Will Amy Klobuchar run for Minnesota governor? ‘I’m seriously considering it,’ she says

(CNN) — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Tuesday that she was actively weighing a bid for governor, a day after Gov. Tim Walz abandoned his re-election campaign as a welfare-fraud scandal in his state complicated his path to a third term.

“I love my job, I love my state and I’m seriously considering it,” Klobuchar told CNN in a brief interview as she walked onto the Senate floor for an afternoon vote.

The announcement from Walz – capping a remarkable fall 16 months after he was tapped to become the Democratic vice presidential nominee – could touch off a domino-like reaction for midterm races in Minnesota. He declined Tuesday to weigh in on a successor, telling reporters: “I think we have a very deep bench.”

Klobuchar, who has served in Washington for two decades, has been “getting a lot of outreach, encouraging her to run,” a person close to her previously told CNN. She has not offered a timeline for when she will decide.

Already, the 2026 election cycle was set to scramble the Democratic hierarchy in Minnesota, with a competitive Democratic primary for the Senate seat of the retiring Tina Smith taking top billing. Two high-profile Democrats, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and US Rep. Angie Craig, are locked in what’s expected to be an expensive battle to win the party’s Senate nomination in August.

Klobuchar, 65, who served as the Hennepin County Attorney in Minneapolis before running for the Senate in 2006 and seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, could be the party’s best chance to maintain control of the governor’s office.

And if she continues to harbor national ambitions, serving as the state’s chief executive in St. Paul could be a much more attractive post than a Senate seat.

A fraud scandal shakes up a competitive state

The spotlight comes as Minnesota has been emerging as one of the more politically intriguing states in the nation. It’s awash in a mix of deep-red conservatism and deep-blue liberalism, with an independent populist streak that cuts across both sides.

Minnesota could be called the reddest blue state in America, one that the Democratic presidential nominee hasn’t lost since 1972, but those wins have frequently come at close margins. President Donald Trump finished just 4.3 percentage points behind then-Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

Before he was selected by Harris to join the Democratic ticket in 2024, Walz was largely seen as a plainspoken Midwesterner who could appeal to all audiences. He emerged as a sharp attack dog, taking on Trump and his Republican allies, who happily returned fire as the social services fraud scandal deepened in Minnesota.

The eye-popping fraud — perhaps running into billions of dollars, authorities say — was hardly a secret. It came up during his vetting with Harris, a Democrat familiar with the matter said, as convictions were already piling up with the Justice Department under the Biden administration.

Some Democrats privately urged Walz not to run for reelection, fearful the federal probe could give Republicans an opening in Minnesota and beyond, but in September he announced his decision to seek a third term. If successful, he would have served longer than any governor in the state’s history.

In stepping aside, Walz is seeking to ease the scandal’s weight on Democrats up and down the ballot in a state where the legislature is divided nearly evenly. By bowing out early, the GOP also loses one of its biggest targets.

“I can’t give a political campaign my all. Every minute that I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota,” Walz said Monday.

Restoring public trust after Minnesotans are still grappling with the extent of the nation’s largest Covid-era scandals will likely be the top priority for Democratic candidates this fall. It remains an open question whether the scandal will remain at the forefront of Republican campaign efforts or be overtaken by other events.

Klobuchar’s next steps

Klobuchar has long been seen as one of the most popular political figures in the state. In her four Senate campaigns, the closest challenge Klobuchar faced came in 2024, when she trounced Republican Royce White by 16 percentage points.

Like many well-established senators from both parties, she has voiced her displeasure at the limits to what can be accomplished in the Senate during a deeply divided era.

“People behind closed doors do have cordial relationships in the Senate,” she said in a December interview with NBC. “There’s only 100 of us. Part of it is, you know, it’s one thing to work together, but then, you know, don’t go stab someone behind their back.”

Meanwhile, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz appears to have leapfrogged Klobuchar on the party’s leadership ladder, locking up support for the No. 2-ranking spot as Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin retires. Klobuchar, as chairwoman of the party’s Steering and Policy Committee, is currently the No. 3-ranking Senate Democrat.

Smith, Klobuchar’s Democratic Minnesota colleague, announced last February that she would not seek another term.

If Klobuchar opts to run for governor and is elected, she could get to appoint her successor in the Senate, unless she resigns early and afford Walz the opportunity to name a replacement.

Neither Flanagan nor Craig, the two well-known Democrats running for Smith’s seat, signaled any immediate change of plans in the wake of Walz’s decision.

“I am focused on my race for U.S. Senate to ensure people can afford the lives they want to live,” Flanagan said on social media. “We need leaders with the heart and compassion for people, and determination to take on Donald Trump and his billionaire besties.”

Craig said in a social media post that Democrats “must nominate the strongest possible candidate in every race on the ballot in November and stop Donald Trump and Republicans’ relentless attacks on Minnesotans and on who we are as a nation.”

This story and headline have been updated with new details.

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