Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic US senator and one-time presidential candidate, announced she will run for governor of Minnesota, an expected move after the incumbent governor, Tim Walz, dropped out of the race in early January.
“Minnesota, we’ve been through a lot,” Klobuchar said in a video posted on X on Thursday morning, calling out political violence across the state including the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
She continued: “We cannot sugar coat how hard this is, but in these moments of enormous difficulty, we find strength in our Minnesota values of hard work, freedom and simple decency and good will. These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration.”
She also emphasized: “I’m running for every one … for every Minnesotan who wants ICE and its abusive tactics out of the state we love.”
Walz ended his run for a third term after an ongoing fraud scandal in public programs served as an underpinning for the Trump administration to send to the Minneapolis area thousands of federal agents, whose numbers have surged in the state since early December.
Klobuchar, 65, filed initial paperwork on 22 January, setting up a run for the governorship. Walz reportedly talked to Klobuchar about her running before he announced he would not continue his bid for a third term.
Klobuchar has won handily each time she has run for the US Senate, most recently in 2024, when she won by more than 15 points.
She has served in the Senate since 2007 and before that served two terms as the Hennepin county attorney. She ran in the Democratic primary for president in 2020 before dropping out and endorsing Joe Biden.
The fraud cases – which include misuse of funds for meal programs for students, Medicaid and autism services – will probably be a focus of the governor’s race. There’s a crowded field of candidates on the right, including the state House speaker, rightwing influencers and pillow salesman Mike Lindell.
