U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar jumps into Minnesota governor’s race

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar launched her campaign for Minnesota governor on Jan. 29, seeking to protect her party’s hold on the office after Tim Walz abandoned his bid for a third term.

The senator’s announcement follows weeks of turmoil in her home state that included violent clashes between federal immigration agents and protesters, culminating in the killing of two Minnesotans who were U.S. citizens.

In a four-minute video announcing her campaign, Klobuchar said “we cannot sugarcoat 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 goodwill.”

“These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration, but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state,” she said.

Her message of unity comes as other Democrats in the U.S. are harnessing their base’s fury and positioning themselves as fighters against President Donald Trump. Democrats on the left will almost certainly push Klobuchar to adopt an aggressive posture toward the Trump administration in the coming months. Balancing that demand with her bipartisan reputation will be an early test.

The entrance of Klobuchar fundamentally reorients the governor’s race. Instead of facing a wounded second-term incumbent in Walz, Republicans are now bracing for a likely battle against the DFL’s most popular statewide politician. Klobuchar has won each of her Senate elections by double-digit margins and developed a reputation in Washington as a competent and ideologically moderate senator.

“Don’t drop out all at once Republicans,” state Rep. Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, quipped on social media.

Despite the red wave that year, Klobuchar had one of the strongest performances among Democratic Senate candidates across the country. She was one of the top two who outperformed then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, behind former Montana Sen. Jon Tester.

Klobuchar’s record could blunt some of the GOP’s usual lines of attack. The field of about a dozen Republicans running for governor are trying to make the 2026 election a referendum on the snowballing fraud crisis in the state’s social services programs. But tying that problem to Klobuchar, a federal lawmaker, could prove difficult.

Even so, Republicans are making the case that a Klobuchar governorship would be more of the same.

“Amy Klobuchar is Tim Walz 2.0 — a career politician who stood silently as the largest case of fraud in American history unfolded, watched Minneapolis burn to the ground and become infested with crime, and helped facilitate the decline of our great state during her two decades in the U.S. Senate," Kendall Qualls, a businessman and GOP candidate for governor, said in a statement after her announcement.

The political fallout of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign has put Republicans in Minnesota on their heels, but party leaders remain confident that fraud will continue to be a top issue heading into November.

The senator touted that experience in her announcement.

“I don’t like fraud or waste in government. That’s why I went after crime as county attorney. I will make sure the people who steal taxpayer money go to jail and root out the fraud by changing the way state government works,” Klobuchar said.

But Klobuchar’s immediate focus is trying to get the federal government to remove Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from Minnesota.

In the midst of the immigration crackdown, Klobuchar is pushing back on funding for the Department of Homeland Security ahead of a possible partial government shutdown on Jan. 30. She’s also meeting with local leaders and police chiefs about ICE enforcement in their communities and has reached out to Trump’s Chief of Staff Susie Wiles about the administration’s immigration crackdown.

No other prominent Democrats have stepped up to run for the seat, likely giving Klobuchar a clear path to the DFL nomination.

Klobuchar emerged as an early favorite among Democratic donors and lawmakers shortly after Walz exited the race.

She became Minnesota’s first woman elected to the U.S. Senate when she won the seat in 2006 against Republican Mark Kennedy. She won a fourth term in the U.S. Senate in 2024, which ends in January 2031. If she wins, she will become Minnesota’s first female governor.

Klobuchar can remain in her Senate seat during her gubernatorial run but would leave if she wins in November, creating another opening in the U.S. Senate.

She could potentially appoint her U.S. Senate replacement as governor, depending on whether Walz does it before his second term is up in January. If she were to lose the governor’s race, Klobuchar would be able to remain in the U.S. Senate.

Klobuchar is expected to face whoever prevails in a crowded Republican field, which includes Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, businessman Kendall Qualls, 2022 nominee Scott Jensen and state Rep. Kristin Robbins.

But she would likely face a crowded field of Democrats in 2028 if she ran for president, and it could take years for some Senate leadership positions to open up.

Last summer, as Walz was undecided on whether he would run for a third term, many Minnesota Democrats believed Klobuchar would step up if he decided not to seek re-election.

Walz announced he would seek a third term in September but dropped out after the holidays as criticism grew over the fraud crisis. He invited Klobuchar to the governor’s residence, and they discussed the possibility of her running in his place.

Klobuchar’s response gave Walz the confidence to announce the next day he would abandon the race, according to people familiar with their conversation.

“I like my job in the Senate. But I love our state more than any job,” Klobuchar said in her campaign ad.