Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday he will run for an unprecedented third four-year term.
While the move was not unexpected, making it official ended months of will-he-or-won’t-he uncertainty. As recently as late August he was still on the fence. If elected he would be the first governor in state history to make it past two four-year terms.
“We’ve made historic progress in our state, but we’re not done yet,” Walz said in a video on his social media channels announcing his candidacy. “And that’s why I’m running for reelection. I want to make Minnesota a place where everyone has a chance to succeed — in every corner of the state.”
He prefaced that with a rundown of his administration’s accomplishments and played up the bipartisan cooperation it took to balance the budget. “I’m staying in the fight — and I need you with me,” he said on X.
Walz’s announcement in effect assured he would not plan a presidential run. He ran alongside Kamala Harris in their 2024 White House bid, when they narrowly lost the popular vote to Trump and JD Vance but were trounced in the electoral college tally.
Republicans are likely to highlight a $250 million fraud scandal involving public funds meant to provide food for children, which they contend Walz’s administration should have caught earlier, as well as other perceived failures.
Walz has fielded a number of crises since first being elected in 2018, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
This year has seen the assassination in June of Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband by a gunman who also killed their dog and severely wounded another lawmaker and his wife. Earlier this month, another shooter attacked Annunciation Catholic Church and School during a Mass filled with schoolchildren, killing two and wounding 21.
“I’ve seen how we help each other through the hard times,” Walz said. “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.”
With News Wire Services
