Kendall Qualls had lunch with supporters at Peg’s Countryside Cafe in Hamel, Minnesota in September 2020 during his campaign for Congress in CD3 against Democrat Dean Phillips. (Glen Stubbe, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Kendall Qualls announced a run for governor Sunday in a brief, exclusive appearance on "Fox & Friends," joining a crowded field of GOP candidates looking to unseat DFL Gov. Tim Walz.

The Army veteran and former health care executive who unsuccessfully ran as a political newcomer in Minnesota's Third Congressional District in 2020 repeated some of the talking points from that campaign during his gubernatorial announcement on Sunday.

Qualls told Fox that he was filing as a candidate on the Republican ticket "because in our state we were ground zero — all of the rioting, looting and defunding the police initiatives all started and spread across the country."

"And even now, two years later, we're suffering from record crime across our state," he said. "And in the center of it all is our governor, Tim Walz, for allowing that to happen, his weak leadership..."

A host of "Fox and Friends" cut Qualls off mid-sentence to thank the candidate for his time, adding that his personal story is one of inspiration. "Hopefully, you can inspire Minnesota," the host said.

On his campaign website, Qualls shared that he has lived in Harlem and at a trailer park in rural Oklahoma. He is the first and only member of his family to earn a college education. He graduated from Cameron University in 1985, earned his master's degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1988 and a master's degree in business administration in 2011 from University of Michigan. He served as a field artillery officer, including a tour in South Korea, before he was honorably discharged due to a knee injury.

Qualls and his wife Sheila have five children and live in Medina. They founded TakeCharge MN, which promotes two-parent families and opposes Critical Race Theory.

In a statement about Qualls' candidacy, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin wrote that Qualls endorsed and voted for Donald Trump, "whose policies put millions of Americans' health care and livelihoods in jeopardy, and now he is traveling the state pushing extreme Republican talking points in order to divide us."

"Minnesotans in the Third Congressional District already rejected Kendall Qualls's candidacy and I have no doubt it will happen again," Martin wrote. "This move only makes the messy GOP primary messier with no benefit to Minnesotans."

Several other GOP candidates have announced their candidacy for governor, including former Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, GOP Sen. Michelle Benson, Scott Jensen, a Chaska physician who recently retired from the state Senate, Lexington Mayor Mike Murphy and Dr. Neil Shah.

In December, businessman Mike Marti dropped out of the governor's race. The Republican Party will nominate a candidate in May.