Walz got his start in Mankato. Here’s how his Minnesota hometown is reacting to his decision not to run

MANKATO – It was 20 years ago when Tim Walz first ran for public office in Mankato.

Walz, then a high school geography teacher, built a coalition stretching from Mankato across southern Minnesota to defeat then-U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, a Republican, in the November 2006 election.

For the first time since then, Walz’s name won’t be on the local ballot come the 2026 election. Mankato residents, former students and those who know Walz had mixed reactions to his announcement Jan. 5 that he wouldn’t run for a third term as Minnesota’s governor.

“In politics you don’t get much of a choice about when you want to leave,” said Blake Frink, one of about 25 former students of Walz who backed him during the 2024 vice presidential campaign. “Unfortunately, he stayed in long enough to become a villain for some people.”

Walz had strong support in his politically purple home district early in his congressional career, winning with as much as 62.5% of the vote in 2008.

But that support slipped over time; In 2022, he won 52% of the gubernatorial vote in Blue Earth County, where Mankato is the county seat, and he and Kamala Harris lost the county to Donald Trump by a percentage point in 2024.

For Eric Anderson, a conservative who served as Mankato’s mayor from 2010 to 2018, the manner in which Walz’s appeal slipped reflects how his image has shifted over the years.

But over time, moderates and farmers in the district began to see Walz and the DFL as pivoting away from them to become a party focused on the metro, Anderson said.

“Ultimately, he chose to become an progressive icon,” Anderson said.

Moderates kept waiting for that early centrist Walz to re-emerge, but he never did, Anderson said.

Since Walz left Minnesota’s First District seat open when he pivoted to run for governor in 2018, the congressional seat has been held by a Republican.

Former state Rep. Clark Johnson, DFL-North Mankato, said Jan. 5 he was proud of the way Walz set aside politics to concentrate on tackling ongoing issues across the state.

Johnson said he hopes Walz is prepared for this year’s legislative session, ready to help shepherd a bonding bill for public infrastructure among other things. As for who will replace the governor, Johnson believes the DFL has a number of qualified candidates.

Blue Earth County Commissioner Vance Stuehrenberg said he considers Walz a friend; his kids had Walz as a teacher in high school before Walz had entered politics.

Stuehrenberg said he didn’t always agree with Walz’s decisions as an elected official, but he’s not sure whether Walz is doing the proper thing by giving up on a third term in the midst of ongoing political battles at the Capitol.

The commissioner hopes whoever Minnesota’s next governor is will continue to focus on rural Minnesota issues without getting mired in political infighting.

“Whoever is chosen this next year as the governor, I think we need to have somebody that can look at both parties and not be led by one or the other,” he said.

Simon said she had watched the man who had represented her district ascend to a vice presidential nomination, but was not impressed by his performance in his debate against JD Vance.

“You saw that ‘deer in the headlights’ look, instead of having an answer ready,” Simon said of Walz. “As a Minnesotan I was embarrassed, how awful it was that we finally had another Minnesotan on the national stage and we were not represented well.”

She said Walz, in his time as representative, had not listened to the region’s business leaders, calling him someone who “talked at people.”

Former student Frink, 42, said he was disappointed to learn about the potential end of Walz’s career in politics. He described Walz as a “genuinely good person” who was destroyed by a cynical “broken system.” Now a geography teacher in the Mankato area, Frink said he voted for Walz in 2024 and was planning to vote for him for a third term.