Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has had quite a ride over the last year-plus. Coming off a "DFL Trifecta" and a record amount of state spending, Walz was tapped as the Democrat's choice as candidate for Vice President. Then came an election defeat at the hands of current President Donald Trump. It was a quick rise - then fall - on the national stage.
Walz entered 2025 with a new challenge - a fully divided Minnesota House, the demands of compromise across a legislative session and a special session. And then tragedy, as a colleague and friend, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were gunned down by alleged shooter Vance Boelter.
Now, a little more than a year away from the 2026 election, Minnesotans are wondering if Walz is going to run for an unprecedented third consecutive term in office. It's a decision he's put off on announcing. In a wide-ranging sit down with WCCO's Susie Jones, he addresses what comes next in his political career, if he'll run, the state and nation's political divide, fraud issues in the state and more.
Jones: First of all Governor Walz, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to talk to me. Let's start with the news of the day, Scott Jensen running for governor.
Walz: Well, I saw that. I congratulate Scott. He's, you know, we're civically minded people and we encourage people to run for office and, looks like he threw his hat in and I encourage that. It looks like there's several Republicans over there gonna run, so.
Jones: Who do you fear most running against?
Walz: Well, I don't fear. I said I put out the proposals and run a positive campaign about looking for what Minnesotans want, and I think there's a record there. Look, we've had some challenges from COVID to George Floyd to now trying to deal with an uneven economy under President Trump, but I think Minnesota's in a solid place. I think we've navigated those things and I'll make that case if we choose to run.
Jones: You say if we choose to run. When do you make the decision to run roughly as a strategy going forward because you're doing a lot of these interviews. So it makes me wonder, are you laying the groundwork? Are you gonna have a big party and announce it sometime soon?
Walz: Well, I think you think about it. It's been a privilege to do this. I don't think you're guaranteed this and it's certainly not your seat. I think what's best for Minnesota, and I think someone who continues down the road that we have, of building the best state for kids to live, is the right way to go. Candidly, I think we thought we would sometime, you know, almost where we're at now, make that decision. But I will just say that Melissa and Mark's murder kind of slowed things down around here. Obviously, a lot of people are reassessing - myself included - on what is, you know, what it looks like and who can best serve.
Jones: Looking at the State of Minnesota, “One Minnesota.” The truth is in the election results, you, the Democrats are in the urban areas and much of outstate Minnesota is Republican or more conservative. What do you make of that and do you sense that changing at all?
Walz: Well, I think that that demographic pattern is true in every state. It's true across the country, that I think there's been made that case. I think I would make the case though, whether it's investments in local government aid, it's investments in infrastructure, education, I can make a case based on data too, that we have delivered for Greater Minnesota. We continue to help create an economy that works, continue to have good schools, safety, but I think that's just the nature of it. We've got a president that is not interested in uniting. He said he hates Democrats. He said it on the 4th of July. He's not interested in uniting. I still am. I believe these areas matter and I believe you go and serve them whether they vote for you or not. And so, I do think we have to change that, I think we have to find some common ground. What'll have to be yet to be seen is, am I the best person to do that or not? And that's what we'll decide.
Jones: Is there a timeline you have to do it?
Walz: I think you have to give folks a chance, you know. I think you've got to give people a, you know, a glide path on this. Our campaigns now, I think people get tired of the two-year campaigns. I think usually after the first of the year things are kicked off and going. So we'll decide here, I think in the near future.
Jones: You mentioned Trump hating Minnesota. He's not the only one. A gentleman named Stephen Miller, who's said that Minneapolis is full of murderers.
Walz: Well, it's absolutely false.
Jones: Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty even put on a statement.
(NOTE: Moriarty called Miller a "white supremacist")
Walz: Yeah, I mean, I don't understand this. I was just over in Sioux Falls last weekend to talk to folks over there and made the case, and their former governor (Kristi Noem) criticizing me is one thing. But she criticizes our state. You won't hear me criticizing states whether we have a crisis in Texas, we send our first responders down there and we'll continue to do that. We do not draw in people on this, and I think seeing whether it's the president or seeing Stephen Miller, who, if I'm not mistaken, has relatives in Minnesota who don't agree with him. But this idea of talking about this, we're at 30-year low on crimes. We know that one crime is too many, but we've seen historic investments, we've seen partnerships that are working and we're reducing those violent crimes that put Minnesota as one of the safer states.
So, this is all about division. We have got to figure out, again how, do we find common ground, how do we unite, and I'll make the case that before the tragic (Hortman) murder, we were feeling good around here and I say we. And I think it would be true of the Republican leadership, we found a compromise in this environment that was cordial. And not only that, it was smart in terms of what we did for Minnesota's budgeting. And so I think there's a model there still in Minnesota.
Jones: You mentioned the assassination again. How are you doing this many weeks later? The special election, the candidacy for the special election opened two days ago, and I told you that it's going to be a sad special election.
