No proof Boebert said Detroit had highest murder rate 'in Minnesota'
In August 2024, posts began appearing on social media sites claiming that U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, mistakenly said the city of Detroit had the highest murder rate in the state of Minnesota (as it happens, Detroit is in Michigan, not Minnesota). The claim appeared just after then-Vice President Kamala Harris announced her running mate in the 2024 presidential election, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. More posts sharing the claim on Facebook and X went viral in March 2025.
However, the posts provided no evidence that Boebert had mistakenly said Detroit was in Minnesota, and a Google search revealed that no reliable media outlets had reported on her supposed blunder, as might be expected. Additionally, Snopes found that a satirical website had spread a very similar claim (instead of Detroit, Boebert supposedly said Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was in Minnesota) around the time the initial claim went viral. The claims are unfounded, and likely originated as satire.
On Aug. 9, 2024, The Folly Times, a website that describes its content as satire, published a story titled "Lauren Boebert Misses the Mark: Mistakes Milwaukee for a Minnesota City in Latest X Post" Since the post itself did not have a time stamp, that information came from the website's source code, which revealed a "datePublished" tag indicating that the article was published on Aug. 9, 2024. The earliest social media posts Snopes could find for the rumor also came on Aug. 9, 2024.
The Folly Times article claimed the mishap occurred in an Aug. 6 post on X and included a supposed image. (Aug. 6 was the day Walz was announced as Harris' VP selection.) However, that post did not appear to exist. Snopes attempted to use archival tools to check earlier versions of Boebert's X page, but for whatever reason, none of the attempted archives of Boebert's X profile made after Aug. 6, 2024, were successful.
While the most famous Detroit in the United States is in Michigan, there is a city in Minnesota named Detroit Lakes. However, data from Minnesota state crime reports suggest that Detroit Lakes does not have the highest murder rate in the state — in 2023, none of the state's 188 reported homicides occurred in Detroit Lakes or its county, Becker County.
Since Snopes could not definitively confirm that the claim originated as satire and there was no proof that Boebert said or posted something that mistakenly claimed Detroit was in Minnesota, the claim is unfounded.
2023 Uniform Crime Report to the Legislature. Minnesota Department of Public Safety, 2023, https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/assets.dps.mn.gov/s3fs-public/2024-09/2023-Minnesota-Uniform-Crime-Report.pdf.
"About The Folly Times." The Folly Times, https://thefollytimes.com/about/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2025.
Colton, Emma. "Minnesota Murder Stats Rose under Walz's Leadership as He Tries to Tie Violent Crime Trend to Trump: Data." Fox News, 11 Aug. 2024, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/minnesota-murder-stats-rose-under-walzs-leadership-he-tries-tie-violent-crime-trend-trump-data.
"Lauren Boebert Misses the Mark: Mistakes Milwaukee for a Minnesota City in Latest X Post." The Folly Times, 9 Aug. 2024, https://thefollytimes.com/politics/lauren-boebert-misses-the-mark-mistakes-milwaukee-for-a-minnesota-city-in-latest-x-post/.
Pager, Tyler, et al. "Harris Chooses Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as VP Pick." The Washington Post, 6 Aug. 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/06/harris-walz-vp/.
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