Minnesota Governor Tim Walz reached the peak of his political career when he was chosen to be the running mate of Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris in August 2024. It’s been downhill ever since – culminating in his announcement Monday that he would be ending his re-election campaign amidst increasing scrutiny over longstanding fraud in his state’s welfare programs.
For those unfamiliar with the ever-expanding scandal, things began unraveling for Walz in late November. First, a bombshell story from City Journal exposed how Minneapolis’s large Somali population had been stealing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars through welfare scams – some of which allegedly ended up in the hands of Al-Shabaab terrorists back in Somalia. Then, in December, independent journalist Nick Shirley dug further and revealed a billion-dollar fraud operation tied to fake Somali daycares.
At first, Walz was defiant in the face of these revelations, even as it became clear that his own government had ample warning and evidence that large-scale fraud was taking place. He even suggested that it was “racist” to talk about the fraud problem at all because it largely implicated migrant communities. But as it became increasingly obvious that Walz turned a blind eye to the theft in the hopes of courting Somali voters, his bid for a third term became impossible to sustain.
Walz spun his withdrawal as a sacrifice that would allow him to work on Minnesota’s fraud problem: “Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences.”
The problem with the Gopher State governor’s pose is that this fraud has continued on an industrial scale for years. According to a recent Axios report, the total amount defrauded from Medicaid in Minnesota may exceed $9 billion. And who are these “cynics”? He tells us in his official statement:
I won’t mince words here. Donald Trump and his allies – in Washington, in St. Paul, and online – want to make our state a colder, meaner place. They want to poison our people against each other by attacking our neighbors. And, ultimately, they want to take away much of what makes Minnesota the best place in America to raise a family. They’ve already begun by taking our tax dollars that were meant to help families afford child care. And they have no intention of stopping there.
It was inevitable that Walz would attack Trump, but who are these mysterious “allies”? He also identifies them in his statement: “We’ve got Republicans here in the legislature playing hide-and-seek with whistleblowers.” This is a reference to a number of state employees who have drawn attention to instances of fraud and suffered retaliation. As the New York Post reports: “Government whistleblowers who reported widespread fraud in Minnesota were retaliated against on the job by having their vacations and promotions denied — and their every keystroke at work monitored.” Why would Walz object to protecting their identities?
The Walz statement also contains this claim: “We’ve got conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTubers breaking into daycare centers and demanding access to our children.” This is an obvious reference to Shirley, whom Walz is apparently upset with for exposing Minnesota child care centers that serve no actual children yet allegedly receive countless millions in federal funding. These centers are funded by Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program, which relies heavily on federal grants from the Child Care & Development Fund. In response to the fraud allegations, HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill issued this statement on X:
“You have probably read the serious allegations that the state of Minnesota has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares across Minnesota over the past decade. Today we have taken three actions against the blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country:
- I have activated our defend the spend system for all ACF payments. Starting today, all ACF payments across America will require a justification and a receipt or photo evidence before we send money to a state.
- Alex Adams and I have identified the individuals in @nickshirley’s excellent work. I have demanded from @GovTimWalz a comprehensive audit of these centers. This includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations, and inspections.
- We have launched a dedicated fraud-reporting hotline and email address at https://childcare.gov Whether you are a parent, provider, or member of the general public, we want to hear from you.”
Meanwhile, according to a report in The Hill, Minnesota is receiving heightened scrutiny from the departments of Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, Labor, and Housing & Urban Development. Additionally, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is suspending annual grants to Minnesota during its inquiry into possible fraud in COVID-era lending programs. SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler took to social media to issue the following statement: “This Admin will not continue to hand out blank checks to fraudsters—and we will not rest until we clean up the criminal networks that have been stealing from American taxpayers.”
All of this has justifiably prompted Minnesota Republicans to demand Walz’s resignation, but he insists he will stay until the end of his term. But the demands keep coming and, according to a report in the New York Post, he threw a “temper tantrum” Tuesday. “I will fight this thing ‘til the very end to make this state better,” he said. “And the question I think they need to decide is when is the guy in the White House going to resign? When does he take accountability for what he did? Because it isn’t going to happen here in terms of us shying away from making the state better.”
Even after his own taxpaying constituents have been robbed blind under his watch, it seems Walz is still determined to blame anyone but himself, most notably Donald Trump. Walz has ended his re-election bid, but he remains on a downward trajectory. The only question is whether he will crash and burn before his term mercifully expires.
David Catron is a Senior Editor at the American Spectator. His writing has also appeared in PJ Media, the American Thinker, the Providence Journal, the Catholic Exchange and a variety of other publications.
