Seventeen months ago, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota brimmed with joy in a packed stadium in Pennsylvania as he made his debut as Kamala Harris’s running mate.
Democratic leaders touted him as a rising star with a biography that could help their party defeat Trump. They drew attention to his rural roots, the years he spent working as a public-school teacher, his service in the National Guard and the six terms he spent in Congress representing a conservative-leaning district.
But after losing the 2024 election, Mr. Walz returned to a pile of problems at home, including a widening scandal over fraud in social services programs that left critics questioning his ability to win a third term as governor in November.
After repeated attacks from President Trump and Republicans in Minnesota, Mr. Walz, who as recently as last year had been mentioned as a potential presidential candidate, on Monday abandoned his bid for re-election as governor.
“He was certainly in for a tough fight because it was very clear that the Trump administration was hellbent on doing everything in their power to damage Tim Walz personally and politically,” said Representative Zack Stephenson, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House. “I think that would have continued all the way through Election Day.”
As Minnesotans began considering a governor’s race that was upended by Mr. Walz’s announcement, Democrats called the governor’s decision selfless and civic-minded, while Republicans said Mr. Walz had no one but himself to blame for his tumbling political fortunes.
“Fraud in Minnesota has been exploding, and it’s gone unchecked under the Walz administration,” said Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, the top Republican in the Legislature, who is running for governor. “If Governor Walz had been doing his job, holding commissioners accountable and preventing fraud in the first place, we wouldn’t find ourselves where we find ourselves today.”
Mr. Walz, who declined an interview request, said in a statement that he had concluded that staying in the race would make it difficult to govern effectively as his administration works to root out fraud that prosecutors uncovered in programs aimed at providing social services to Minnesotans. “I refuse to spend even one minute of 2026 doing anything other than rising to meet the moment,” he said.
Mr. Walz, 61, won his first governor’s race in 2018 and spent much of his first term dogged by the Covid-19 pandemic and unrest that broke out after the killing of George Floyd in May of 2020. Mr. Walz faced criticism for pandemic lockdowns that hurt businesses and for his delay in deploying the National Guard after looting and arson spread in Minneapolis after the killing of Mr. Floyd.
Despite those challenges, Mr. Walz handily won re-election in 2022, when his party clinched control of both chambers in the state’s Legislature. With a narrow majority, Mr. Walz and fellow Democrats passed numerous bills that pushed Minnesota to the left, including initiatives that expanded abortion rights, required employers to provide paid family and medical leave and legalized recreational marijuana use.
At the time, Mr. Walz said his party’s legislative achievements would make life better and more affordable for Minnesotans for generations, saying that political capital was meant to be spent, rather than banked.
In an interview, Senator Erin Murphy, the top Democrat in the Minnesota Senate, said Mr. Walz would leave office with a laudable legacy, having steered the state with pragmatism and compassion during tough years.
“We moved a profound and significant agenda that really was about the pocketbooks of Minnesotans,” Ms. Murphy said. “I think he will be remembered as a compassionate, happy-warrior leader for the state of Minnesota.”
The accomplishments of that 2023 state legislative session, and Mr. Walz’s plain-spoken and unassuming demeanor, were among the reasons Ms. Harris selected him as her running mate during the tumultuous presidential campaign of 2024.
Mr. Walz’s campaign for vice president made him a household name, but his time in the national spotlight was sometimes bumpy. He struggled to explain past statements that were misleading, including remarks about his military service and trips to China in the 1980s. Ms. Harris disclosed in her campaign memoir that Mr. Walz had not been her first choice as a running mate and she expressed disappointment over his rocky performance in the vice-presidential debate.
Last summer, Mr. Walz seemed conflicted about seeking a third consecutive term as governor, even after having made several trips that suggested he was eager to remain influential in national politics.
As he mulled his future, the governor was mourning Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, a close friend who was assassinated in June. Polls at the time suggested that Mr. Walz had lost support in suburban and rural areas after spending months campaigning for the White House.
“I think clearly it hurt his brand,” said Alex Plechash, chair of the Minnesota Republican Party. “Being in the national spotlight, it suddenly brought to bear all the flaws and scandals and mismanagement that he had under his reign.”
In September, Mr. Walz announced that he would seek a third term to build on what he called “historic progress” in the state. Aides and supporters said then that Mr. Walz had an unmatched donor base and would likely cruise to victory. Minnesota has not elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006.
A few days after Mr. Walz launched his campaign, federal prosecutors announced that a criminal investigation into fraud in safety net programs had widened.
To date, more than 90 people have been charged with felonies for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars by billing the government for services that were not delivered. At least 60 have been convicted. The vast majority of defendants are of Somali origin.
In recent months, Mr. Walz acknowledged that fraud in social services programs had grown pervasive in recent years and took steps to tighten the state’s oversight of such programs. The measures included shutting down a program designed to help people at risk of homelessness, hiring an auditing firm to review 14 programs the government said were at high risk for fraud and appointing a former judge to oversee anti-fraud measures.
All the while, Mr. Walz was increasingly becoming the target of withering attacks from the Trump administration and conservatives in Minnesota. The White House launched an immigration crackdown in the state last month, accusing Mr. Walz and fellow Democrats of sheltering people who had entered the country illegally.
And the Trump administration has threatened to cut funding for social services programs in the state, accusing Mr. Walz of ignoring malfeasance committed largely by Somali Americans, an important constituency for Democrats. The governor has called that accusation baseless.
Mr. Walz, who does not own a home and has declined to take pay raises recommended by a state council while in office, has no clear political prospects when his term ends early next year. On Monday, he said he was at peace with his decision.
“I didn’t run for this job so I could have this job,” Mr. Walz said. “I ran for this job so I could do this job.”
Ernesto Londoño is a Times reporter based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest and drug use and counternarcotics policy.
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