Worry among DFLers over Gov. Tim Walz’s candidacy for an unprecedented third consecutive term has gone from whispers to persistent chatter. The level of angst hasn’t yet reached the intensity provoked by President Biden’s candidacy after his dismal 2024 debate with Donald Trump, but concern is growing.
DFL anxiety ratcheted up several notches in recent days when Minnesota’s fraud scandals became national news and included unsubstantiated allegations that some of the stolen public funds have gone to finance the terrorist organization Al-Shabaab. President Donald Trump, increasingly eager to deflect from his own mountain of bad news, lashed out at Walz, Minnesota and the Somali community in especially strident and offensive language.
The scope of fraud under Walz’s watch is serious, having reached several hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen taxpayer funds. Adding to public outrage is the sheer audacity of the perpetrators and what seems to be willful blindness by government managers to what was happening in plain sight. A housing program, for example, was launched in 2020 with an annual cost projected to be $2.6 million. Within four years, annual costs soared past $100 million. How is it that one program grows to 40 times initial cost estimates before anyone either questions the competency of those making the original budget projections or raises suspicions of fraud?
Through all this, Walz often has seemed disengaged, and sometimes even dismissive of the fraud. “The programs are set up to improve people’s lives, and in many cases, the criminals find the loopholes,” Walz told the New York Times, almost suggesting rampant theft is just a fact of life in government programs.
Minnesota voters deserve clarity and detail from Walz on at least three points:
- An acknowledgment of his own responsibility for allowing one program after another to be exploited by thieves.
- A plan to pursue everyone accountable for the fraud that has occurred and to assure that every tax dollar spent from now on goes only for the intended purposes.
- A vision for the future that goes beyond ending fraud or being a national attack dog biting Trump’s ankles.
Walz remains a formidable candidate with the advantages of incumbency and significant campaign resources. He is a likable, decent person, and those qualities go a long way with voters. Even so, if the election turns only on fraud, Walz’s third term is in jeopardy. Walz needs to give voters confidence that he and his team finally are on top of the fraud issues and compelling and convincing reasons why he is the candidate best able to lead Minnesota in a time of economic and social challenges.
Put simply, Walz needs to answer the most fundamental question asked of all candidates: Why are you running? Right now, Walz seems mostly to want a third term to keep a national perch from which he can criticize Trump.
There is much that needs to be done and great things that could be done to bolster Minnesota’s prosperity. But the state can neither coast on the achievements of the past nor can the governor and legislators spend their way to success. The nearly 40% budget increase in 2023-24 when Walz and the DFL ran the show is unsustainable.
The state’s latest economic forecast has brightened a bit with a projected surplus of about $2.5 billion in the current budget. Still, a $3 billion shortfall is forecast for the next two-year cycle when the governor elected in 2026 begins his or her new term. Reform and innovation, not more spending, must be the bywords for the agenda of whomever is elected next November. The next governor must lead with smart public policies, partnerships with the private sector and effective investments in an educated, healthy and safely-housed workforce.
Walz needs to speak directly to people like the talented millennial generation professional who told me about the choice he and his wife – also a much-in-demand executive – faced. If they wanted to raise a family, Minnesota would be their home. But if they wanted to leverage their many talents into leadership in the most exciting professions, other states offered far better opportunities. Fortunately for Minnesota, family came first.
Many other young people are making the other decision. The greatest out-migration challenge Minnesota faces isn’t the retired wealthy moving to Florida. It’s the departure of young, talented people. Minnesota now is a net exporter of college students, one of only 16 states in this predicament. These soon-to-be-educated people leave and many never return. Keeping these young people in Minnesota may be the single greatest challenge the state faces, and the status quo won’t do it.
Trump will continue to promote abysmal policies and make outrageous and offensive statements. Walz should leave it to others, including the state’s congressional delegation, to hold the President accountable. Minnesota needs a governor invested in making the state stronger, not in making the Trump Administration weaker.
The Republican field for governor is crowded in numbers, but empty in policies. They all stand four-square against fraud. Beyond that, they have offered little that is new or innovative. Independence-Forward Party gubernatorial candidate Mike Newcome is a fresh voice challenging the status quo but has to gain the belief of voters that he can win, the uphill battle of all third-party candidates.
The winner of next year’s gubernatorial race needs to begin the new term with a clear mandate for action that goes beyond ending fraud or calling out Trump’s assault on the country. Otherwise, the next four years will be nothing but running in place at best, a downward spiral at worst. And if that is the future, by the time the 2030 gubernatorial election rolls around, Trump will be gone, but so will many Minnesota taxpayers who have funded the programs fraudsters have found so attractive.
Actually I think he is the best choice we have to stave off a republican. The fraud… why does he owe an apology? The fraud was perpetrated by a Somali gang of thieves, that found the loopholes in our laws to exploit them to enrich themselves. How is that Governor Walz’s fault? The fault lies with the legislative body for not putting guardrails in place to stop it. That’s where this needs to be fixed. Our Governor has stopped the programs, that were-defrauded, and the US attorney is doing a great job finding culprits and arresting and charging them. Granted he is the executive of the state and the buck stops with him, which it has. But to question him and his motives, and demand an apology … come on.
No – it’s the Executive Branch’s responsibility to put anti-fraud measures in place. I voted for Walz three times, but this happened, over years, in his administration. He ought to take responsibility for it.
He owes an apology for taking years before taking action to address the worst fraud in the history of the state. He took it far too lightly, this egregious theft of taxpayer money. Being picked as VP for Harris’ unsuccessful presidential bid went to his head, and his ego blew up like a hot air balloon in Texas. His assumption that he can just sail into a third term without accountability for his second term is both unwarranted and arrogant. I never would have thought that I would use the word ‘arrogant’ to describe Tim Walz, but these are strange times, indeed.
Stick a fork on him he’s done. I voted for Walz two times and think he’s a decent man. The growing fraud is on his watch. He’s in charge. There is no way this guy should get a 3rd term. Own your [redacted] and bow out. He likes the circus of national politics and it appears he loves the limelight more than running the state. Our state is becoming way to progressive for me and after being born and raised here I’m think of leaving too.
Sad !
I’ve been worrying about this from a position well to the left of Mr. Horner and I agree that because of the fraud problem and for some other reasons, a 3rd term for Walz is a bad idea and may end up giving us a right wing Republican governor who is much worse. (I voted for Walz three times, counting 2024.)
A possibility might be to get Angie Craig to drop her Senate campaign and run for Governor. I have no idea if she would go for that, but the prospect of a bruising primary between Craig and Flanagan is not an attractive one. I prefer Flanagan for Senate because she is independent of corporate money and we need a strong progressive to fight Trumpism in the Senate. Craig is to my right but I think she will do all right outstate and we need greater competency at the state level.
Just a thought.
Woods Halley
Craig (my Rep) knows her way around Congress. She’ll be great in the Senate. I’d like Flanagan to run for Governor. She has state legislative, nonprofit, and now eight years of executive-branch experience. And I don’t think she would be seeking national spotlights; I think she’d concentrate on Minnesota
Second on Angie Craig for Governor.
This is what happens when you vote for centrist DFLers. They don’t know how to govern and then don’t know when to step aside.