Current Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced on Monday that he is ending his third-term reelection bid.
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In a statement released by his office, Walz shared, “In September, I announced that I would run for a historic third term as Minnesota’s Governor. And I have every confidence that, if I gave it my all, I would succeed in that effort. But as I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all.”
He pointed out, “Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences. So I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work.”
Tim Walz’s decision to drop out of the 2026 Minnesota Governor’s race comes amid the welfare-fraud scandal within the state. Although he has not been accused of wrongdoing, Republicans have accused Walz and Democrats of being part of the scandal.
President Trump previously used the R-slur to demean the Democratic politician’s intelligence amid a rant about the scandal.
“The seriously r—ed Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both,” Trump wrote.
The world leader later doubled down on his decision to use the R-slur, stating, “Yeah, there’s something wrong with Walz.”
Tim Walz Personally Addressed the Scandal While Announcing His Decision to Drop Out of the Minnesota Governor’s Race
Walz further addressed the scandal in a personal statement about his decision not to seek a third term as Minnesota governor.
“Make no mistake,” he wrote. “We should be concerned about fraud in our state government. We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can’t earn the public’s trust. That’s why, over the past few years, we’ve made system changes to the way we do business.”
Walz then noted that his administration has gone to the state’s legislature time and again to get more tools to combat fraud. “We’ve fired people who weren’t doing their jobs,” he confirmed. “We’ve seen people go to jail for stealing from our state.”
The two-term Minnesota governor further shared, “We’ve cut off whole streams of funding, in partnership with the federal government, where we saw widespread criminal activity. We’ve put new locks on the doors of our remaining programs, a nd we’ve hired a new head of program integrity to make sure those locks can’t be broken.”
Walz went on to accuse President Trump of using the scandal to demonize the state’s Somali community and of wrongfully confiscating childcare funding for the state. He called the world leader’s actions “disgusting” and “dangerous.”
“Republicans are playing politics with the future of our state. And it’s shameful,” Walz added. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: We welcome ideas from anyone, in any party, who wants to help us continue to stay ahead of the criminals. And we welcome the involvement of the federal government.”