A GoFundMe site has been set up for the Hortmans’ children and another for the Hoffmans.
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