Tim Walz steps away and will not run for reelection.

Says he will concentrate on running the state while other concentrate on the election.

Tim Walz - officially in the middle of running for an unprecedented third term as governor of Minnesota, a year after running for Vice President - may be dropping out after a winter dogged with fraud and corruption scandals.  

Rumors started circulating mid-last week; I first heard on Wednesday that Tim Walz was going to bow out of the 2026 Governor's race in Minnesota.  I heard it from sources I consider 50-50.  

Bits and pieces of the story have been percolating for three weeks - starting with a report the week before Christmas that Rep. Kelly Morrison (MN-3) would not be replacing Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan on Walz's ticket for Lieutenant Governor:

Now it is official. Tim Walz is not running for reelection. I have to admit I am a bit surprised. I figured that between Walz denying everything, the local media running cover, and liberal Minnesotans who wouldn't care about it, that Walz could still win a third term. I truly believe that had he run, short of something implicating him direction that he would win comfortably. Had it turned out that he was personally benefitting from any of this, then his chances were still probably 50/50. That is how little I think Minnesota Democrats really care about this sort of fraud and how little they would hold Walz accountable.

So what happened? Perhaps some national pressure? Amy Klobuchar is in line to run if she chooses. Perhaps they see her as a potential Presidential candidate down the road and a stint of Governor might help. I suspect that there was little benefit of the 2026 Governor's race in Minnesota being all about the fraud. I mean, it still may be, but someone coming in fresh for the Democrats can distance themselves from it. Is Walz stepping down to concentrate on his 2028 Presidential run? God I hope so! But I see his chances of becoming President about the same as me wining a Pulitzer Prize for my blogging. Not going to happen.

Which leads me to the last and final reason why Walz might step down. This whole thing is going to get even larger and more people will be exposed as being in on it. Perhaps we will uncover the fact that Walz and Ellison have been avoiding and undermining investigations into this fraud and doing so out of pure political considerations. What does he know and when did he know it will become a very real question and not one you want to be answering in the heat of a campaign. If he really truly has done everything he could have and has really been fighting against fraud as he suggests, then why not let the chips fall where they may? But if he knows there is more to this iceberg than the tip we have seen so far, then running away from it might be his only salvation. The other shoe was going to drop and better to be already out of the race when it does.