Meet ‘David,’ the man who spirited Nick Shirley around to Somali-run day cares

When David Hoch ran for Minnesota governor and attorney general years ago, he had a penchant for staging stunts like campaigning in nothing but shorts and a sandwich board on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall.

But never has Hoch garnered as much attention as in the past week, after he worked with right-wing influencer Nick Shirley to make a video that created shock waves reverberating all the way to the White House.

In the 43-minute video, Hoch — identified only as “David” — escorts Shirley to various Somali-run child care centers that he suspects are committing fraud. Knocking on doors and demanding to be let in, the two declare there are no children inside if nobody answers or if workers won’t let them in. (The Minnesota Star Tribune was allowed inside four of the 10 facilities visited by Shirley days later and found children napping and playing.)

The video went viral on social media, conservative outlets picked up the story and everyone from billionaire Elon Musk to Vice President JD Vance weighed in. Days after the video’s appearance, the Trump administration vowed to freeze $185 million in child care payments to the state.

All of this comes as Gov. Tim Walz and state officials face intense and mounting scrutiny over suspected fraud in several Medicaid-funded social service programs, including multiple federal probes.

The video also raised questions about whether wrongdoing was allowed to proliferate in a program flagged for issues a decade ago.

But the video also raised a more basic question. Who is “David”?

For the 65-year-old Fridley man, the episode offered a stunning turn in the spotlight after spending years in the shadows, despite his many efforts to grab attention for himself and his causes.

Hoch ran for governor in 2006 under the Resource Party, which largely seemed to exist to oppose tribal gaming compacts.

But his candidacy garnered little attention, even though at one point he campaigned in downtown Minneapolis donning only “patriotic shorts,” an Uncle Sam hat, and a sandwich board that said “Will work for food you" — with the word “food” crossed out.

Among his campaign pledges: To build a casino that would generate $500 million in revenue for the state and lower health care premiums.

Four years later, the Minnesota native ran for attorney general, again as a candidate for the Resource Party. During the race, he said he used to be a Republican but left because “the party has no spine.”

Hoch said his qualifications included “14 active years of unpaid scrutiny of elected officials of Minnesota” and working across party lines to expose corruption in state government.

He won less than 1% of the vote; Democrat Lori Swanson won re-election.

Outside of his political work, Hoch has worked in construction for 35 years and started a ladder company called Ladderweight that makes “portable, reusable, no-assembly-required” ladders.

But it was his watchdog efforts that dominate his public posting on social media. In an old Facebook post, Hoch said he’d been “filing complaints” for years with state agencies because they failed to protect citizens from “flagrant violations” of law.

Hoch co-founded Minnesotans for Responsible Government, for which he’s a registered lobbyist and president.

He is also seen repeatedly waving around a stack of papers, including a printout of a Dec. 3 email from Joe Marble.

Marble is a committee administrator at the Minnesota House of Representatives who previously worked as a research assistant for the House Republican caucus, according to his LinkedIn. He did not respond to a request for comment.

Marble was also a fellow member of the Resource Party as well as Hoch’s other group, Minnesotans for Responsible Government. The two friends have been working hand-in-hand for decades.

The papers in the video show Marble emailed Hoch information about child care centers, complete with a Google Maps photo for one that he said showed “two Somali guys standing out front.”

After Shirley’s video was released, House Republicans said they provided information to the man called “David” in the video. Yet in a post on X, Shirley disputed the idea that he received any information from Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth.

Hoch and Marble were the co-founders of Citizens United for Baseball in Minnesota after hearing rumors in 1997 about a plan to move the Twins.

After state lawmakers voted against helping pay for a new Twins stadium in November 1997, Marble and Hoch set up camp outside the Capitol, vowing to stay until lawmakers changed their minds. But they packed up a day later after learning they would have to apply for permits every day, according to a 1999 Star Tribune story.

They later formed a group called Minnesotans for Responsible Gaming, which supported expanding gambling to generate revenue for sports facilities.

In 1998, they made a documentary about traveling the country in a Volkswagen van to baseball games to gin up support for a new Twins stadium.

They also sued MasterCard in 2001, alleging the company got the idea for a commercial from their documentary, claiming the credit card company used similar music, shots of stadiums and an orange and white van. The suit said they were lifelong friends who worked as vendors at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington.

A 2005 Star Tribune story about the duo said they pored over campaign and lobbying reports at the state campaign finance office and were themselves government watchdogs whose numbers were “deadly accurate,” Marble said at the time.

They examined donations from tribes to candidates and parties, which “led some critics to accuse them of being anti-Indian,” the Star Tribune reported.

“We don’t care what people think,” Marble told the newspaper at the time. “We’re going to tell the truth and if that means stepping on some toes, we’ll step on people’s toes.”