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Sen. Amy Klobuchar Announces Run For Minnesota Governor

WASHINGTON ― Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) officially launched her candidacy for the Minnesota governorship on Thursday, instantly becoming the front-runner for the seat being vacated by Tim Walz (D) later this year.

In her campaign announcement, which was postponed due to another fatal shooting in Minneapolis over the weekend, Klobuchar vowed to fight back against the Trump administration’s surge of federal agents deployed in her state that has sparked a national backlash against Trump’s immigration policies.

“Minnesota, we’ve been through a lot,” she said. “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.”

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Klobuchar, 65, has served in the Senate since 2007. A prominent centrist Democrat, she rose to the No. 3 position in Senate Democratic leadership and assumed high-ranking posts on the Senate Rules, Justice, and Agriculture committees. She also ran for president in the 2020 Democratic primary but struggled to gain traction. Winning a Midwestern governorship, however, could give her added appeal in the 2028 presidential campaign.

Klobuchar is joining a growing list of Senate Democrats heading for the exits this year, including her fellow Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, **** Durbin of Illinois, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Gary Peters of Michigan, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.

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She’s also the latest senator to announce a campaign for governor, including GOP Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

A second vacancy in Minnesota’s Senate delegation could be good news for Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who are vying to replace Smith after she leaves at the end of the year. The loser of the Senate primary would have a shot at being appointed to serve out the remainder of Klobuchar’s term, which ends in 2030.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nominee, announced earlier this year he would not run for reelection as planned because he would not be able to give a campaign all of his attention as he works to address the welfare fraud scandal in his state.

Almost a dozen Republicans are vying to replace Walz, including conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, the fervent supporter of President Donald Trump also known to TV viewers as the “MyPillow guy.”

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Chris Madel, an attorney and one of the GOP candidates for governor, dropped out of the race earlier this week due to the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on immigrants in Minnesota. Madel said he couldn’t support “stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”

He further called the operation, which has resulted in a number of people fatally shot by federal immigration agents, an “unmitigated disaster.”