ST. PAUL— Gov. Tim Walz was defiant on Monday morning even as he announced that he won’t seek re-election for an unprecedented third term as Minnesota’s top executive. Walz, who had previously announced he would seek another four years as governor, said he was ending his bid to focus his efforts on fighting what he called “an organized group of criminals that have sought to take advantage of our generosity.”
His decision, which had been rumored for weeks, comes amidst a well-coordinated political attack by Republicans, who have targeted Walz over several fraud cases involving state-managed programs utilizing both state and federal resources.
The biggest, the Feeding Our Future scandal, was halted four years ago and has largely been addressed through the prosecutions of dozens of the individuals involved. Prosecutions announced in recent months for fraud in other state programs have been far smaller in dollar terms, but they have been amplified by incendiary comments from the White House, the state GOP, and conservative bloggers.
The issue exploded with the late December release of a video by conservative videographer Nick Shirley, who visited several Somali-run childcare centers in the Twin Cities. When Shirley found locked doors, or was denied entrance, he claimed that the centers weren’t actually serving children. Subsequent investigation by Twin Cities news media and state officials have since found Shirley’s claims to be false, yet the video has received over 130 million views on YouTube, creating a firestorm of criticism of Walz and Minnesota’s state government in general.
Walz took aim at those spreading malicious claims against him and the state.
“I won’t mince words here,” said Walz during a Monday morning press conference. “Donald Trump and his allies – in Washington, in St. Paul, and online – want to make our state a colder, meaner place. They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And, ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They’ve already begun by taking our tax dollars that were meant to help families afford child care. And they have no intention of stopping there.”
Walz, at the same time, agreed that the state needs to do more to fight organized fraud, which has spiked nationally in the wake of the COVID pandemic, when the federal government spent trillions on programs designed to provide financial support to businesses, families, and individuals impacted by the ramifications of the pandemic.
“We should be concerned about fraud in our state,” said Walz. “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. We’ve gone to the Legislature time and again to get more tools to combat fraud,” Walz continued. “We’ve fired people who weren’t doing their jobs. We’ve seen people go to jail for stealing from our state. We’ve cut off whole streams of funding, in partnership with the federal government, where we saw widespread criminal activity.”
Walz hired an outside auditing firm late last year to better assess the extent of the fraud problem in the state, which is currently unknown. Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, at a press conference just ahead of the holidays, suggested as much as $9 billion may have been stolen but he presented no evidence for the claim and state officials have disputed Thompson’s suggestion.
A preliminary report from the outside auditing firm is expected later this month.
A changing
gubernatorial race
Walz’s announcement has raised speculation about who might replace him on the DFL ticket and much of that speculation immediately centered around DFL U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who has consistently been one of the top vote-getters in the state.
Klobuchar, who has served in the U.S. Senate since January 2007, has told news media she’s considering the switch, a prospect that is thrilling to many DFLers in the state who believe she would be a likely winner against anyone in the current Republican field.
State Republicans have made it clear they would attempt to hang Walz’s fraud on whoever might succeed him. GOP gubernatorial candidate Kendall Qualls said it doesn’t matter if Klobuchar or anyone else jumps into the race. “They share Walz’s record of failure and incompetence,” he said.
Minnesota House Speaker and GOP gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth agreed.
“If Democrats think they can sweep Minnesota’s fraud scandal away by swapping out Tim Walz, they are wrong,” she said “Every Democrat in Minnesota has spent years enabling criminals who stole our tax dollars, with still no meaningful accountability and no end in sight.”
Demuth, however, could have her own problems. In recent public statements, she indicated that she had been working with YouTuber Nick Shirley to purportedly highlight some of the fraud issues in the state. But should the fallout from Shirley's misleading video cause hardship for Minnesota families that rely on the CCAP program, Demuth could face blowback for her connection to Shirley.
While Republicans took aim at Gov. Walz, others offered accolades over the changes Walz brought to the state, including the adoption of universal free school lunch, paid family leave, and a requirement for universal background checks.
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said Walz was putting the public first. “Tim’s career has been defined by getting results for Minnesotans,” she said. “In the face of an unprecedented and coordinated attack on Minnesota by President Trump and his administration, the governor is once again doing the right thing.”