Klobuchar Launches Minnesota Gubernatorial Bid

Even as Tom Homan has arrived to de-escalate tensions in Minneapolis, well-known Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar has formally jumped into the 2026 race for Minnesota governor. Klobuchar’s announcement comes three weeks after the stunning move by Gov. Tim Walz to drop his re-election bid amid political fallout from a massive fraud scandal.

Klobuchar, who just 15 months ago was handily re-elected to a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate, spotlighted the federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota in a video released on social media.

“These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration, but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state,” she said.

“I’m running for everyone who wants more affordable healthcare, for every student, farmer, dreamer and builder,” she said, alleging the Trump administration “relishes division.” “And I’m running for every Minnesotan who wants ICE and its abusive tactics out of the state we love.”

Klobuchar’s campaign launch comes as Minnesota is firmly in the national spotlight, because of the ongoing fraud scandal, which has been described as the nation’s largest COVID-era scheme.

She referenced the scandal, saying she will “fix what’s wrong,” adding, “I don’t like fraud or waste in government.”

And over the past month, the state has become the epicenter in the heated battle over President Donald Trump’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration, following the fatal shootings by federal agents of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis who were protesting deportation operations.

Klobuchar’s campaign launch gives Democrats a high-profile candidate with fundraising prowess to defend the governor’s office as Republicans aim to end a two-decade-long losing streak in the blue-leaning state.

The move by Klobuchar was expected, after the senator two weeks ago filed preliminary paperwork with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board in what sources in her political orbit told Fox News Digital was a “preliminary step.”

The Border Czar Steps In

Meanwhile, Border czar Tom Homan arrived in protest-ridden Minneapolis and vowed that far-left groups funding and coordinating attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and operations will face consequences.

“About the organization and the funding of the attacks on ICE, I’m not going to answer a lot about that because I’m not going to show our hand, but they’ll be held accountable. Justice is coming,” the border czar declared during a press conference in Minneapolis.

Homan also decried the harsh rhetoric coming from Minnesota and across the country directed at ICE and other immigration law enforcement officers, pleading with everyone to tone it down.

Homan, who vowed to stay “until the problem’s gone,” crowed that “we’ve made a lot of progress” since Trump sent him to the beleaguered city earlier this week.

Under the new approach Homan outlined, the federal government will be more targeted in its operations and specifically take aim at criminal illegal immigrants, though no one in the US illegally is ever off the hook, according to the border czar. 

“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re never off the table,” Homan cautioned. “We are not surrendering our mission at all. We are just doing it smarter,” Homan added.