Minneapolis riots, Feeding Our Future fraud lead list of vulnerabilities for Walz on national ticket

Gov. Tim Walz had been in office for just over a year when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in Minnesota and civil unrest engulfed the Twin Cities after the police killing of George Floyd.

Minnesota Republicans frequently criticized Walz’s handling of both crises during his 2022 re-election campaign, but the 60-year-old governor’s decisions will get deeper scrutiny now that he is on the national ticket. Those events, along with concerns about fraud that took place under his administration, are likely targets for former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

“I have a record in Minnesota that’s extensive, and I think people will take a look at that and they will make a decision on what they think is best for them,” Walz told reporters recently.

U.S. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Republican who represents a suburban Twin Cities district, called Walz an “empty suit” and launched a line of partisan criticism on social media Tuesday that will no doubt be repeated in coming weeks.

“He embodies the same disastrous economic, open-borders, and soft-on-crime policies Harris has inflicted on our country the last four years,” Emmer’s post read.

Another issue with Walz is his speaking style. While knowledgeable and willing to defer when he’s not prepared to answer, he knows how to speak in terms average voters can relate to, such as referring to the Trump ticket as weird. In debates, interviews and news conferences, he appears comfortable speaking extemporaneously and from the heart without notes. But he can at times provide meandering responses that change direction.

Trump’s official campaign account on X posted criticism of Walz as soon as Vice President Kamala Harris announced him as her running mate. The Trump camp roasted Walz for signing a 2023 bill allowing unauthorized immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, and highlighted his handling of the protests after Floyd’s murder.

“Rioters burned Minneapolis to the ground for days. Tim Walz was nowhere to be found,” the campaign’s post read.

Expect to hear much more of that criticism in the coming months. The Trump campaign and other Republicans were already criticizing Harris for urging donations to a Minnesota-based bail fund for those arrested in the Floyd protests. Walz will now be under more intense scrutiny for his handling of the riots.

“They make an interesting tag team, because of course, Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020. And then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail,” Vance told Fox News on Tuesday.

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis echoed that sentiment in a post on X Tuesday: “Minnesota was ground zero for the BLM riots of 2020. Harris egged it on and Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn.”

The Twin Cities saw extensive unrest, looting, vandalism and arson after Floyd’s murder. Law enforcement struggled to contain the sprawling protests, prompting some neighborhoods to set up loose patrols of their own streets.

Minneapolis police were ordered to evacuate their Third Precinct building — in the heart of the riots— and saw it torched by protesters. The Minnesota National Guard had been ready for deployment to assist police in riot control, but the Guard didn’t arrive at the precinct until hours after it had burned. A National Guard Bureau spokesman said Walz, who activated the Guard, was in charge of the deployment timeline.

Relations between Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey remain frosty on the topic. After the precinct burned, Walz criticized Frey’s response as an “abject failure.” A spokesman for Walz said Frey didn’t provide enough information to define a mission for the Guard.

Months later, Frey blamed Walz, saying the governor didn’t take his requests for assistance seriously until it was too late. After-action assessments determined there had been a communication breakdown.

Walz was recently asked about the response. “When you’re serving in the moment on these things, I think on anything, you go back and look,” Walz said. “Decisions were made in a situation that is what it is, and I said we believed we tried to do the best that we can in each of those.”

Harris campaign spokesperson Caroline Stonecipher said in a statement that Walz has fought to keep Minnesota communities safe.

“That’s why he invested over $300 million in public safety — putting more cops on the street, funding more criminal prosecutors, investing in body cameras and opposed defunding the police. It’s a stark contrast from Donald Trump, a convicted criminal who oversaw a spike in violent crime nationwide and made cities across the country less safe when he had power.”

Along with hearing about his response to the riots, expect to hear plenty about Walz’s support and signature on a raft of progressive policies passed by the DFL-controlled Legislature in 2023. In one session, the Legislature enshrined abortion rights into the state Constitution, provided free meals for all K-12 students regardless of income, and made Minnesota a sanctuary for those seeking gender-affirming care. The governor and the Legislature also reinstated voting rights for felons upon release from incarceration.

The governor will talk about his lifelong affinity for hunting, dating back to his days with his late father. He’s signed gun-safety measures the past two legislative sessions, including a red flag bill and a ban on binary triggers.

Republicans also complain that Walz and the Legislature grew government by spending an unexpectedly large increase in state revenue on new programs and initiatives, rather than cutting taxes.

State GOP Chair David Hann issued a written statement criticizing the riot and pandemic responses as well as fiscal concerns. “What Minnesotans most remember about Walz’s current term is his broken promise to return the $17 billion budget surplus to taxpayers,” Hann wrote. “Instead, Walz added an additional $10 billion of new taxes.”

Walz’s military service came under attack during the 2022 gubernatorial campaign from his Republican opponent, former state Sen. Scott Jensen, who questioned Walz’s military career, claiming the governor bailed on his troops when they needed him in 2005. The attack didn’t stick. “We all do what we can. I’m proud I did 24 years,” Walz said. “I have an honorable record.”

Another recurring line of attack on Walz is that his administration hasn’t been on top of fraud and waste.

The state Department of Education’s failure to check what became one of the nation’s largest pandemic-era frauds is a key point. Feeding Our Future stole $250 million from a federal program aimed at providing meals to children during the pandemic.

Minnesota’s nonpartisan legislative auditor, a government watchdog, found that the department “failed to act on warning signs,” and that the agency’s inadequate oversight led to the fraud.

There have been other critical audits of state agencies during Walz’s tenure, many of them involving financial mismanagement. Republicans have called on Walz and his administration to enforce more accountability.

Walz recently said, “I think what you’re seeing is, if you commit fraud in Minnesota, you are going to get caught, you are going to go to prison. It’s that simple.”

Other pandemic issues were his use of executive powers to close businesses and shut down schools during the early months of the viral spread. He has also been criticized for the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

Republicans say they were cut out of the pandemic response. Walz prevailed in court challenges to his use of executive powers.

Since Democrats won full control of the Legislature and governor’s office in 2022, Republicans have frequently complained that Walz has not cultivated bipartisan input or cooperation.

The governor’s administration made other missteps.

After Minnesota legalized recreational marijuana last year, Walz appointed a hemp shop owner, Erin DuPree, to run the state’s new agency. DuPree stepped down the next day after the Star Tribune reported she had sold illegal products at her hemp shop and had federal tax liens and judgments against her.

The legislative auditor later found the governor’s office missed standard background check steps before appointing DuPree.

Staff writer Briana Bierschbach contributed to this story.