Klobuchar takes first steps towards Minnesota governor bid in race to replace embattled Walz

Longtime Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Thursday made her first move ahead of likely launching a 2026 race for governor in her home state of Minnesota.

The senator's first steps came a couple of weeks after the stunning announcement by Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to end his re-election bid amid political fallout from the blue-leaning state's massive fraud scandal.

Klobuchar, who less than 15 months ago was handily re-elected to a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate, filed preliminary paperwork with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board.

"This is a preliminary step necessary for any candidate considering a run. The senator will make an announcement of her plans in the coming days," a source close to Klobuchar told Fox News Digital.

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Since Walz's announcement earlier this month that he was scrapping his bid for an unprecedented third term as Minnesota governor, Klobuchar had been receiving calls urging her to run, Democratic sources confirmed.

And sources also confirmed that the senator met with Walz, who was the Democratic Party's 2024 vice presidential nominee, on the eve of his announcement to discuss his decision to drop his re-election effort.

Klobuchar didn't weigh in on her future political plans in the hours after Walz' blockbuster news. But she said the governor "made the difficult decision to focus on his job and the challenges facing our state rather than campaigning and running for re-election."

A day later, Klobuchar emphasized to CNN, "I love my job, I love my state, and I’m seriously considering it."

The senator has won all four of her Senate elections by healthy margins, including a nearly 16-point re-election in 2024.

But Klobuchar, who is currently number three in Senate Democratic leadership, faces hurdles to rise higher in party leadership in the chamber.

FRAUD FALLOUT FORCES WALZ TO ABANDON GUBERNATORIAL RE-ELECTION BID

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York is the top Democrat in the upper chamber and isn't expected to leave his post.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two Democrat in the chamber, is retiring from Congress, leaving an opening to fill in the leadership pecking order. But Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii is the expected heir apparent for that position.

Before serving in the Senate, Klobuchar was elected twice as county attorney in Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous. 

She also ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party's 2020 presidential nomination. And a trip by Klobuchar last summer to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state of New Hampshire sparked speculation that Klobuchar may be mulling another White House run in 2028.

Walz launched his re-election bid in September, but the past couple of months had been facing a barrage of incoming political fire from President Donald Trump and Republicans, and some Democrats, over the large-scale theft, under his watch as governor, in a state that has long prided itself on good governance.

More than 90 people — most from Minnesota's large Somali community — have been charged since 2022 in what has been described as the nation's largest COVID-era scheme. How much money has been stolen through alleged money laundering operations involving fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers and Medicaid services is still being tabulated. But the U.S. attorney in Minnesota said the scope of the fraud could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion.

INSIDE THE RISE AND FALL OF TIM WALZ

Prosecutors said some of the dozens that have already pleaded guilty in the case used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, jewelry and international vacations, with some of the funds also sent overseas and potentially into the hands of Islamic terrorists.

"This is on my watch, I am accountable for this and, more importantly, I am the one that will fix it," Walz told reporters last month, as he took responsibility for the scandal.

But the fraud scandal was eclipsed earlier this month by the fatal shooting by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent of Renee Good, a Minnesota woman and mother of three, who was protesting an ICE operation.

Video of the shooting went viral, sparking protests and a national debate over the agency's efforts to carry out Trump's push for the mass deportation of millions of undocumented migrants. And with a massive deployment this month of ICE agents to Minnesota, it's made the state ground zero in the political battle over the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to combat illegal immigration.