Educators From The United States

"More than 90 people — most from Minnesota's large Somali community — have been charged since 2022 in what has been described as the nation's largest COVID-era scheme. How much money has been stolen through alleged money laundering operations involving fraudulent meal and housing programs, daycare centers, and Medicaid services is still being tabulated. But the U.S. attorney in Minnesota said the scope of the fraud could exceed $1 billion and rise to as high as $9 billion. Prosecutors said that some of the dozens that have already pleaded guilty in the case used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, jewelry and international vacations, with some of the funds also sent overseas and potentially into the hands of Islamic terrorists. "This is on my watch, I am accountable for this and, more importantly, I am the one that will fix it," Walz told reporters last month, as he took responsibility for the scandal. The governor took actions to stop some of the suspected fraudulent payments, and ordered an outside audit of Medicaid billing in the state. But Trump repeatedly blasted Walz as "incompetent" and, during Thanksgiving, used a slur for developmentally disabled people to describe the governor. The scandal, which grabbed plenty of national attention over the past two months, went viral the past few weeks following the release of a video by 23-year-old YouTube content creator Nick Shirley, who alleged widespread fraud at Somali-run daycare centers. Days later, the Trump administration froze federal child-care funding to Minnesota."

"Reactions quickly began to pour in following the Walz announcement. "Good riddance," Republican House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who represents Minnesota's 6th Congressional District, said in a statement. Minnesota Republican state Rep. Kristin Robbins, a candidate for governor, released a statement saying, "Tim Walz and his staggering fraud could not outrun our investigations and the momentum we have in this race. He knows he will lose in November, and would rather give up than take responsibility. Anyone Walz handpicks to run for governor will own the fraud and failures of this administration. Our campaign is building the coalition necessary to stop the fraud, protect our kids, and make Minnesota prosper. As Governor, I will dismantle the years of fraud Democrats allowed and ensure our tax dollars work for Minnesotans." Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, another leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, took to social media to argue, "If Democrats think they can sweep Minnesota’s fraud scandal away by swapping out Tim Walz, they are wrong." "We need transformational change across state government that only comes with a Republican governor. I will deliver that no matter who the Democrats decide to run," Demuth emphasized. But Democratic Governors Association (DGA) and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement, "No matter who decides to run or how much national Republicans want to spend, the DGA remains very confident Minnesotans will elect another strong Democratic governor this November." And Besehar praised Walz, a former DGA chair, as "a true leader who has delivered results that will make life better for Minnesota workers and families for years to come.""

"Walz launched a new fraud prevention program on Dec. 12, led by a former FBI agent. He applauded the new federal charges on Thursday. "This is exactly the type of strong action we need from prosecutors to ensure fraudsters are put behind bars," Walz said in a statement. "We will not tolerate fraud, and we will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught." James Clark, inspector general of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, said in a statement Thursday the agency "has been moving more aggressively than ever to suspend payments where we see evidence of fraud." He also urged federal officials to share information with the agency, which oversees many of the programs that were hit by fraud allegations. "If there is evidence of Medicaid fraud, the state should be given the information so DHS can slam the door shut on payments to those individuals and businesses," Clark said."

"The 61-year-old Walz was raised in rural Nebraska and enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1981, soon after graduating from high school. Walz returned to Nebraska to attend Chadron State College, where he graduated in 1989 with a degree in social science education. He taught English and American History in China for one year through a program at Harvard University before being hired in 1990 as a high school teacher and football and basketball coach in Nebraska. Six years later, he moved to Mankato, Minnesota, to teach geography at Mankato West High. Waltz was deployed to Italy to support Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003 before retiring two years later from the National Guard at the rank of command sergeant major. He was elected to the House in 2006 and re-elected five times, representing Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, a mostly rural district covering the southern part of the state that includes a number of midsize cities. During his last two years on Capitol Hill, he served as ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Walz won election as governor in 2018 and re-election four years later. But Walz was unknown to many Americans when then-Vice President Kamala Harris chose the Minnesota governor as her running mate in the summer of 2024, soon after she replaced then-President Joe Biden as the Democrats' presidential nominee. Walz, during his three months as running mate, visually and vocally embraced the traditional role of political attack dog that has long been associated with vice presidential nominees. But Harris and Walz fell short, losing the November 2024 election to Trump and now-Vice President JD Vance, as the Democratic Party ticket was swept in all seven crucial battleground states."

