Tim Walz's political career just crashed and burned in spectacular fashion.
Now Democrats are scrambling to replace him with a failed presidential candidate who has one truly disturbing skeleton in her closet.
And a failed presidential candidate is reportedly considering a decision that could haunt Democrats forever amid the Walz bombshell.
Failed 2020 presidential candidate eyes the governor's mansion
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced Monday morning that he's abandoning his campaign for a third term after the massive fraud scandal consuming his administration became impossible to defend.
The Democrat who served as Kamala Harris' failed running mate cited the need to focus on his job rather than a reelection campaign.
But Walz's exit created an immediate vacancy at the top of the Democrat ticket in a state Republicans haven't won the governor's mansion in since 2006.
Enter Senator Amy Klobuchar — the failed 2020 presidential candidate who dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden after her campaign imploded.
Multiple sources told reporters that Klobuchar is "seriously considering" jumping into the governor's race after meeting with Walz on Sunday.
A source close to Klobuchar said she's "getting outreach from people encouraging her to run" but hasn't made a final decision.¹
Klobuchar would be an instant frontrunner given her name recognition and fundraising ability after four terms in the Senate.
But there's one problem Democrats would rather forget.
Amy Klobuchar once ate a salad with a comb she pulled from her hair — and then made her aide clean it.
Klobuchar's disturbing history of staff abuse exposed
The bizarre 2008 incident happened during a trip to South Carolina when an aide purchased a salad for Klobuchar while rushing through the airport but forgot to grab plastic utensils.
According to four people familiar with the episode, Klobuchar "berated" the aide after explaining there were no forks on the short flight.
She then pulled a comb from her bag and ate the entire salad with it before handing the comb to her staffer with a directive: "Clean it."²
The New York Times reported the story as part of a devastating 2019 investigation into Klobuchar's treatment of staff that featured interviews with more than two dozen former staffers.
Former aides described working for Klobuchar as "dehumanizing" and said she controlled her Washington office with "fear, anger and shame."³
But the comb incident was just the tip of the iceberg.
Klobuchar routinely threw objects around her office — with one aide accidentally hit by a flying binder.
She sent cruel late-night emails berating subordinates over minor details.
She forced low-level employees to wash dishes in her home in violation of Senate rules and federal law against personal use of office staff.
She blamed one former aide for "ruining" her marriage and told another staffer she would "trade three of you for a bottle of water."⁴
The mistreatment got so bad that then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid pulled Klobuchar aside in 2015 and told her to change her behavior.⁵
When asked about the conversation with Reid, Klobuchar claimed "he doesn't remember that and I don't remember that either."⁶
Klobuchar's office had the highest staff turnover rate in the entire Senate between 2001 and 2018.
Her reputation became so toxic in Washington that multiple potential campaign managers declined to lead her 2020 Presidential campaign specifically because of how she treated staff.⁷
Republicans smell blood in the water
The fraud scandal that took down Walz hands Republicans their best opportunity in decades to flip Minnesota's governor's mansion.
Federal prosecutors estimate the fraud in Minnesota's social services programs could top $9 billion.⁸
A viral video by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley exposed child care centers in Minneapolis collecting millions in taxpayer dollars while operating empty facilities.
President Trump's administration responded by freezing all federal child care funding to Minnesota and launching investigations through the Department of Health and Human Services, ICE, and the FBI.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer scheduled two separate hearings where Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison are expected to testify.
The Treasury Department is even investigating whether Minnesota's taxpayer dollars ended up funding al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate designated as a foreign terrorist organization.⁹
President Trump pulled no punches in his criticism.
Trump called Minnesota a "hub of fraudulent money laundering activity" and described Somali immigrants in the state as "scammers."
The President went so far as to use a slur for people with intellectual disabilities to describe Walz on his Truth Social platform over Thanksgiving.¹⁰
State GOP chairman Alex Plechash wasted no time going after Klobuchar.
"Democrats want to replace him with Senator Amy Klobuchar — a career Washington politician who would bring the same failed, dysfunctional D.C. politics to Minnesota," Plechash said in a statement.¹¹
"Klobuchar didn't just stand by during the Walz years — she cheered them on."
A field of 14 GOP candidates has already registered to run including Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.
Republicans are already planning attack ads featuring the comb story alongside Klobuchar's record of the highest staff turnover in the Senate.
The contrast writes itself: a senator so abusive to her own employees that Harry Reid had to intervene now wants to run an entire state government.
Democrats are desperately trying to paper over Walz's fraud scandal by replacing him with a senator who forced staffers to clean the hair comb she used to eat salad.
That's the best Minnesota Democrats can do.
This race just became Republicans' for the taking.
¹ Torey Van Oot and Erin Adler, "U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar seriously considering run for Minnesota governor," Star Tribune, January 5, 2026.
² Matt Flegenheimer and Sydney Ember, "How Amy Klobuchar Treats Her Staff," New York Times, February 22, 2019.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Paul Blumenthal and Amanda Terkel, "Harry Reid Rebuked Amy Klobuchar For Mistreatment Of Staff," HuffPost, February 8, 2019.
⁶ Tal Axelrod, "Klobuchar: 'I don't remember' conversation with Reid over alleged staff mistreatment," The Hill, February 13, 2019.
⁷ Blumenthal and Terkel, "Harry Reid Rebuked Amy Klobuchar."
⁸ Alex Marlow, "Everything we know about Minnesota's massive fraud schemes," CBS News, January 2, 2026.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ Caroline Cummings, "Gov. Walz, ending his reelection bid amid state fraud crisis, says no sadness or regrets," CBS Minnesota, January 5, 2026.
¹¹ Van Oot and Adler, "Klobuchar seriously considering run."
