Among the untruths circulating on social media after Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate was the false claim that Walz changed the Minnesota flag so that it resembles the Somali flag.
Related Articles
Picking a running mate: Inside the 16 days between Kamala Harris’ launch and her choice of Tim Walz
Harris’ pick of Walz amps up excitement in Midwestern states where Democrats look to heal divisions
How Tim Walz became beloved by young voters with a message that the GOP is ‘weird’
Minnesota reacts to Tim Walz being named Kamala Harris’ running mate
How Tim Walz pushed Minnesota toward aggressive climate policies
THE FACTS: Minnesota did roll out a new state flag and accompanying seal in May. The changes were made to replace an old design that Native Americans said reminded them of painful memories of conquest and displacement.
The old flag incorporated the seal showing a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plowed his field with a rifle at the ready.
The State Emblems Redesign Commission received more than 2,600 proposals from the public. It picked one from Andrew Prekker, 25, of Luverne, as the basis for the new flag.
Prekker said Walz had nothing to do with the creation of the flag, and Somalia had nothing to do with the flag design.
His original design had a white star on a blue background with white, green and light blue stripes stretching over the rest of the flag.
The stripes were dropped by the commission in the final design. The new flag has a white, eight-pointed star on a dark blue field at the flag’s left side that’s a stylized representation of Minnesota’s outline; the right side of the flag is light blue.
The Somalia flag is a white five-point star in the middle of a light blue field. Some states in Somalia have flags that incorporate green, white and blue stripes.
Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S. One of its congressmembers, Ilhan Oman, was born in Somalia and is a member of an informal group of progressive Democratic House members known as The Squad.
“The inspiration behind my flag were three main concepts inspired by Minnesota’s history and culture: the North Star, the Minnesota shape, and three stripes representing different facets of Minnesotan identity,” Prekker wrote in an email.
“There is no connection to Somalia or any other country, and in complete honesty I didn’t even know Somalia existed before the whole flag debacle,” he continued. “Any similarities people want to see are a coincidence. It is a Minnesotan flag, and that is what I designed it for.”
