Amy Klobuchar and Lisa Demuth are set to face off on Tuesday in Minnesota’s governor’s race, with the winner becoming the state’s first woman governor. The vote will also settle who becomes Minnesota’s 42nd governor after Tim Walz spent eight years in office.
Klobuchar, Minnesota’s senior U.S. senator, said she would fight fraud by launching an audit of state government and prosecuting those who abuse taxpayer money. Demuth, the speaker of the Minnesota House, said voters needed to send Republicans to St. Paul to clean up fraud in state government programs.
Tim Walz and Minnesota
Walz withdrew his reelection bid after saying he wanted to spend his final months in office combatting fraud. That opened the field to a race that moved quickly from party contests to a head-to-head general election between Klobuchar and Demuth.
Klobuchar easily won the DFL endorsement in May. She also said, “St. Paul would benefit from a governor willing to set partisanship aside.”
Republican Party convention in Duluth
Demuth lost at the Republican Party convention in Duluth to businessman Kendall Qualls, then advanced after a kerfuffle with voting devices prompted party leaders to give candidates the go ahead to run in a primary. The three-way primary included Qualls and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who was identified as Donald Trump’s pick.
Demuth won that primary and moved into the final matchup with Klobuchar. That path left Republicans with a nominee who had first lost at the convention and then won the primary instead.
The campaign has been shaped by reports of fraud in Minnesota that intensified late last year. Klobuchar and Demuth both centered fraud in their pitches, but they framed the response differently: she emphasized an audit and prosecution, while he stressed sending Republicans to St. Paul and cutting waste in state programs.
Ballots are being counted on Tuesday night, and voters will decide whether Minnesota elects its first woman governor and who replaces Walz after eight years in office. The result also settles whether Klobuchar’s statewide record or Demuth’s House leadership carries the day in a race built around the same issue from two different directions.
