Klobuchar’s
campaign declined to comment for this story, but a person close to the
senator says she is being encouraged to run and is seriously considering
it.
It’s not the first time her name has been floated for the job.
Last
summer, when Walz was wavering on whether he would run for an
unprecedented third term, many Minnesota Democrats believed Klobuchar
would step up if Walz decided not to seek re-election.
But she believed at the time that he would end up running.
“I
have been in politics and public service long enough to know that
hypotheticals aren’t a good idea,” Klobuchar said during an interview at
the Minnesota State Fair in late August.
Walz
launched his re-election campaign in September but dropped out Jan. 5
as a massive social service fraud scandal engulfed the state. Federal
prosecutors have documented hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of
fraud in state autism, housing and meals programs, among others. The
total scope of the theft could be billions of dollars, according to
federal prosecutors.
With
the focus on how to tackle fraud in Minnesota, some Democrats think
Klobuchar’s experience as Hennepin County attorney will help in the
crackdown on the multi-headed social services fraud that Republicans
have made the centerpiece of their 2026 campaigns.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar greets supporters before speaking at the launch
rally for Gov. Tim Walz’s third gubernatorial campaign at The Depot in
Minneapolis Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota
Reformer)
[...]
A source close to Klobuchar, who was
granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said,
“Sen. Klobuchar is getting outreach from people encouraging her to run,
and is seriously considering it.”
Klobuchar ran in the Democratic
presidential primary in 2020 but dropped out after performing poorly in
early contests after some withering national press scrutiny. She wound up endorsing former President Joe Biden just before Super Tuesday.
The senior senator previously served as Hennepin County attorney, where she brought high-profile charges.
That could give her a platform to talk about the public program fraud
that is expected to continue to dominate the political conversation in
the coming months.
[...]
If it's to be Klobuchar vs. Mike Lindall, or some other GOP stiff, sure, voting for Amy would be easy. But progress would take a backseat to same old, same old.
UPDATE: Not that Klobuchar is a bad choice. Just not a good one other than on winability, track record, and competence.
She's honest, competent, but conservative. Not a Bernie bone in her body. Not an AOC view on policies. No clamoring for Medicare for All. No voice for tuition free university access. For now we have need based scholarships, a general capability cutoff at the quality campus sites - but pay to play, and some mediocre stuff, pretending, but pay to play too.
PROVE ME WRONG: On that triple dip pension speculation, Crabgrass has not definitively researched whether that's how it would work. The assertion is one of expected probability, since at every level it's the politicians who set terms of their own pensions. And the term "double dip" has evolved from that, and triple dip seems not to be definitively foreclosed. Readers are invited to pin that multi-pension question down by their own research, or to make their own guess.
FURTHER: In addition to winability, all the DFL legislators and wannabes see big, big coat tails.
AIPAC will have a hard time trying to hold on what they have in the MN House. Somali candidates will stay active. As with AIPAC, ditto the federal PAC operators.
The MN Republicans, themselves, have no money, and will suffer a statewide clobbering if Klobuchar runs for Guv. She's got nothing to lose by doing so. If anything might sidetrack it, she stays in the Senate and seeks reelection at term end.
BOTTOM LINE: She'll run. She'll win. Craig and Flanagan will have to fight it out for the open Senate seat, Klobuchar once winning as Guv will resign her Senate seat and the loser between Flanagan and Craig will then run and win the special election when Amy resigns to be Guv. The special election winner of the two will become the junior Senator from MN.
Tina Smith appears to be set in a decision to retire from politics. That's unfortunate for us, but it's her decision to make. I still like "Draft Tina." But it will not be. Amy's the one.
Dean Phillips seems out of the loop, and okay with that and running his business interests. Perhaps not.
