Sen. Amy Klobuchar launches bid for Minnesota governor: ‘We cannot sugarcoat how hard this is’

By Jeff Zeleny, CNN

(CNN) — Sen. Amy Klobuchar launched a Democratic bid for governor on Thursday, pledging to unify her state and move beyond a deadly battle with the federal government over immigration.

“These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration,” Klobuchar said in an announcement video. “But who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state.”

Klobuchar, who has served in Washington for two decades, is seeking to govern Minnesota during an extraordinarily fraught moment. The state has become the epicenter of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has sparked waves of outrage and protest from residents, particularly after two fatal shootings of protesters by federal agents.

“We cannot sugarcoat how hard this is,” she said, “but in these moments of enormous difficulty, we find strength in our Minnesota values of hard work, freedom, and simple decency and good will.”

Her formal entry into the race comes after Gov. Tim Walz ended his reelection bid in the wake of a deepening federal investigation into widespread fraud of social service programs in Minnesota. Nearly a dozen Republicans were running for governor in hopes of challenging Walz, though one candidate left the race to protest what he called “retribution on the citizens of our state,” two days after a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

Minnesota is now on the front lines of a searing debate over the politics of immigration enforcement and the exertion of federal power, emerging as a national test for whether the actions of President Donald Trump’s administration are seen as overreach or justified.

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 in seeking to unify a state entwined in a fierce battle over immigration policy during a critical midterm election, with a race for governor, Senate and competitive House seats on the ballot in Minnesota.

In a four-minute campaign video, Klobuchar did not explicitly mention Trump by name or the broader immigration challenges facing the state, but she denounced the “3,000 ICE agents on our streets and in our towns, sent by an Administration that relishes division.”

“I’m asking Minnesotans across this state to not look down, to not look away,” Klobuchar said. “I’m asking you to look to each other.”

As she debated whether to stay in the Senate or run for governor, friends say, she often talked about the appeal of serving as a chief executive without the limitations of a dysfunctional Congress.

She joins a long list of lawmakers from both parties who are retiring or seeking an office away from Washington, though she is not planning to resign as she embarks on her campaign. If she wins in November, Klobuchar could resign and allow Walz to appoint her successor or choose her own replacement after being sworn in as governor. If she loses, she could return to the final four years of her Senate term.

‘Center of America’s heartbreak’

The politics of the state have been scrambled since Walz stepped away from his reelection bid on January 5. Two days later, an ICE agent killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman.

Klobuchar began considering jumping into the governor’s race long before unrest rocked Minnesota in the wake of Good’s death and intensified after Pretti was killed. As she weighed a campaign, she told CNN: “Minnesota is right now the center of America’s heartbreak.”

She is expected to largely clear the Democratic field, party strategists say, even though some progressive leaders have not ruled out recruiting a candidate to challenge her in the primary.

Klobuchar, who previously served as Hennepin County Attorney in Minneapolis, won her first US Senate race in 2006 with 58% of the vote. In her four Senate contests, she built a moderate record and notched a string of blowout victories. The closest challenge came in 2024, when she still won by 16 points.

Klobuchar’s ability to reach voters across the political spectrum will be tested anew in this highly polarized moment. Yet 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.

“I’m asking Democrats, Independents, and Republicans to join our campaign,” Klobuchar said in her announcement video. “It is a home grown one, born in a moment like no other. It is for people who believe in something bigger than ourselves.”

While Klobuchar has not entirely ruled out running for president again, as she did in 2020, aides acknowledge it would be difficult to enter the 2028 Democratic primary because she would have to launch a campaign during the first year of her term as governor if she wins her race.

In the race for Minnesota governor, a crowded GOP field is already engaged in a competitive primary including Lisa Demuth, the speaker of the Minnesota House and highest-ranking Republican in the state. Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and a right-wing conspiracy theorist, is also running.

No Republican has won a statewide election in Minnesota since 2006, a point that Chris Madel, the Minneapolis lawyer who dropped his gubernatorial bid in protest of the federal immigration crackdown cited in his critique of the national GOP.

“National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,” Madel said.

‘Get ICE out of Minnesota’

Klobuchar, the state’s senior senator, has urged the Trump administration to reconsider its focus on Minnesota, which has been the site for what officials have called the largest immigration enforcement action in the nation’s history that unfolded as Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, was killed January 24 while protesting federal agents.

“Donald Trump and all your lieutenants who ordered this ICE surge: watch the horrific video of the killing today. The world is watching,” Klobuchar said in a social media post after Pretti’s death. “Get ICE out of Minnesota NOW.”

Some progressives are calling for the abolishment of ICE and other Democrats like Klobuchar have advocated a more nuanced approach, even as many Republicans blame local Democratic officials for encouraging protestors to confront federal immigration agents.

The White House has signaled a retreat from some of its hardline positions on the Minnesota immigration operation, mindful of being on the wrong side of public opinion with what advisers acknowledge Americans are viewing with their own eyes. The reckoning could be litigated, at least in part, at the ballot box.

Fraud investigation looms large

When Walz dropped his reelection bid, he said he did not want to be a distraction amid that deepening fraud probe in the state from social service programs intended to feed children during the pandemic. He is not accused of wrongdoing but faces criticism for failing to swiftly respond.

More than 90 people have been charged in prosecutions that began during the Biden administration. Many of those charged are of Somali descent, which allies of Trump have cited as grounds for launching “Operation Metro Surge” even as many Somali community members in the Twin Cities are US citizens.

While the sweeping fraud is expected to be a central part of the debate in the race for governor, the federal investigation has been complicated by the administration’s actions in Minnesota.

Six federal prosecutors from the US attorney’s office in Minneapolis, including those leading the fraud probe, resigned over the Justice Department’s decision to investigate the widow of Good, the woman killed by the ICE agent, rather than the shooter.

If elected, Klobuchar pledged to prioritize punishing those who stole taxpayer money earmarked for meal and housing programs, Medicaid services and other social programs and implement greater accountability reforms in state government.

“I don’t like fraud or waste in government – that’s why I went after crime as county attorney,” Klobuchar said. “I will make sure the people who steal taxpayer money go to jail and root out the fraud by changing the way state government works.”

The headline of this story has been updated.

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