Breaking: Tim Walz drops bid for third term as Minnesota governor amid state’s massive fraud scandal

Gov. Tim Walz dropped out of the Minnesota governor’s race Monday, less than four months after launching his re-election campaign, as his state grapples with a massive welfare fraud scandal.

Walz has faced a national firestorm after federal prosecutors said $9 billion or more in taxpayer funds may have been fraudulently paid through 14 Medicaid programs in the state.

Criticism of the state intensified after a viral video from YouTuber Nick Shirley, highlighted by top Trump administration officials and Elon Musk, alleged that Somali fraudsters were exploiting the state’s daycare assistance programs to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

Walz’s drop-out comes mere days after Republican lawmakers in the state called on Walz to resign, citing his failure to act amid the state scandal. 

“Minnesotans have been watching the fraud crisis get worse and worse for years. It has gone on long enough,” the Republicans said, noting that “red flags were everywhere,” yet the fraud kept growing. “When a governor fails to do what he is required to do, when he watches a crisis spiral out of control and does nothing to stop it, that is nonfeasance. The governor had a duty to oversee his administration and protect these programs. He failed. There needs to be consequences.”  

Walz cited the mounting pressure over the fraud and accused Republicans of taking political advantage of the crisis in a statement announcing his drop out. 

“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,” Walz said Monday ahead of a press conference. “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 maintained that he believes he could have succeeded in his re-election effort had he stayed in the race and given it his “all.” 

President Donald Trump, when asked about the fraud scandal on Sunday aboard Air Force One, minced no words when speaking of Walz.  

“He’s a corrupt politician and the Somalis are ripping off our country to the tune of, it looks like $19 billion, but that’s only what they can find,” Trump said. “The numbers are astronomical.”  

The White House has said the Trump administration is “unleashing a relentless assault to dismantle the massive fraud empires built in Minnesota under the watch of incompetent Democrats like Tim Walz and his Radical Left enablers.” These actions include charging 98 defendants in the fraud-related cases so far, 85 of whom are of Somali descent, as well as conducting Homeland Security investigations on the ground.  

With Walz’s departure from the campaign trail, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar is considering entering the race, per the New York Times. The Minnesota gubernatorial race has attracted a number of Republican candidates, including House Speaker Lisa Demuth and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.