Minnesota Governor Tim Walz drops bid for reelection

MINNEAPOLIS (CN) — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced Monday that he is ending his bid for reelection, and will not seek what would have been an unprecedented third consecutive term in office.

Walz was first elected governor in 2018, and made his decision not to run again this year after a short stint as the 2024 Democratic nominee for vice president.

Walz’s announcement comes in the wake of fraud claims in Minnesota and recent clashes with the Trump administration.

In 2022, dozens of suspects in Minnesota were indicted as part of a reported $250 million fraud scheme with the Minneapolis nonprofit Feeding Our Future. The funds were intended to be used as reimbursements for the costs of serving meals to children in need during the Covid-19 pandemic, but investigators said few meals were ever provided, and the funds were misused for personal gain.

A 2024 state audit found that Minnesota’s Education Department is largely to blame for the Feeding Our Future scheme.

Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a freeze on all federal child care payments to Minnesota after a viral video from right-wing influencer Nick Shirley showed day care facilities in the state that aren’t operational, but receiving state and federal funding.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI had already begun investigations before the video went viral.

On X, Walz expressed his disapproval for the freeze, claiming that President Donald Trump is politicizing the issue to defund programs.

Walz’s Monday press release addressed concerns over fraud in Minnesota’s government, and highlighted the various efforts made to address it.

“We should be concerned about fraud in our state government,” he said. “We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can’t earn the public’s trust. That’s why, over the past few years, we’ve made systemic changes to the way we do business.”

Walz said Minnesotans have been hard at work addressing the problem, and claimed that his administration is taking decisive action to solve the crisis by cutting streams of funding and working with the Legislature to get more tools to combat fraud.

The FBI’s fraud investigations have largely targeted Somali immigrants in Minnesota, a focus for Trump. Although Walz concedes that Minnesota has a fraud problem, he doesn’t agree with the way the president is handling it.

“We’ve got the president of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongly confiscating child care funding that Minnesotans rely on,” Walz said. “It is disgusting, and it is dangerous.”

Trump has made his opinion on Walz clear, calling him “grossly incompetent,” and claiming he has done nothing while “Somalian gangs” roam the streets of what he described as a once-great state.

While Walz said while he welcomes the involvement of the federal government, his announcement claims the president and his allies want to make Minnesota a “colder, meaner place,” and take away much of what makes Minnesota the “best place in America to raise a family.”

“They’ve already begun taking our tax dollars that were meant to help families afford child care,” Walz said. “And they have no intention of stopping there.”

Walz is confident that a Democrat will win the position in November, and said his decision to step out of the race is one he makes with zero regret or sadness. He plans to continue contributing to the state any way he can after he leaves office in January 2027.

“I want Minnesotans to know that I’m on the job, 24/7, focused on making sure we stay America’s best place to live and raise kids,” the governor said. “No one will take that away from us. Not the fraudsters, and not the president. Not on my watch.”

Early signs point to Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar as a likely candidate to run for governor in the wake of Walz’s decision. The Democratic nominee will face a challenge from a packed Republican field, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and House Speaker Lisa Demuth, among others.