Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was planning to run for a third term, but that dream has just ended.
Walz is caught in the middle of a massive fraud scandal in his state related to entitlement programs and COVID-19 aid abuse that now appears to be approaching $9 billion.
With significant pressure now mounting on Walz, he has decided to suspend his campaign for re-election as governor.
It did not take long for the GOP to pounce on Walz when the widespread fraud was revealed.
He has been prosecuting cases, more than six dozen of them, but the fraud had remained relatively quiet until a New York Times piece went live in November.
Then, an independent journalist, Nick Shirley, did a YouTube piece that went viral, garnering well over two million views already. This led to local lawmakers demanding that Walz resign.
State Sens. Bill Lieske and Nathan Wesenberg, and state Reps. Marj Fogelman, Drew Roach, and Mike Wiener stated, "This is not about politics or stunts, and we do not make a call like this lightly. The office of the governor deserves respect, and we have tried to give Gov. Walz time to act. But leadership means doing the right thing even when it is difficult, which is why we are calling on Gov. Walz to resign.”
When the attacks started raining on Walz, he immediately went on the defensive to say how hard he had been combating fraud in his state.
Walz’s office stated, “The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action.”
It continued, “He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.”
The problem for Walz is that all this happened on his watch, as he is in the midst of his second term as governor. There is no way to sugarcoat the fact that billions walked out the door during his tenure. You don’t get to spill the milk and take credit for wiping it up.
Walz was facing pressure from both sides of the aisle since this became a national headline, so he did the smart thing and just announced that he will not seek re-election.
He stated, “I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all. Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.”
Reports have also surfaced that Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) met before Walz’s announcement; the natural conclusion is that she may be running to replace Walz.
I stated just a few days ago that I thought this would be the end of Walz’s career, but I did not expect it to come this fast. This resignation is going to create a feeding frenzy by Republicans, so expect the party to use this to try to energize voters for the 2026 midterms. Walz may not realize it, but he just handed the GOP a massive gift.
