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While the growing allegations of fraud in various Minnesota human services programs have turned into a major national story, they've also sparked some eyebrow-raising conspiracy theories. 

For instance, some people have taken to social media opine that Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman's assassination is somehow connected to the fraud scandal. That's led some Minnesota Republicans to spend the last few days debunking the conspiracy theory. Among them is GOP state Sen. Julia Coleman, who joined Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition to talk about the effort and the use of influencers in disseminating political messaging. 

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity. Listen to the conversation by clicking the player button above.

The video of Hortman in tears after voting on a plan that cut health benefits for immigrants here illegally seems to be the fuel for this conspiracy theory. What dots are folks trying to connect? 

They're trying to assume that she's crying out of fear, but anybody who knows Melissa knows that she's crying because her heart was broken by taking that vote. In that moment, she's thinking about the people that are no longer going to have health insurance because of a vote she took. 

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She was a leader that wore her emotions on the sleeve, and all these conspiracy theories are coming from people who, one, never met her, and two, probably never stepped foot in Minnesota but are trying to get social media points. And I eventually just kind of reached my breaking point. 

So you jumped into the muck of social media to try to bat down the conspiracies. How is that going? 

For the most part, the output of support I've gotten has been so great, but there's also been some people that are quick to rush to the comments to say, “Well, Julia, you're involved in the fraud now. I just know it because you posted this,” to which I'm like, I drive a 2002 Oldsmobile. I promise you I'm not. Or people even claiming that I'm somehow trying to help Gov. Walz cover up her assassination. I really decided it's time to invest in tin foil. 

How are you facing this uphill battle when some of the biggest figures in your party are fanning the disinformation flames? 

I think that you just have to remain calm and persistent with the facts online. And so every time somebody would try to get under my skin in the thousands of comments, I'd either respond with facts or humor. You can't let it get to you. 

And keep in mind, I lost a really good friend and my very first boss in September through Charlie Kirk. And I have to say the sentence: I lost two people I work with through assassinations this year. 

It's wild, it's tough times, but you have to say, if you are dishonoring them with these wild conspiracy theories, you're disrespecting their families, but you're also dishonoring the part of yourself that's rational. And if you're doing this for social media clicks, you're dishonoring your integrity and credibility as well. 

As you're kind of in a swing district, is it easier for you to take this kind of stand than it is for some colleagues in more MAGA-focused districts? 

In politics, there is no easy route. So in a swing district, that means half the people expect you to be very far right and half of them expect you to be very far left. It actually doesn't mean there's a lot of people in the middle there. But it gives you that freedom to say, well, if I'm danged if I do and danged if I don't, I may as well just do what I think is right. 

And for me, it was saying enough is enough. You people don't know Minnesotans. You don't know Melissa Hortman or Charlie Kirk. You need to stop what you're doing. 

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The fraud scandal got some of this started, and I noted you congratulated Nick Shirley, the conservative content creator, for his viral video. House GOP Leader Lisa Demuth acknowledged her caucus coordinated with Shirley on it; is what the speaker did OK? 

I haven't caught up on that. I actually just saw a post from I think your organization this morning about that, and so that's new to me. 

I think it's absolutely okay to outsource if you don't have internal media capabilities to help you investigate and look into things, particularly when Republicans have spent the last several years sending letters to agencies trying to get more information and not necessarily had the most cooperative group of people working back with them. But it's not something I know a lot about at this point, but will definitely look into. 

Both Republicans and Democrats are tapping influencers to spread their political messages. Are both sides acting with the voters’ best interests in mind with some of these tactics? 

I think they're trying to meet voters where they’re at. So when you do polling, you see that the younger group of people are unfortunately not getting their news from sources like MPR or national media, or even local media. 

They're getting it from social media. And so my hope is that if you're working with influencers, you're getting accurate information out to these voters that choose social media, because there's so much disinformation out there. 

Session is right around the corner and House GOP leader Harry Niska says that it's going to be all about fraud. Do you think that's going to be true? 

I think it's going to be about fraud, and I think it's going to be about guns. My hope is that there will be lawmakers like myself and others who don't want to just go there and make the other side take bad votes on all these issues to put on mailers for election season, but actually want to be able to go home at the end of session and say we worked together and got something done. I'm going into my sixth year on this, so I'm not necessarily holding my breath, but I get glimmers of hope from time to time. 

I have a very good working relationship with DFL Sen. Steve Cwodzinski on the Education Committee. We just got together in a brewery between our districts a couple weeks ago to say, “What can we get done? What can we work on together?” And so it's my hope that those voices drown out the vitriol this year.

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Some people have taken to social media to opine that Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman's assassination is somehow connected to the fraud scandal. That's led some Minnesota Republicans, including state Sen. Julia Coleman, to spend the last few days debunking the conspiracy theory.

Minnesota Republican tries to quash conspiracy theories fueled by fraud probe

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