Tim Walz Personifies Dems' Decline

Tim Walz is going away, but the Democratic Party's Tim Walz crisis isn't.

The Minnesota governor gave up his quest for a third term Monday: Staying out of jail will be challenging enough for him over the next few months, never mind prolonging his stay in office.

Federal prosecutors estimate the Somali daycare scam and other frauds perpetrated under his watch cost taxpayers up to $9 billion.

Money like that goes a long way in politics.

Over the years, Walz and his party have received plenty of campaign cash from the Somali community, a loyal — and influential — bloc in Minnesota Democratic politics.

The fraud was no well-kept secret; an independent journalist, Nick Shirley, easily exposed it.

But whistleblowers who'd tried to raise the alarm earlier were ignored — it wasn't convenient for Walz and friends to notice what a key constituency was up to.

Just 14 months ago, Walz was Kamala Harris' running mate; he could have been a heartbeat away from the White House.

He was meant to be the answer to the national Democratic Party's branding problems — its reputation for cultural weirdness and its difficulty courting white, male and rural voters.

Walz was supposed to be a reassuringly "normal" Democrat, but it turns out what passes for normal in the party today is deep incompetence, corruption and worse.

Tim Walz is indeed a symbol of his party, in all the worst ways.

Minnesota was the upper Midwest's only holdout in the Trump wave of 2024, the last blue redoubt in a region painted red by Trump's populist rebranding of the Republican Party.

Does Walz's disgrace put the state in play for 2028?

That would be catastrophic for the Democrats' electoral map, throwing another 10 electoral votes to the GOP.

The last time the state voted for a Republican president was more than 50 years ago, when it backed Richard Nixon in 1972.

It's been 20 years since a Republican even won a statewide election in Minnesota: Tim Pawlenty, reelected governor in 2006, was the last to do so.

But Walz and his scandals may have given Republicans two fresh chances this year and next.

Even with Walz out of the way, his scandals will taint whoever gets the Democratic nomination for governor.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar wants the nod — but if she gets it and then wins in November, her vacated Senate seat will present another opportunity for the GOP in a special election next year.

Minnesota's other senator, Tina Smith, has already opted not to run for reelection this cycle, and her seat's up in November.

Walz's Democrats — technically the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota — face a tough series of tests at the ballot box in the next few months, with the jaw-dropping scale of the Somali scandal threatening to overshadow everything.

And, ironically, even Somali American voters in Minnesota have started souring on the Democrats:

The Harris-Walz ticket actually lost ground with voters of Somali descent in 2024.

"In the Somali American hub of Cedar-Riverside, support for Harris dropped 14 percentage points" compared to 2020, according to a post-election report in the Minnesota Star Tribune, which noted, "Votes for Harris also dropped in precincts in the Seward neighborhood and along West Lake Street by 9 and 12 percentage points ..."

Biden-Harris policies toward Israel and Gaza were one consideration; another was that Somali Muslims aren't entirely comfortable with the progressive social stances of the modern Democratic Party.

The Harris-Walz ticket still wound up garnering the support of about 80% of the Somali community, however.

If the Democrats' grip on Minnesota is slipping, it'll be more traditional constituencies who bring about the break — perhaps those who question how well the "farmer" and "labor" legs of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party have been served by a Democratic Party defined nowadays by manias for mass immigration and extreme identity politics.

Tim Walz was never a middle American Democrat; he was just a bland-looking white guy whose politics were as far-out as those of anyone else in his party.

Another Walz won't win Democrats white, male or rural voters, even if he's scandal-free.

The Democrats' problem isn't with the way their candidates look or sound — it's what they believe and do.

And there won't be a Democrat who can match the appeal of Republican populism until there's a Democrat who dares take the populist side on immigration and cultural norms.

That kind of Democrat, if he or she exists at all today, would be the opposite of Tim Walz.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 12/30/25: Harvard Says Yes to Discrimination, No to Western Civ
• 12/23/25: JD Vance Gets America's Creed and Heritage Right
• 12/16/25: Trump's Inflation Trap
• 12/09/25: Biden's Immigration Debacle Is the Media's, Too
• 12/02/25: 'Iryna's Law' and the Bad Judges Who Make It Necessary
• 11/26/25: Marjorie Taylor Greene's Exit Is a Warning to Republicans
• 11/19/25: Trump Hasn't Lost Hispanics (Yet)
• 11/11/25: Trump's Tariffs on Trial
• 10/28/25: MAGA Makes Allies Great Again
• 10/21/25: How To Make the AmericaS Great Again
• 10/16/25: Columbus Day Celebrates Our Civilization
• 10/09/25: Why Sharpies Are Made in America Again
• 09/30/25: Assata Shakur and Other Parents of Political Violence
• 09/09/25: Who's Accountable for Autopen Pardons?
• 09/02/25: Gender dysphoria is a mental-illness, NOT an all-encompassing delusion
• 08/26/25: Trump's Industrial Policy Is Realism, Not Socialism
• 08/19/25: Is Gavin Newsom the Dems' Answer to Trump?
• 08/12/25: Just Say No to More Marijuana
• 08/05/25: Will the GOP Make Libs Generous Again?
• 07/30/25: Trump's Trade Lesson for Economists (and the World)
• 07/22/25: Whose Politics Canceled Stephen Colbert?
• 07/08/25: A Big Beautiful Test of GOP Principles and Discipline
• 07/01/25: Dems Need Populism, But Not Zohran's Sort
• 06/25/25: Secure Borders Win Wars Like This One
• 06/18/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/17/25: WEIRD Protesters Should Stay Home
• 06/04/25: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
• 05/07/24: The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party
• 05/06/24: Nationalists of the World, Unite?
• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
• 07/05/23: Could We Still Win a Revolutionary War?
• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
• 05/16/23: Feinstein Today Is Biden Tomorrow
• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
• 04/25/23: Who's In Charge of Clarence Thomas?
• 04/11/23: Beyond AI, Our Cyborg Future
• 04/04/23: 2024: 3 Leaders, 1 Way to Win
• 03/28/23: Climate Science Makes a Bad Religion
• 03/21/23: All the Conspiracy That's Fit to Print