By Ashley Brasfield
Democratic Minnesota Gov. and failed vice presidential candidate Tim Walz’s two terms have been marked by blunders and fiascos.
Walz announced Monday that he will not seek a third term, concluding a tenure defined by COVID-era policies, “gender-affirming” legislation, questions about his past record, and failures to prevent widespread fraud and abuse of government programs. (RELATED: Tim Walz Drops Out Of Governor’s Race After Somali Fraud Scandal, Blames Trump)
Among Walz’s earliest and most contentious actions were his COVID-era restrictions, which ranked among the strictest in the nation.
In March 2020, Walz issued an executive order temporarily closing all K-12 public schools. Although initially intended to be short-term, the closures were repeatedly extended through the end of the 2019-2020 school year, according to Ballotpedia. For the following school year, Walz gave districts some flexibility, but his guidance generally favored remote or hybrid learning. Minnesota schools remained in limited in-person instruction significantly longer than many Republican-led states.
In July 2020, Walz implemented a statewide mask mandate in another executive order, requiring face coverings in most indoor public spaces. The mandate, issued under his March 2020 declaration of a peacetime emergency, remained in effect for roughly ten months before being lifted in May 2021.
In August 2020, the Upper Midwest Law Center filed suit on behalf of 16 Minnesota residents, small businesses and churches, challenging Walz’s mask mandate as an overreach of his emergency powers. The lawsuit alleged conflicts with state law, constitutional violations, and unworkable enforcement burdens on businesses.
Tim Walz made Minnesota poorer relative to other states, raised wasteful spending, cut student achievement and increased crime and energy costs — and got the worst fiscal rating of any governor, according to a non-partisan think-tank.
In 2020, Walz issued Executive Orders 20-94 and 20-95, granting schools additional time to prepare for distance and hybrid learning, discouraging teachers from juggling in-person and remote instruction simultaneously, and extending remote learning options further into the school year.
The legal battle over Walz’s emergency powers dragged on for years. Lower courts initially dismissed the lawsuit or deemed it moot after the mandate expired, but in 2023, the Minnesota Supreme Court partially reversed the mootness ruling and remanded the case for review on whether the Emergency Management Act permitted peacetime emergencies for public health crises. The Court of Appeals ruled in July that Walz had acted lawfully, a decision the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed in 2024 — upholding the state’s broad emergency powers while rendering challenges to the expired mandate moot.
Walz then turned his attention to gender policy. In March 2023, he signed Executive Order 23-03 to safeguard access to “gender-affirming” health care in Minnesota. The following month, he signed HF 146, positioning Minnesota as a “sanctuary” or “refuge” state for transgender individuals, including those fleeing states where such care faces restrictions or bans. (RELATED: ‘It’s All Bullsh*t’: Tim Walz Goes On Anti-Second Amendment Rant)
In May 2023, Walz signed HF 44 into law, requiring public and charter schools to provide free menstrual products to all “menstruating students” in grades 4-12. The gender-neutral statute mandates availability “in restrooms regularly used by students,” accommodating biologically female students regardless of which bathroom they use.
On the 2024 campaign trail, after being selected as former Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Walz’s past statements about his military service, teaching career, and time in China resurfaced under renewed scrutiny.
Vice President JD Vance and other Republican critics accused Walz of “stolen valor,” claiming he exaggerated his service by implying combat experience and noting that he retired before his unit deployed to Iraq.
The Harris campaign had shared a video in which Walz, supporting a weapons ban after the 2018 Parkland shooting, said he wanted to ban the weapons he “carried in war.” Vance argued the statement overstated Walz’s combat role and alleged that Walz left the National Guard ahead of his unit’s Iraq deployment, implying he abandoned his fellow soldiers, NPR and PBS reported.
Walz, a former teacher and football coach, also appeared to suggest he was in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre — but records show he did not arrive until August 1989, months after the protests. He later acknowledged in the vice presidential debate that he had “misspoke” about the timing.
Most recently, Walz has been embroiled in a massive fraud scandal. Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit that claimed to provide meals to children, instead submitted fake attendance records to collect hundreds of millions in federal child nutrition funds. (RELATED: ‘I Ended Tim Walz’: YouTuber Who Exposed Somali Fraud Takes Victory Lap After Governor Ends Reelection Bid)
Federal prosecutors have charged dozens and secured numerous convictions, while critics argue state oversight under Walz was slow and insufficient to stop the scheme early. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has launched an investigation into what he describes as “widespread fraud” under Walz’s watch, questioning whether the state ignored early warnings.
Other fraud cases have surfaced as well, including schemes in Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services and Medicaid-funded autism therapy programs, where providers allegedly billed for services never delivered, diverting millions in state and federal funds.
Some Republican lawmakers in Minnesota have called for Walz to resign, arguing that his administration’s sluggish response allowed the fraud to metastasize before stronger audits and enforcement measures were implemented, according to The Washington Examiner.
