Sen. Amy Klobuchar prepares to run for Minnesota governor
By Jeff Zeleny, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota filed paperwork on Thursday to form a campaign committee to run for governor of her home state, which has become an epicenter of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“This is a preliminary step necessary for any candidate considering a run,” a person close to Klobuchar told CNN. “The senator will make an announcement of her plans in the coming days.”
Her impending decision comes after Gov. Tim Walz abruptly abandoned his reelection bid in the wake of a deepening federal probe into a sweeping welfare fraud scandal in the state, which the Trump administration has seized upon. The politics of the state have been dramatically upended since then, after an ICE agent killed a Minneapolis woman and protests have flared for days as thousands of federal agents have descended.
Klobuchar, 65, has long been seen as one of Minnesota’s most popular leaders in one election after another. She could face one of her biggest political tests yet as her state takes center stage in the midterm election fight and a battle over immigration policy in America.
“Minnesota is right now the center of America’s heartbreak,” Klobuchar told CNN as she reached a final decision over whether to leave Washington after nearly two decades and run for governor.
The role of Minnesota’s governor – already a challenge, given the fraud investigation and fraught politics of immigration – now includes even more layers of difficulty in the wake of the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three. The Department of Justice has also opened an investigation into at least five Democratic officials in the state, including Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Klobuchar has been sharply critical of the Trump administration’s actions as being partisan and has called on the Justice Department to work with Minnesota officials to investigate the fatal shooting. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Klobuchar said: “It is critical there be a thorough, objective and impartial investigation.”
She is not expected to immediately resign her Senate seat
With more than four years remaining in her fourth Senate term, Klobuchar is not expected to immediately resign her seat as she embarks on a race for governor. She will join Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama in running for governor in their respective states while serving in the Senate.
If she wins in November, Klobuchar could resign and allow Walz to appoint her successor, aides say, or choose her own replacement after being sworn in as governor in early January 2027. If she loses, she could return to her Senate seat.
Klobuchar, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has long been a high-profile fixture in Washington. Known for her sharp questioning of Supreme Court nominees and other witnesses in the Judiciary Committee and a wide-ranging interest in foreign policy and technology, Klobuchar embraced the spotlight of Capitol Hill.
She was chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee on Jan. 6, 2021, overseeing the electoral certification when the Capitol was violently attacked. She later spearheaded a bipartisan measure called the Electoral Count Reform Act, designed to make challenging the outcome of federal elections more difficult.
Yet Klobuchar also has acknowledged her frustrations with Democrats out of power in the Senate, along with the deepening partisan divide and lack of productivity across Congress.
As she decided whether to stay in Washington or returning to Minnesota, friends say, she has often talked about the appeal of serving as chief executive who can more easily get things done. She has not entirely ruled out running for president again, but aides acknowledge it would be more difficult since she would be in the first year of her term as governor.
“I love my job,” Klobuchar told CNN as she worked through her decision whether to leave the Senate. “I love my state.”
She would likely clear the Democratic field for governor, party strategists say. It’s an open question whether any of the 10 Republicans exploring candidacies will reconsider their bids or consolidate around some of the stronger contenders in the party.
Klobuchar, who previously served as Hennepin County Attorney in Minneapolis, won her first statewide Senate race in 2006 with 58% of the vote. In her four Senate campaigns, she notched a string of blowout victories. The closest challenge Klobuchar faced was in 2024 when she won by 16 points.
Fraud scandal and immigration crackdown upend the state’s politics
But a fresh spotlight on Minnesota has upended politics in the state, leading Walz to drop his bid for a third term to focus on the intensifying fraud scandal. A surge of federal immigration agents to the state has also heightened tensions.
Walz is not accused of any wrongdoing, but faces sharp criticism for failing to respond more swiftly to charges of theft from programs intended to feed children during the pandemic. More than 90 people have been charged, many of whom are of Somali descent.
It’s an open question whether the searing criticism from Trump and his allies will stop with Walz or continue into the campaign for governor, where several Republican candidates have already expressed an interest in running. Minnesota also has a competitive Senate race to fill the seat of retiring Sen. Tina Smith and a handful of potentially competitive House contests.
“I caution Minnesotans: This is going to get worse before it gets better,” Walz recently told reporters. “This is because Donald Trump is in trouble.”
One day after Walz made those remarks, the shooting escalated the long-running feud between Trump and Minnesota.
The Trump administration has announced plans to freeze $10 billion for social service programs and child-care funding in Minnesota and four other Democratic-led states. The Department of Homeland Security also launched an aggressive immigration crackdown in the state, sending 2,000 agents to Minnesota, as well as an audit of all federal dollars earmarked for social services.
Federal prosecutors have documented hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud in state programs, including housing and meals programs and state autism services. Those prosecutors predict the total amount could reach the billions, a figure Walz has questioned.
The scandal presents a challenge – and an opportunity – for Klobuchar as she prepares to enter the governor’s race in 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. And the number of voters casting split tickets has fallen dramatically, a sign that party strategists say is a change in the bipartisan nature of the state.
In 2024, only 12 counties across Minnesota saw the majority of their voters cast split-ticket ballots for president and US Senate, according to a Minnesota Star Tribune analysis, which was down from 57 counties in 2012.
Still in the last general election, Klobuchar won 1,792,441 votes, which was 135,462 more than Kamala Harris and 273,409 more than Trump.
Klobuchar has long presented herself as a pragmatist who can win over moderates and liberals alike. It was a hallmark theme of her presidential campaign, where she fell short of winning the nomination, but managed to elevate her political standing.
“Who do you want heading that ticket? Someone who can really win in the Midwest,” Klobuchar told CNN in a 2019 interview. “I’m the only one with the track record of actually winning red Congressional districts time and time again and suburban purple districts.”
The-CNN-Wire
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