Amy Klobuchar Won the Primary to Replace Tim Walz. He Says ‘Over My Dead Body’ Will He Leave Early.
- 89.7% the unofficial share of the vote Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) won in Minnesota's Aug. 11, 2026 DFL gubernatorial primary, against six other candidates, with 99% counted — CBS News Minnesota, Aug. 11, 2026
- $9 Billion the estimate Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson gave Dec. 18, 2025 for potential Medicaid fraud — an extrapolation from $18B billed by 14 “high-risk” programs since 2018, not an audited loss total — CBS News Minnesota, Dec. 18, 2025
- 500 Months the sentence — more than 41 years, plus $242M+ in restitution — a federal judge gave Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock on May 21, 2026 for a $250 million child-nutrition fraud scheme — CBS News Minnesota; Fox News, May 21, 2026
- “Over My Dead Body” what Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) told reporters Jan. 6, 2026 when asked if he'd resign early, one day after announcing he would not seek a third term — Fox News Politics, Jan. 6, 2026
- 340+ convictions secured by Minnesota's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit since 2019, with roughly $90 million recovered — a fraction of even the low end of prosecutors' fraud estimates — Minnesota Attorney General's Office
On the night of August 11, 2026, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) won Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary for governor with 89.7 percent of the vote against six minor candidates, according to CBS News Minnesota’s unofficial election-night count with 99 percent reporting. She now heads into November against MN House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-MN), who defeated Trump-endorsed Mike Lindell for the Republican nomination the same night. Minnesota hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2006, and Klobuchar has never lost a statewide race by single digits.
She’s running to replace a governor who insists he isn’t going anywhere just yet. Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) announced on January 5, 2026 that he would not seek a third term, as Republican pressure mounted over a fraud scandal engulfing his administration’s social-services programs. He will serve out the balance of his term regardless — a decision he made unmistakably clear the very next day.
Both campaigns are now being fought over the same contested number. Federal prosecutors have put a potential Medicaid-fraud loss as high as $9 billion — a figure Walz calls political theater and Klobuchar has built her campaign around fixing. What that number actually is, and isn’t, is the least understood part of the race to succeed him.
Klobuchar’s margin was not close. Six other Democrats appeared on the DFL primary ballot; none broke double digits. On stage that night, she framed the race less as a coronation than as an answer to voter exhaustion with the final chapter of the Walz era — a state government exiting one governor under the weight of a fraud scandal that has already produced federal convictions.
“You expect leaders to deliver results, not excuses, and you are rightfully tired of this partisan theater and the punchlines.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) · primary night · Aug. 11, 2026
On the Republican side, Demuth — the sitting Speaker of the Minnesota House — beat back a primary challenge from Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder President Trump had endorsed. If Klobuchar wins in November, she would have to resign her Senate seat, triggering a gubernatorial appointment and an eventual special election.
The distinction between quitting the race and quitting the office matters to Walz. Asked directly whether he’d resign so a successor could take over early, he didn’t hedge: “I’m not going anywhere. And you can make all your requests for me to resign. Over my dead body will that happen.” He paired that defiance with an admission rare for a sitting governor mid-scandal: “The buck stops with me. I am accountable for this.” Both statements came January 6, 2026 — one day after he closed the door on a third term. Walz has now spent seven months governing Minnesota while the state’s largest pandemic-era fraud prosecution runs in the background.
The scandal predates the $9 billion estimate that now dominates headlines. Federal prosecutors have charged more than 90 people since 2022 across a series of Minnesota fraud schemes touching child nutrition, housing assistance, autism therapy, and daycare licensing — most prominently Feeding Our Future, the $250 million child-nutrition fraud federal officials have called the largest pandemic-relief theft in the country. That case alone produced criminal convictions years before anyone put a dollar figure on the broader Medicaid picture.
The $9 billion figure did not come from an audit — it came from a podium. On December 18, 2025, Acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson told reporters in Minneapolis that 14 “high-risk” Medicaid-adjacent programs had billed $18 billion since 2018, and that his office believed “half or more” of that total — roughly $9 billion — was potentially fraudulent. That is an extrapolation across billing categories flagged as high-risk, not a confirmed loss backed by a completed audit, a GAO review, or a state legislative auditor’s certification. Thompson called the pattern “staggering, industrial-scale fraud” — a serious charge from a federal prosecutor, but still, by his own framing, an estimate of exposure rather than a final accounting.
