Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced his reelection bid Tuesday with a new campaign ad that alludes to his opposition of President Trump and his administration’s agenda, following his 2024 presidential defeat alongside Kamala Harris.
“I’ve always tried to do what’s right for Minnesota, and I’ll never stop fighting to protect us from the chaos, corruption, and cruelty coming out of Washington,” Walz said in the released ad.
In the video, Walz counted among his successes “paid family leave,” “the child tax credit,” and raising “graduation rates to the highest ever.”
Walz, the governor since 2018, failed his state of Minnesota during the 2020 George Floyd riots, which caused billions in damage nationwide and devastated the Twin Cities. He delayed deploying the National Guard for three days, and when troops were finally activated, they focused mainly on protecting federal property rather than stopping the unrest. Walz failed to mention these failures in the latest ad.
I’m running for reelection to continue serving as Governor of Minnesota.
We’ve made historic progress in our state, but we’re not done yet. I’m staying in the fight — and I need you with me. pic.twitter.com/NsVCXfq4M2
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) September 16, 2025
Still, Walz later defended his record on the 2020 riots by saying “we tried to do the best we can.”
Harris chose Walz as her 2024 running mate, but he faced scrutiny for close ties to China, which he visited over 30 times during his lifetime, including school trips in the ’90s and 2000s and even his honeymoon.
Additionally, during the 2024 presidential campaign, Walz faced significant controversy over his military service record, including a 2018 video where he claimed to have carried “weapons of war” in war, which the Harris-Walz campaign attributed to him misspeaking since he never saw combat during his National Guard deployment to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Republicans also highlighted a 1995 DUI arrest that Walz had not previously disclosed, along with conflicting accounts from his campaign about the incident.
Since the failed campaign, the Minnesota governor has spent 2025 targeting President Trump relentlessly, and earlier this month appeared to joke about Trump’s death with a crude statement that angered Republicans and supporters.
“Look I get it, you get up in the morning and you doom scroll through things, although I will say this, the last few days you woke up thinking there might be news,” Walz said at a Labor Day picnic, referencing social media rumors that Trump had died after the president had avoided the public eye for multiple days. “Just saying, just saying, there will be news sometime, just so you know, there will be news.”
