MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stated Tuesday he’ll search a 3rd time period within the 2026 elections, hoping to beat the percentages to develop into the longest-serving governor in a state the place voters have often stated two phrases had been a lot.
In a marketing campaign video posted on YouTube, Walz stated he’s operating as a result of his work isn’t performed and he desires to make Minnesota a spot the place everybody has an opportunity succeed.
“I’ve seen how we help each other through the hard times,” he stated. “And boy, we’ve seen terrible times this year. I’m heartbroken and angry about the beautiful people we lost to gun violence. But it’s in these moments we have to come together. We can’t lose hope because I’ve seen what we can do when we work together.”
Vice President Kamala Harris picked Walz as her operating mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket after his assault line towards former President Donald Trump and his operating mate, then-Ohio Sen. JD Vance — “These guys are just weird” — unfold broadly.
SAUL LOEB through Getty Photographs
Walz had been build up his nationwide profile since their defeat in November. He’s been a pointy critic of Trump as he’s toured early caucus and first states. In Might, he referred to as on Democrats in South Carolina to face as much as Trump, saying, “Maybe it’s time for us to be a little meaner.”
The governor got here beneath heavy GOP criticism after a Minnesota speech in Might when he in contrast Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers beneath Trump to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. Congressional Republicans referred to as him out at a listening to on immigration in June, however he refused to apologize.
Walz, 61, can be ceaselessly talked about as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, however in an interview with Axios in July, he stated he wouldn’t make a White Home bid if he sought reelection.
Walz stated in February that he wouldn’t run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tina Smith as a result of he was extra considering staying governor. Whereas his gubernatorial marketing campaign was actively elevating cash, he held off on making it official, hoping to first get previous this 12 months’s common and particular classes of the Legislature.
However inside days after ending that work, his shut political ally, former Minnesota Home Speaker Melissa Hortman, was assassinated by a person posing as a police officer. Walz delivered a eulogy at her funeral. Trump refused to name Walz to supply condolences, saying it will have been a waste of time.
Walz’s run for the vice presidency launched the former highschool instructor with a “Midwest Dad” picture to a wider, nationwide viewers. Nevertheless it additionally introduced new scrutiny of his report as governor and as a congressman earlier than that, and his tendency to decorate or exaggerate particulars and mangle his phrases.
He proudly touted the accomplishments of the 2023 legislative session, when Democrats used their full management to enact a sweeping platform of liberal priorities, together with free college meals for all college students, and expanded protections for abortion and transgender rights.
However he additionally confronted renewed criticism from the correct for his dealing with of the unrest that adopted the homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, a $250 million pandemic meals assist fraud case and his army report with the Minnesota Nationwide Guard. Critics stated he exaggerated his rank and faulted him for leaving the army to run for Congress earlier than his unit deployed to Iraq.
Walz was first elected in 2018 by over 11 share factors and by practically 8 factors in 2022. However no Minnesota governor has gained a third consecutive time period because the state switched to four-year phrases in 1963.
No Minnesota Republican has gained a statewide race since Tim Pawlenty was reelected to a second time period as governor in 2006. Nonetheless, the historically Democratic state has develop into more and more aggressive in recent times. A few GOP candidates got here near successful statewide races in 2022 and the state Home was tied between Republicans and Democrats for the 2025 session.
On the Republican facet of the governor’s race, former enterprise government and Military veteran Kendall Qualls introduced his candidacy in Might and hopes to develop into Minnesota’s first Black governor. Qualls additionally ran in 2022 however misplaced the GOP endorsement to household doctor and former state senator Scott Jensen, who introduced in July that he’s operating once more.
The one present GOP office-holder within the race to this point is state Rep. Kristin Robbins, of Maple Grove, who chairs a Home committee shaped this 12 months to research fraud in authorities packages. She introduced her candidacy Aug. 20.
