Walz Helped Secure Funding For Research Center That Worked With Chinese Lab Linked To COVID-19 Pandemic

During his time in Congress, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz worked to secure millions for a Minnesota-based lab that worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on a variety of projects.

Walz worked to earmark a total of $7 million for the Hormel Institute in Austin, Minnesota, and praised the work of the publicly-funded research institution, the Washington Examiner reported. The Minnesota research center, however, on multiple occasions worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which many suspect was the origin point of the COVID-19 virus, including on COVID-19 research in 2020 and bacteria research in 2024.

“For 80+ years, the Hormel Institute has helped pave the way for Minnesota to lead in biomedical innovation,” Walz said in April. “It was great to stop by their facilities yesterday in Austin to see that work in action.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology operates under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which reports directly to the Chinese Communist Party’s State Council, the Examiner reported. It has “has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017,” according to the State Department.

Lawmakers claim that there is evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In May, the federal government cut off funding to EcoHealth Alliance, a publicly-funded U.S. nonprofit that allocated subgrants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for bat coronavirus research in part because the research it funded was not conducted with proper oversight.

Walz has described himself as a “strong advocate for The Hormel Institute” and has visited the research center to discuss how it can receive more federal funding, according to the Examiner. In addition to collaborating with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Hormel Institute has also done considerable work with the Beijing Genomics Institute, which the Department of Defenses has designated a “Chinese military company,” meaning that it is “directly or indirectly owned, controlled or beneficially owned by” the Chinese military or otherwise a “military-civil fusion contributor to the Chinese defense industrial base.”

Walz has come under fire from lawmakers and conservative critics for his feelings toward China. The vice presidential nominee has attended several events set up by members of a nonprofit connected to a Chinese Communist Party intelligence agency.

He also, while working as a high school social studies teacher in 1991, told his students that communism is “everyone is the same and everyone shares” while reflecting on life in communist China.

“It has come to the Committee’s attention that Governor Walz has longstanding connections to CCP-connected entities and officials that make him susceptible to the Party’s strategy of elite capture, which seeks to co-opt influential figures in elite political, cultural and academic circles to influence the United States to the benefit of the communist regime and the detriment of Americans,” House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, a Republican, wrote in a letter to the head of the FBI in August. “Reporting about Governor Walz’s extensive engagement with CCP officials and entities while serving in public office raises questions about possible CCP influence in his decision-making as governor—and, should he be elected, as vice president.”

The Hormel Institute and the Harris campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.