Walz has pushed back hard on the number itself, not on the existence of fraud: “You’re seeing a weaponization…it’s sensationalized.” His own Medicaid director, John Connolly, went further, telling reporters the Department of Human Services doesn’t have documentation in hand to support the headline figure. DHS Inspector General James Clark called the public airing of a $9 billion estimate without accompanying evidence “shocking” and asked prosecutors to share what they have so the state could move to suspend payments to any providers implicated. None of that means fraud isn’t happening — Clark’s own office says it has been suspending payments more aggressively than ever. It means the headline number and the proof needed to sustain it are not yet the same thing.
“We don't have evidence in hand to suggest that we have $9 billion in fraud in these benefits over the last seven years.”
John Connolly, Minnesota Medicaid Director
That distinction hasn’t stopped the number from hardening into political fact. A House Oversight Committee majority report, released under Chairman James Comer (R-KY), adopted the $9 billion figure as its own — a partisan committee document, not an independent GAO or state-auditor finding. President Trump (R) has gone further still, claiming on Truth Social that the fraud “exceeds $19 billion” — a figure with no independent backing found in any audit, prosecutorial filing, or legislative report reviewed for this story, and one that should be read as the president’s own claim, not a verified total.
One dollar figure in this story isn’t contested at all, because it’s already been through a jury and a sentencing hearing. Feeding Our Future founder Aimee Bock was convicted on all counts for orchestrating the theft of $250 million meant to feed children through a federal nutrition program, and on May 21, 2026, a federal judge sentenced her to 500 months — more than 41 years — plus over $242 million in restitution. Co-defendant Salim Said was convicted on 21 counts in the same scheme. Federal prosecutors said Bock “didn’t participate in fraud, she orchestrated it, profited on it.” Unlike the $9 billion estimate, nothing about the Feeding Our Future numbers is in dispute.
It’s one case among many. More than 90 people have been charged across Minnesota’s various pandemic- and social-service fraud schemes since 2022, spanning child nutrition, daycare licensing, autism therapy billing, and housing assistance. The state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit — the unit actually built to prosecute this — has secured more than 340 convictions and recovered roughly $90 million since 2019, a fraction of even the low end of prosecutors’ fraud estimates. The gap between what’s been proven and what’s been estimated is the entire argument of this governor’s race.
Klobuchar’s gubernatorial platform is built almost entirely around that gap. Her plan promises a “top-to-bottom audit” of state government starting on day one, a “Do Not Pay” database to block convicted fraudsters from receiving public funds, expanded oversight of state grants and contracts, authority to freeze suspicious payments before they go out the door, tougher criminal penalties for organized fraud schemes, and more frequent surprise inspections of state-funded programs.
“You are right to be angry about the fraud. It is unacceptable and it must end.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) · fraud-plan rollout
State Democrats have moved on a parallel track. MN AG Keith Ellison (D-MN) is pushing the MAP Act through the legislature — it cleared a Minnesota Senate committee April 9, 2026 — which would add 18 positions to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, nearly doubling it from 32 to 50 staff, expand fraud statutes and the statute of limitations, add Medicaid fraud to the state’s racketeering law, and give Ellison’s office direct subpoena power over financial records during criminal investigations.
Republicans aren’t buying the pivot. Demuth has argued Klobuchar “wants to triple down on the Walz era,” tying her to the administration she’s campaigning to distance herself from.
I find Amy Klobuchar to be equally as incompetent as Walz, and probably equally as corrupt, given her long role as a Minnesota official.
Paraphrased commentary · not a verbatim post
Paraphrased from Trump's Truth Social remarks as reported by the Washington Examiner. No verified post ID is available for this story; treat as reported commentary, not a verbatim embed.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) won Minnesota’s Aug. 11, 2026 DFL primary with 89.7 percent of the vote and will face MN House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-MN) in November to replace Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) — who announced in January he wouldn’t seek a third term, then refused outright to resign early, calling it “over my dead body.” The race is being run over a $9 billion fraud estimate that a federal prosecutor floated in December 2025 as an extrapolation, not an audited loss — and that Walz’s own Medicaid director says the state can’t yet document. What isn’t in dispute: Feeding Our Future alone cost taxpayers $250 million, its founder is now serving a 41-year sentence, and Minnesota’s fraud unit has recovered a fraction of what prosecutors say may still be missing.
