Longtime U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar announced Thursday that she will run for governor of Minnesota. The senator’s campaign rollout follows Gov. Tim Walz’s surprise decision to abandon his bid for a third term amid criticism of Minnesota’s ongoing fraud problem.
“I believe we must stand up for what’s right, and fix what’s wrong. That’s why, today, I’m announcing my candidacy for governor of the State of Minnesota,” Klobuchar said in a campaign launch video.
Trying to keep the governorship in DFL hands for a fifth straight election, Klobuchar would be the first female governor in state history if she won. She has served in the U.S. Senate for nearly 20 years and is a high-ranking member of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Announcing her candidacy, Klobuchar said she is one of the most bipartisan senators in the U.S. Senate. She said she is running for governor for parents, workers, students, and “for every Minnesotan who wants ICE and its abusive tactics out of the state we love.”
Addressing the widespread fraud in state government, Klobuchar said, “I will make sure the people who steal taxpayer money go to jail, and root out the fraud by changing the way state government works. I will do my job without fear or favor.”
Klobuchar’s entrance to the race follows weeks of speculation that she would jump into the contest. Many Democrats view her as the party’s best opportunity to win the governorship given her large margins of victory and unbeaten streak in Minnesota elections.
Since Walz withdrew from the race on Jan. 5, no other DFLers have come forward to run for governor. Potential candidates such as Attorney General Keith Ellison and Secretary of State Steve Simon either declined to run for governor or said they would not run if Klobuchar did.
Now that she has formally announced a campaign, Klobuchar will likely receive the DFL nomination for governor with little, if any, opposition from her fellow Democrats.
The 2026 election for Minnesota governor
While Klobuchar has comfortably won elections to federal office, the political issues facing Minnesota’s state government differ from federal issues. As a candidate for governor, she will be forced to address a slate of local issues — the most significant of which is fraud.
Under Walz, Minnesota has developed a national reputation for its failure to stop the large-scale welfare fraud that has occurred in the state. The fraud saga includes the $250 million Feeding Our Future scheme as well as fraud in state-run, Medicaid-funded programs.
Last year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota estimated that fraud in those state-run programs could exceed $9 billion since 2018. Fraud has become the chief political issue in Minnesota, and Walz was essentially ushered into an early retirement because of it.
Other topics likely to dominate the gubernatorial campaign include the exponential growth in state spending and federal immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota.
At present, the Republican candidates for governor include House Speaker Lisa Demuth, ex-State Sen. Scott Jensen, ex-CEO Patrick Knight, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, retired Naval officer Phillip Parish, businessman Kendall Qualls, and State Rep. Kristin Robbins.
Republicans have charged that Klobuchar is a continuation of the status quo.
“Amy Klobuchar is a career politician who has been running for office for more than 30 years,” Demuth said. “Minnesotans only need to look at her record to know that she simply cannot deliver the change that our state needs, and would be nothing more than a third term of Tim Walz.”
“She covered up for Joe Biden, has a disastrous record as one of the worst bosses in the U.S. Senate, and stood by Tim Walz until the bitter end throughout his endless fraud scandals,” she added.
Robbins has referred to Klobuchar as “Tim Walz’s handpicked successor,” and previously said Klobuchar “now owns all [Walz’s] failures, fraud, and fiasco. Minnesota is ready for change, but Klobuchar is more of the same.”
Similarly, Qualls said Klobuchar is “Tim Walz 2.0,” and the DFL senator “would be another rubber stamp for Tim Walz’s extreme agenda. I have absolutely zero faith that she’ll stop the fraud and turn Minnesota around.”
Later this year, Republicans will endorse a candidate for governor at their state convention. That endorsement, while impactful, does not decide who the Republican nominee will be. Ultimately, the Aug. 11 state primary election will decide who gets the nomination.
If Klobuchar were to win the governorship, Walz, or potentially Klobuchar herself, would appoint someone to fill her Senate seat. If Klobuchar were to lose the election, she could continue serving in the Senate as her current term does not expire until January of 2031.
A Republican has not won the Minnesota governorship since 2006 when Gov. Tim Pawlenty secured reelection by less than one point.
A longtime fixture in Minnesota politics
Klobuchar first ran for public office in 1998 when she sought the post of Hennepin County attorney. Despite being a first-time candidate, Klobuchar entered the race with significant name ID thanks to her father, Jim Klobuchar, a longtime columnist for the Star Tribune.
Klobuchar won the election for Hennepin County attorney by less than one point. She won reelection to that office in 2002 unopposed. In 2006, she ran for an open U.S. Senate seat and won the office by more than 20 points.
Running for reelection in 2012, Klobuchar won 85 of Minnesota’s 87 counties en route to a 35-point victory. In 2018, she won a 24-point reelection victory.
Two years later, Klobuchar ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primaries. After failing to gain significant traction in the early primary states, Klobuchar dropped out of the race and endorsed Joe Biden.
Most recently, Klobuchar won reelection to her Senate seat in 2024 by 16 points. In that election, Klobuchar notably lost almost all of Greater Minnesota, territory she had won in her prior campaigns for the U.S. Senate.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
