Walz bid for third term starts with campaign advantages but also comes with liabilities
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With his dog hopping in the front seat of his vintage car, Gov. Tim Walz embarked this week on another political campaign that will test his endurance with voters.
The ridealong was the backdrop of a video posted online Tuesday in which the two-term Democratic governor listed off a list of his accomplishments.
“We’re not done yet,” Walz said. “That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
Walz enters the race with political advantages but also liabilities. He’s widely known and has ready access to campaign money, but he also has scars from difficult decisions, frequent political skirmishes and a record that will come under scrutiny.
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Both aspects will be front and center between now and November 2026.
The announcement was delayed because of a prolonged legislative session and then the assassination of DFL House leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. Another Democratic lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, were also targeted and shot that night but survived.
“I think he has the best chance of any governor that has tried to run for three terms,” said former DFL Rep. Gene Pelowski of Winona.
Pelowski, who served for 38 years in the Legislature, was an ally of former Gov. Rudy Perpich when the DFLer was turned back for a third straight term in 1990.
Pelowski said Walz has “the most extensive of any governor that we’ve had over eight years.”
“He’s had to battle with basically two different economies, one economy that was flush and had a $17 billion surplus, and another economy that was exactly the opposite, he had a deficit,” Pelowski said.
Walz presided over the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tumultuous stretch after the 2020 murder of George Floyd. Most of his time in that top job it was with divided party control. His administration’s handling of fraud in government-managed programs has also come under scrutiny and is shaping up as a key point of criticism from rivals.
He acknowledged this summer that he was reassessing his plans after the assassination of the Hortmans, which authorities say was a deliberate act of political violence. Walz saw Melissa Hortman, the House speaker for the first six years of the governor’s tenure, as a close friend and influential governing partner. A picture of them standing next to each other flashes up in the video.
“I’m heartbroken and angry about the beautiful people we lost to gun violence, but it’s in these moments we have to come together,” Walz said in the video.
Walz got his political start representing a mostly rural southern Minnesota district in Congress for six terms. He gave that up to run for governor in 2018. But in 2024, he saw his national profile skyrocket when he unsuccessfully ran for vice president.
Republicans showcased that loss — the only time Walz has lost at the ballot box in his political career — in reacting to his decision to try for another term.
“While Tim Walz is spending his time fundraising with the nation’s most liberal donors and pushing the disastrous policies of national Democrats, Minnesota is suffering,” read a statement from the Republican Governors Association.
Big-spending Republican groups largely sat out the first two races against Walz.
The Democratic Governors Association committed to having his back in the 2026 race.
“Governor Walz will win this race by continuing to focus on the issues that matter most to Minnesota families, and the DGA will be right there with him every step of the way,” the group’s chair, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said.
Walz hasn't shut the door on another national campaign and he’s among the Democrats trying to be a counterweight to Republican President Donald Trump. But his reelection video makes no direct mention of Trump or the legislation coming out of Washington that he’s been railing against since settling back into his role as governor.
Walz has been stockpiling campaign money faster than his opponents and has a national fundraising network thanks to his national stature. He entered 2025 with more than $1 million in the bank, has kept his small-dollar donor operation going and has been drawing bigger checks from recent fundraisers.
But he’s confronting different political math than his first win eight years ago or even his last victory in 2022. Most notably, greater Minnesota has moved away from him and Democrats.
Republicans have dominated there in recent years, meaning Walz will have to run up the score in the Twin Cities area.
Numerous Republicans are challenging Walz. They include his 2022 Republican opponent Scott Jensen, a former legislator, and state Rep. Kristin Robbins. Businessman Kendall Qualls, who also ran in 2022, is also trying again.
Also in the chase are ex-martial arts fighter Brad Kohler, former Navy officer Phillip Parrish and former St. Cloud city council member Jeff Johnson.
Qualls argues voters have soured on Walz.
“Not only is the budget out of control, he spent an $18 billion surplus, raised taxes and, to add insult to injury, we have a billion dollars of fraud and waste that we know documented,” Qualls said in a press availability after Walz’s announcement.
While neighboring states like Iowa and Wisconsin have had governors with long stays in office, Minnesota voters haven’t typically embraced that.
They denied Perpich that third term 35 years ago. In 2018, Republican primary voters stunted the political comeback of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty who had previously served from 2003 to 2011. Pawlenty acknowledged in defeat that being the better-funded and best-known candidate didn’t always translate into success.
“I thought there was still a reservoir of support from what I would call Pawlenty supporters that we could draw upon to win this thing, but it didn’t turn out to be the case,” he said after that August 2018 loss.
In the case of Walz, voters will have 14 more months to decide if they want to stick with what they know or try something new.
