By Nicole Silverio of the Daily Caller News Foundation
Nick Shirley, the viral YouTuber who exposed the fraud happening at Somali daycare centers in Minnesota, took credit for Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s resignation from the 2026 gubernatorial race.
While Walz faced national scrutiny for his handling of fraud, Shirley posted a 42-minute documentary on Dec. 26, which found that nearly a dozen Somali daycare centers funded by taxpayer dollars were not actually providing services. In response to the governor accusing Shirley of being a “conspiracy theorist” who broke into daycare centers, Shirley posted on X that he “ended” Walz’s career.
“I ENDED TIM WALZ,” Shirley wrote on X.
Prominent conservatives, including tech mogul Elon Musk and YouTuber Brandon Tatum, praised Shirley for his role in making Walz step down.
“Thank God,” Musk wrote in response to Shirley.
In his statement on Monday, Walz accused Republicans of “playing politics” by speaking to whistleblowers, exposing daycare centers and “demonizing” Somalis.
“But the political gamesmanship we’re seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder to win. We’ve got Republicans here in the legislature playing hide-and-seek with whistleblowers,” Walz said. “We’ve got conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTubers breaking into daycare centers and demanding access to our children. We’ve got the President of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongly confiscating childcare funding that Minnesotans rely on. It’s disgusting. And it is dangerous.”
Shirley responded on X by telling Walz he should have prevented the fraud from ever happening.
“You should’ve put Minnesota first when you had the chance, instead you let billions of dollars of fraud happen across your state… anywayssss … I hear Quality LEARING Center is hiring,” Shirley said.
The Quality “Learning” Center, which initially misspelled “Learning,” as “Learing,” is among the daycare centers that appeared to have no children inside when visited by Shirley. The center received $1.9 million in 2025 and $4 million in total funding from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), Shirley reported in the documentary.
Ali Ibrahim, the son of the center’s owner, told the Post that Shirley visited the property outside of regular business hours.
In a separate case, federal prosecutors have charged over 90 individuals, whom are mostly of Somali descent, with stealing over $9 billion in taxpayer funds from federal social service programs in Minnesota. Five of the 10 daycare centers visited by Shirley operated as meal sites for Feeding Our Future, a program at the center of a $300 million scam that provided meals to children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between 2018 and 2021, those five businesses received nearly $5 million from Feeding Our Future, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. One facility, the Minnesota Best Childcare Center, received $1.5 million from Feeding Our Future. The Sweet Angel Child Care center in Minneapolis had the same phone number as Walz’s office.
State employees in Minnesota stated in November that Walz bore full responsibility for the fraud by working to “discredit fraud reports” and ignore whistleblowers.
Democrats and state leaders defended Somalis while the fraud was uncovered, including Democratic Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said that Somalis were part of the community’s family. Minnesota Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan appeared on a Somali TV station wearing a hijab.
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