Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is ending his bid for a third term, less than four months after announcing his re-election campaign.
Walz, who was part of the Democratic U.S. presidential ticket last year as Kamala Harris’s running mate, said in a statement Monday that he could no longer devote the energy necessary to win another term, even as he expressed confidence that he could win.
He cited ongoing attention on the fraud cases and described an “extraordinarily difficult year for our state,” while also noting the accomplishments of his first seven years in office.
U.S. President Donald Trump and other Republicans have relentlessly focused on a fraud investigation into child-care programs in Minnesota in social media posts and interviews on right-wing cable news shows.
Trump’s administration announced last week that it was freezing child-care funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some daycare centres after a series of fraud cases involving state government programs in recent years.
“Donald Trump and his allies — in Washington, in St. Paul and online — want to make our state a colder, meaner place,” Walz said, referring to the Trump administration withholding funds for the programs.
“They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbours. And, ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family.”
The bitterness between Trump and Walz has continued long after the 2024 campaign.
After former Democratic state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in June, part of a violent spree where a suspect is also charged with shooting State Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife on the same day, Trump declined to call Walz to express his condolences on behalf of the White House, saying it would be a “waste of time.”
On Saturday, Trump shared a social media post on Truth Social that alleged a wild conspiracy theory implicating Walz in Hortman’s death. Both Walz and Hortman’s children condemned the post and urged him to take it down.
“Dangerous, depraved behaviour from the sitting president of the United States,” Walz said in his own social media post in response. “In covering for an actual serial killer, he is going to get more innocent people killed.”
From high school to politics
Harris picked Walz as her running mate in the 2024 presidential election, citing his history across a range of experiences in advocating for working families.
Walz, who grew up in the small town of West Point, Neb., was a social studies teacher and high school football coach before he got into politics. He also served in the U.S. national guard for 24 years.
Walz flipped a Republican seat in rural Minnesota in 2006 to represent the state in U.S. Congress. He was viewed as a moderate Democrat who supported gun rights and was elected to the House of Representatives six times before leaving to run for governor in 2018.
During that campaign, Walz got a warm welcome from Democratic voters due to his folksy charm, and his attack line against Trump and his running mate, JD Vance — “These guys are just weird” — spread widely. But he drew mixed reviews for his lone debate against Vance.
Defends Somali community from Trump attacks
Through nearly two terms as governor, Walz navigated a closely divided legislature. In his first term, he served alongside a Democratic-led House and Republican-controlled Senate that resisted his proposals to use higher taxes to boost money for schools, health care and roads. But he helped broker compromises.
After the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer in 2020, Walz pleaded for calm but also stood out as a white political leader who expressed empathy toward Black Americans and their experiences with police violence.
In his second term, Walz worked with Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers to chart a more liberal course in state government, aided by a huge budget surplus.
Minnesota eliminated nearly all of the state abortion restrictions enacted in the past by Republicans, protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth and legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Walz and his fellow Democrats also enacted free school meals for all students and a paid family and medical leave program that went live on Jan. 1.
But he has been plagued by a $300-million US pandemic food fraud scheme revolving around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted.
Most of those defendants were Somali American, but Walz and other Democrats have criticized Trump and his allies for statements that appeared to blame the entire diaspora for actions committed by just dozens of people.
An immigration crackdown in Minnesota is being met by organized opposition from people who are angry about U.S. Donald Trump’s anti-Somali tirades. For The National, CBC’s Katie Nicholson goes to Minneapolis and finds a community coming together to try and protect its neighbours.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to about 84, 000 residents of Somali descent, and the Trump administration’s efforts to deport unauthorized American residents have included operations in the state.
Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin, another Minnesotan, said Monday that Walz “entered public life for the right reasons and never lost sight of them.”
At the Republican Governors Association, spokesperson Courtney Alexander blasted Walz for “failed leadership” and argued that the eventual Democratic nominee “will need to defend years of mismanagement and misplaced priorities.”
Around a dozen Republicans are already running in the party’s primary to determine a gubernatorial candidate. The list includes a number of current and former state legislators, as well as MyPillow founder and chief executive Mike Lindell, a 2020 election denier who is close to Trump.
A total of 36 states hold gubernatorial elections in 2026, a midterm election year.
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