Late Breaking: Tim Walz Likely to Exit Race in Mere Hours as Gargantuan Somali Welfare Fraud Batters Ex-VP Candidate

In a move that would cap a fall from grace for what was once one of the Democratic Party’s rising stars, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is expected to announce on Monday that he will not seek another term.

The move comes after a series of viral videos cast doubt on the legitimacy of Somali-run taxpayer-funded daycare centers in Minnesota, which is already reeling from a welfare fraud scandal, mostly perpetrated within the state’s large Somali community, that has siphoned off billions of dollars.

Walz, who was first elected as governor in 2018 and served as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 election, was expected to run for a third term in the governor’s mansion; there are no gubernatorial term limits in Minnesota.

Blois Olson, a Minnesota political insider, first announced that something was up late Sunday evening, saying that Walz was going to be holding a media briefing Monday and the he was “likely to drop out of the 2026 #mngov race.”

Olson added that he met with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the state’s senior senator, on Sunday, presumably to discuss the move.

🚨 BREAKING: Sources: @govtimwalz will make announcement about his political future Mon. He’s likely to drop out of the 2026 #mngov race.

He met w/ @SenAmyKlobuchar on Sun. Full analysis in tmrw https://t.co/4zJJytH4Aw + live on @wccoradio at 6:20AM w/ @vsawkar

— Blois Olson (@bloisolson) January 5, 2026

KMSP-TV could not confirm that Walz’s 11 a.m. Monday news conference would involve him dropping out, with a spokesperson merely saying the governor would be discussing “the news of the day.”

However, betting markets as of early Monday morning clearly expected the media briefing to involve Walz stepping back from the 2026 election; as of 3 a.m. Eastern, Polymarket had a 91 percent chance of him dropping out by Tuesday on high volume, and Kalshi had his chances plummet from a near lock on the nomination to just 8 percent chance in a matter of hours:

Walz’s odds plummeting in the market.

Steve Simon, the current Secretary of State, now seen as a potential leading contender pic.twitter.com/xmCbdNVXz5

— Jaron Zhou (@ZhouJaron) January 5, 2026

In addition, it came just hours after President Donald Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One, called Walz “a very stupid, low IQ governor,” “a stupid man” and “a corrupt politician.”

BREAKING 🚨 President Trump just EXPOSED Gov Tim Walz for millions to see “This is a VERY STUPID LOW IQ governor… he is a CORRUPT politician”

HE KNEW ABOUT THE SOMALI FRUAD

Tim Walz will be in Prison soon pic.twitter.com/BMoAg4oqBZ

— JOHN_THE GREAT PATRIOT 🇺🇸 (@realmagaJohnQ) January 5, 2026

The move represents a dramatic fall from a man who came close to being one heartbeat away from the presidency and was even considered a 2028 dark-horse Democratic presidential contender.

The Minnesota governor was thrust into the national spotlight after Vice President Kamala Harris was forced to search for a running mate at the last minute due to President Joe Biden’s July 2024 withdrawal from the race.

Walz, originally considered only having an outside chance at the spot, vaulted to the front of the pack due to Vice President Harris’ rapport with him during interviews; reports stated that the newly minted Democratic nominee was uncomfortable with the personality and ambitions of the presumed frontrunner for the position, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

In addition, Walz helped make the characterization that the Republicans — in particular Donald Trump and J.D. Vance — were “weird” a viral trend, something The New York Times credited with his late surge in the veepstakes.

While the media initially hailed Walz as a vision of “positive masculinity” who would give men a “permission structure” to vote Democratic, Walz was never a home run as a running mate. In addition to the what-ifs due to the fact that Harris lost Pennsylvania, where Shapiro was a popular governor, Walz himself appeared to come across as the “weird” one in comparison to his direct rival, now-Vice President J.D. Vance.

In addition, a series of minor scandals, including one involving stolen valor and another involving false statements he had made about his time in China during the Tiananmen Square protests, dogged Walz after the pick was made.

However, it was the Feeding Our Future scandal that led to Walz’s career unraveling, at least for the moment.

While the welfare fraud scandal — which involved Somali-run “charities” that did little charity work and pocketed government money with little oversight — began unfolding in 2022, after an FBI raid based on a whistleblower complaint, the true extent of the damage became apparent in 2025, with assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson estimating that “half or more” of $18 billion spent on Medicaid programs in Minnesota may have been fraudulently disbursed.

Walz, as with other Democrats in Minnesota, tried to downplay the extent of the fraud, particularly after President Donald Trump took aim at Temporary Protected Status for certain Somali migrants as well as promising a pause on immigration from the third world.

However, after a video from YouTuber Nick Shirley questioned the legitimacy of Somali-run daycare centers in the state, the spotlight again turned on the governor.

If reports are accurate, the spotlight won’t be on him much longer.

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