Tim Walz says he will not run for third term as Minnesota governor | Tim Walz

Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota running for vice president in 2024, announced Monday that he is abandoning his quest for a third term.

The move comes after cases of social services fraud attracted the attention of US Republicans, including Donald Trump, who then used the cases as a pretext to attack Somali residents.

Walz said in a statement that he was not able to “give it his all in a political campaign.”

“Every minute I spend advocating for my own political interests would be a minute I cannot spend defending Minnesotans against criminals who take advantage of our generosity and cynics who take advantage of our differences,” Walz said. “So I have decided to withdraw from the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on work.”

According to reports in several media outlets, Walz spoke over the weekend with Amy Klobuchar, a U.S. senator, about the possibility of her running for governor. She has served as a U.S. senator from Minnesota since 2007 and has consistently won statewide re-election bids.

Walz announced in September that he would seek a third term as governor — an unprecedented move for the Minnesota governorship, which he has held since 2018. Before that, he served in Congress representing southern Minnesota for six terms after flipping a Republican seat.

A poll conducted last summer by the Minnesota Star Tribune and the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication before Walz announced his bid for a third term found that about half of Minnesotans didn’t think he should run again.

His campaign for the vice presidency with Kamala Harris significantly increased his profile across the country. Alongside legislative leaders, he used a 2023 government trifecta to propose a series of progressive reforms that have attracted attention from the left.

This increased visibility has also made him a target on the right. In recent weeks, Trump has lashed out at Minnesota and Walz, leading a wave of immigration enforcement agents into the state, where they have arrested U.S. citizens and apprehended hundreds, despite continued pushback from local residents. Over the weekend, Trump shared a conspiracy theory about the murders of Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark — close friends of Walz — attempting to link Walz to the killings.

The fraud cases — which included the organized theft of children’s meals, services for autistic children and housing programs — were a major handicap for Walz in his reelection bid and fueled the right to attack him and the state. Last month, a right-wing YouTuber attempted to enter several day care centers and claimed they didn’t care for children, prompting the U.S. government to freeze federal funding for the state’s child care.

In his Monday announcement, Walz said the state had made progress in combating fraud and that people were right to be concerned about fraud in government, but that there was now “an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of the crisis.”

“I won’t mince words here,” Walz said. “Donald Trump and his allies – in Washington, in St. Paul and online – want to make our state a colder, meaner place. They want to poison our citizens against each other by attacking our neighbors. And, ultimately, they want to rob us of much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They have already started by taking our tax dollars, which were intended to help families pay for child care. And they have not no intention of stopping there.”

He said that “it is my responsibility to combat and prevent fraud and that the Republicans’ ‘politics’ are making it more difficult to combat fraud.”

“I cannot stand the actions of the political leaders in Washington – these opportunists who are willing to harm our people to score a few cheap points,” he said. “They and their allies have no intention of helping us solve the problem – and fully intend to profit from it.” »

He said he believed that if he gave his best in his re-election bid, he would succeed in winning a third term. But he concluded that he couldn’t give it his all and would instead focus on the work of his office rather than running for re-election. He said he made the decision with “zero sadness and zero regrets” and was confident a Democrat would continue to serve as governor in November.

“Most of all, I want Minnesotans to know that I’m on the job, 24/7, to ensure we remain the best place in America to live and raise children. No one is going to take that away from us. Not the fraudsters. And not the president. Not on my watch.”