Klobuchar launches Minnesota governor bid after Walz ends re-election run amid massive fraud scandal

Longtime Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Thursday formally jumped into the 2026 race for Minnesota governor, three weeks after the stunning move by Gov. Tim Walz to drop his re-election bid amid political fallout from a massive fraud scandal.

Klobuchar, who just 15 months ago was handily re-elected to a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate, spotlighted the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota in a video released on social media.

"These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration, but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state," she said.

Klobuchar's campaign launch comes as Minnesota is firmly in the national spotlight, because of the ongoing fraud scandal, which has been described as the nation's largest COVID-era scheme. 

And over the past month, the state has become the epicenter in the heated battle over President Donald Trump's aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration, following the fatal shootings by federal agents of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis who were protesting deportation operations.

WALZ ON GOP CALLS FOR HIM TO RESIGN OVER FRAUD SCANDAL: ‘OVER MY DEAD BODY’

Klobuchar's campaign launch gives Democrats a high-profile candidate with fundraising prowess to defend the governor's office as Republicans aim to end a two-decade-long losing streak in the blue-leaning state.

The move by Klobuchar was expected, after the senator two weeks ago filed preliminary paperwork with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board in what sources in her political orbit told Fox News Digital was a "preliminary step."

And since last month's announcement by Walz, a fellow Democrat, that he was scrapping his bid for an unprecedented third term as Minnesota governor, Klobuchar had been receiving calls urging her to run, Democratic sources confirmed to Fox News Digital.

The senator has won all four of her Senate elections by healthy margins, including a nearly 16-point re-election in 2024.

But Klobuchar, who is currently number three in Senate Democratic leadership, faced hurdles to rise higher in party leadership in the chamber.

FRAUD FALLOUT FORCES WALZ TO ABANDON GUBERNATORIAL RE-ELECTION BID

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York is the top Democrat in the upper chamber and isn't expected to leave his post.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two Democrat in the chamber, is retiring from Congress, leaving an opening to fill in the leadership pecking order. But Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii is the expected heir apparent for that position.

Before serving in the Senate, Klobuchar was elected twice as county attorney in Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous. 

She also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination. And a trip by Klobuchar last summer to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire sparked speculation that Klobuchar may be mulling another White House run in 2028.

Walz launched his re-election bid in September, but in December started facing a barrage of incoming political fire from Trump and Republicans, and some Democrats, over the large-scale theft, under his watch as governor, in a state that has long prided itself on good governance.

More than 90 people — most from Minnesota's large Somali community — have been charged since 2022. 

How much money has been stolen through alleged money laundering operations involving fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services is still being tabulated. But the U.S. attorney in Minnesota said the scope of the fraud could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion.

INSIDE THE RISE AND FALL OF TIM WALZ

Prosecutors said some of the dozens that have already pleaded guilty in the case used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, jewelry and international vacations, with some of the funds also sent overseas and potentially into the hands of Islamic terrorists.

"This is on my watch, I am accountable for this and, more importantly, I am the one that will fix it," Walz told reporters in December, as he took responsibility for the scandal.

But the scandal went viral late last year following the release of a video by 23-year-old YouTube content creator Nick Shirley, who alleged widespread fraud at Somali-run daycare centers. Days later, the Trump administration froze federal childcare funding to Minnesota.

A defiant Walz vocally pushed back against calls by Republican state lawmakers to resign amid the state's sweeping fraud scandal.

"I'm not going anywhere. And you can make all your requests for me to resign. Over my dead body will that happen," the governor told reporters.

Nearly a dozen Republicans are vying to be the GOP's gubernatorial nominee, including Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, state Rep. Kristin Robbins, former state Sen. Scott Jensen, and healthcare technology executive Kendall Qualls, a past congressional and gubernatorial candidate. And they've made the fraud scandal central to their campaigns.

But one of those candidates, a Republican outsider and Minneapolis lawyer who represented the federal immigration agent who fatally shot Renee Good in early January, ended his Republican bid for Minnesota governor after nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents a week and a half ago.

"I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state," Chris Madel said in a message posted on social media, as he announced he was dropping his outsider bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. "Nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so."

It's been 20 years since Republicans have won a gubernatorial election in Minnesota. You have to go back to then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty's 2006 re-election victory.

But Minnesota Republicans entered the new year "feeling assured of Republican wins in 2026 because of the fraud issue," Amy Koch, a Minnesota-based Republican strategist and former state senator told Fox News Digital.

FALLOUT FROM MINNESOTA SHOOTINGS BY FEDERAL AGENTS PUT REPUBLICANS ON DEFENSE 

That was before the massive deployment of federal agents to Minneapolis as part of the Trump administration's efforts to deport millions of undocumented migrants, and the fatal shootings of Good and Pretti.

"I think it’s going to make things more difficult… The images and the energy behind the ICE out movement will definitely play against Republicans," said Koch, the first and only woman elected as Minnesota Senate majority leader. "Four weeks ago, I would have told you Republicans were going to do incredibly well statewide in Minnesota, and now I have a lot of questions."

Republican Governors Association communications director Courtney Alexander said in a statement last month that "Walz’s failed leadership is emblematic of Minnesota Democrats’ agenda and whoever Democrats choose to replace Walz with at the top of the ticket will need to defend years of mismanagement and misplaced priorities."

But the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) chair, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, said last month,"No matter who decides to run or how much national Republicans want to spend, the DGA remains very confident Minnesotans will elect another strong Democratic governor this November.""