The Minnesota governor unexpectedly announced this month that he wouldn’t run for re-election.
Walz had said this month that he would not seek re-election as governor — sending shock waves through state and national politics — but he did not go so far as to say he would not consider another elected position down the line.
In explaining his decision Wednesday, Walz talked about the scenes unfolding in Minneapolis between residents and federal officers. He said he found that there are “heroes on the streets that we don’t know their names.”
“They’re never going to run for office, and those grass-tops leaders brought this administration to their knees this week to do something about it. So there’s other ways to serve, and I’ll find them,” he said.
I feel like a ton of comment in this room are missing the point. Him choosing to not run changes the calculus for how he handles the rest of his term and where he puts his efforts.
Endorsing someone else takes significantly less effort than running for reelection yourself and it makes the opposition have to do actual work rather than just pointing at his recent failings.
Politically/tactically this is a pretty good move, especially as like others have pointed out, he has given someone else a lot of runway to put a campaign together.
He is probably also personally a factor in the admin targeting Minnesota. Trump/MAGA was really, really outraged by his “weird” shtick during the campaign. Removing himself could be seen as Trump “winning”, and now MAGA is wondering why ICE is still fucking up a state purged of its corruption.