Walz: Yeah, well, and I do want to say for those folks putting themselves out there, I'm grateful to them, and I think they understand how challenging this is. They understood what Melissa Hortman meant not just to that House district but to the State of Minnesota. So it will be a little bit sad.
But I do think the one thing is that these candidates are showing that there's folks willing to put themselves out there. They're willing - in this environment - to say I'd like to serve and I think they'll run a spirited campaign. And we have that election I believe coming up September 16th we'll get through a primary and we'll fill the seat. We won't fill the shoes, and I think that's the way we're seeing it. We owe it to these folks who are running. They'll carve their own path, but I do think, and I'll continue to say this, Melissa Hortman was the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. I don't see that changing.
Jones: The special session, if you find out in the fall that these federal cuts are really gonna affect and hurt Minnesota, how do you prepare for something that seems to be changing every day?
Walz: Yeah, well, two days a week now, we have a cadence on Tuesday and Thursdays. This morning, it was a lot of our children, youth and family. We're going through line-by-line in this budget. We're understanding the implications. A lot of it changes where they withhold dollars. Of course, we have the Attorney General and our state and 23 others suing because this money was appropriated by Congress and being clawed back by the president. But I think we just continuously assess it.
The good news was this legislative session, we have surpluses for the next two biennials. We had a structural imbalance in ‘28-’29. The budget we passed reduced that by about 45%, and then the year-end revenue numbers showed us up about $900 million. So we're in solid shape. We've got rainy day funds. So, at this point in time, we're able to continue on. But I think Minnesotans should be prepared as these things start to kick in, whether it's reductions in Medicaid costs, the costs that the counties are gonna incur trying to implement this bill. We need to keep an eye on it, so there's no immediate plans to do this, but I think just like anything, if it's a global pandemic or whatever, the ability to come back and adjust that. I do think that Minnesotans should note that this legislative session had that eye on that horizon, and that's why I think this was a very fiscally conservative budget that we passed.
Jones: The news about the housing stabilization project and the FBI raiding, that's pretty serious business. First, your reaction to it?
Walz: Well, I'm glad they're good partners with us. DHS, the folks over there, and this legislative session, as we've been saying, we needed more tools to be able to. The courts told us we couldn't stop payments before many of these groups that were there. We had stopped payments and we had alerted law enforcement of who these folks were. So we've got more tools, we've got more capacity. You're always gonna find people trying to cheat the system, but I think this legislative session, the new IG (Inspector General) that's over there, the new tools that we have, and just the capacity for us. And I wish we would have got a little more. The one thing I wish we would have got is some AI tools out there that would help us on this. I think we'll come back again, but having good partners at the FBI and some of those is really helpful. And our acting U.S. Attorney here in Minnesota is doing a great job on many fronts, so I think we're pretty grateful for that.
Jones: And he just recently said, and so did former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, Minnesota has a fraud problem. And you agree with it. How do you stop it?
Walz: You give tools now, and I think the thing was that we had this, I remind folks that it was our Education Department that very early on notified on the Feeding the Future. Payments were not stopped, once we stopped payments, we were ordered by the courts to re-pay. Having better tools, having better impact on it. And I think, you see this in private business, you see it in government.
The one thing is, Minnesota is a generous state. And I think there is a tendency to err on the side of making sure children get food, making sure people have housing stabilization, but I've told our agencies and things, that we can have best intentions, but there are bad folks that are trying to do this. So I think, continue to crack down. And I remind you of this, there are dozens of people serving lengthy prison sentences with money being clawed back. If you're going to commit these crimes in Minnesota, you are going to get caught and I think now having a good partner that's willing to help us crack down, that's positive.
Jones: What keeps you up at night? What scares you? What is the biggest concern?
Walz: Well, I think the divisions in this country. I think the rhetoric. Spirited debate on policy differences, I disagree strongly with this bill that was passed because I think it will not save any money, it will add to the debt and it will put people in trouble. I think our immigration system needs to be reformed. I think the way you're going about it by dehumanizing people is not the right way to go. So what keeps me up is that we now have people blending together the idea of spirited debate versus conspiracy theory and rhetoric that leads to violence like we've seen. Whether it was attempts on President Trump's life or whether it was the successful assassination of Mark and Melissa, those things come out of this.
So I'm not asking anybody to get rid of their values. If they believe a program should be cut, talk about how it should be, but this idea that you hate someone? And I will challenge folks out there that that you'll never hear that from me and you'll never hear me talk about people. Do I think President Trump is doing things poorly? Yes. Do I think he's a bully? Yes. Well I continue to push back on him? Yes, but that's not his supporters and that's a difference. So what keeps me up is, this continuous division, this continuous churn doesn't let us (solve) real problems and real things that we need to address. AI on the horizon has great potential, but it has great pitfalls. Climate change is real and it needs to be addressed. So I think what keeps me up is that, how do we find a way to try and reunite? And I've not given up on this idea of “One Minnesota,” but I'll be the first to tell you, just like in Minnesota and across the country, there is a strong division and we need to figure it out.