Gov. Tim Walz ends re-election campaign with ‘zero regret,’ slams Trump and ‘conspiracy theorists’ over fraud scandal

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he had “zero sadness and zero regret” in ending his re-election campaign on Monday before denouncing “political actors seeking to take advantage” of his state’s fraud scandal.

“In September, I announced that I would seek a historic third term as Minnesota’s governor, and I have every confidence that if I gave it my all, we would win the race,” Walz said at a press conference. “But as I reflect 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 that 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 want to prey on our differences,” the Democratic governor added.

Walz declined to take questions from reporters, but in five minutes of remarks affirmed that he was “concerned about fraud in our state government” — while later tearing into President Trump and “his allies in Washington” and “conspiracy theorist, right-wing YouTubers” for “political gamesmanship.”

“We cannot effectively deliver programs and services if we can’t earn the public’s trust,” he told members of the press. “We’ll win the fight against the fraudsters, but the political gamesmanship we’re seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder.”

At one point in his address, Walz accused some of the “right-wing YouTubers” of even “breaking into our day cares” and “demanding access to our children.”

“We’ve got the president of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongfully confiscating funds that Minnesotans rely on,” he also said, referencing attacks on nonprofits linked to the community in the Twin Cities. “It’s disgusting and it’s dangerous.”

The governor’s only link between the fraud accusations and his own run for a third term in Minnesota came when he said, “Election years have a way of ramping up the politics at a time when we simply can’t afford more of that in Minnesota.”

“We can work together to rebuild the public’s trust and make our state stronger,” he conlcuded.

“But make no mistake about it, if Republicans continue down the path of abusing power, smearing entire communities, and running their own fraudulent game at the expense of Minnesotans, I will fight back with everything that I have.”