Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has officially dropped his re-election bid.
In a statement posted to X, the governor wrote:
Minnesota has to come first – always.
Today, I’m proud of the work we’ve done to make Minnesota the best place to live and raise kids.
I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work.
He also shared a four-page statement where he attacked the president and the Republican Party.
Like many Minnesotans, I was glad to turn the page on 2025. It was an extraordinarily difficult year for our state. And it ended on a particularly sour note.
For the last several years, an organized group of criminals have sought to take advantage of our state’s generosity. And even as we make progress in the fight against the fraudsters, we now see an organized group of political actors seeking to take advantage of the crisis.
I won’t mince words here. Donald Trump and his allies—in Washington, in Saint Paul, and online — want to make our state a colder, meaner place. They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They’ve already begun by taking our tax dollars that were meant to help families afford child care. And they have no intention of stopping there.
Walz then claimed that the Minnesota government has looked into the cases of fraud.
Make no mistake: We should be concerned about fraud in our state government. We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can’t earn the public’s trust. That’s why, over the past few years, we’ve made systemic changes to the way we do business.
“We’ve gone to the legislature time and again to get more tools to combat fraud. We’ve fired people who weren’t doing their jobs. We’ve seen people go to jail for stealing from our state. We’ve cut off whole streams of funding, in partnerships with the federal government, where we saw widespread criminal activity. We’ve put new locks on the doors of our remaining programs, and we’ve hired a new head of program integrity to make sure those locks can’t be broken.
He later explained how he decided to rethink running for governorship a third time over the holiday season.
Minnesota has to come first – always.
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) January 5, 2026
Today, I’m proud of the work we’ve done to make Minnesota the best place to live and raise kids.
I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work. pic.twitter.com/AYbvcOzyPI
But as I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all. Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences.
So I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work.
Walz stated that he was “passing on the race with zero sadness and zero regret.”
Abby Trivett is a writer and editor for Charisma Media and has a passion for sharing the gospel through the written word. She holds two degrees from Regent University, a B.A. in Communication with a concentration in Journalism and a Master of Arts in Journalism. She is the author of the upcoming book, The Power of Suddenly: Discover How God Can Change Everything in a Moment.