"In an apparent swipe at Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the recipients said they believe that "fabricating military service is beneath the dignity of a veteran and demeaning to those who have served honorably in the Armed Forces." Walz had come under fire for his service in the Minnesota National Guard. He retired in 2005 after 24 years of service ahead of his battalion being deployed to Iraq. He’s been faced with accusations of "stolen valor," with some saying he retired early and did not complete trainings. The recipients also said they believe that "the enemies of freedom must be defeated," and that "the flag is a powerful symbol of freedom." "We believe the United States of America is the greatest nation the world has ever imagined. We believe in mutually pledging to every American our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor," they wrote. "We believe in Donald Trump." Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz campaign touted in September the endorsements from "a bipartisan group of more than 700 national security leaders and former military officials." The Harris-Walz campaign declined to comment on the Trump endorsements when reached Friday by Fox News Digital."

"Mr. Walz brought passion every day. He loved to coach. He loved to teach. [As for football,] if you don’t do your job, there’s literally a hole there for them to run the ball through. Tim, he just had a way of not making you feel bad but making you want to do better."

"A straight, football-coaching national guardsman wasn’t the LGBT+ ally that Seth Elliot Meyer expected. But Meyer, who came out as queer in his freshman year of high school in 2000, admits he was wrong about Tim Walz. “I just sort of naively believed that someone who was a big, masculine dude with a deep voice was never someone who’s going to be on my side,” Meyer says. “As much as those younger students who were courageous enough to be out in those years, it was just as important to have those very kind of ‘normal,’ strong, straight, masculine allies backing us up.”"

"Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota announced on Monday that he's dropping his bid for a third term as governor amid stinging criticism of the unsuccessful 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee's handling of his state's massive welfare assistance fraud scandal. "The political gamesmanship we’re seeing from Republicans is only making that fight harder to win," Walz charged in a statement. "But as I reflected on this moment with my family and my team over the holidays, I came to the conclusion that I can’t give a political campaign my all," the governor added. "Every minute I spend defending my own political interests would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who prey on our differences." "So I’ve decided to step out of the race and let others worry about the election while I focus on the work," the governor announced.Walz launched his bid for a third four-year term as Minnesota governor in September, but in recent weeks has been facing a barrage of incoming political fire from President Donald Trump and Republicans, and some Democrats, over the large-scale theft in a state that has long prided itself on good governance."

"In recent weeks, Trump has ramped up his efforts to link Walz to the abuse of government programs — while using incendiary rhetoric directed at the governor and the Somali community. In a social media post on Thanksgiving, he called Walz “seriously retarded” and accused Somali refugees of seeking to “prey” on Minnesotans. And at an early December rally in Pennsylvania, he again denigrated the Somali community while discussing “the great big Minnesota scam with one of the dumbest governors ever in history.” Emmer, who said he spoke with Trump about the governor’s race as early as July, said he believes the president recognizes an opportunity in Walz’s vulnerability. “I think the president knows that Tim Walz is the weakest he’s ever been in his political career,” Emmer said. Former Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Daudt, a Republican, said the fraud investigations are part of the risk for Walz in seeking a third consecutive term. “If you can lay out a case that, ‘Well, you’ve been elected now for eight years, and you haven’t fixed these problems,’ or ‘You haven’t accomplished what you said you were going to’ … it kind of makes it an easier case to say, ‘Maybe it’s time for someone new,’” Daudt said. But the rhetoric Trump is using to highlight the fraud may reframe the issue to the detriment of Walz’s Republican opponent, said Brodkorb,the former party official. He believes Minnesotans are eager to weigh ideas on immigration policy and how to tackle abuse of public programs. “The problem is when the president comes in and says things like, ‘Everyone in the entire Somali community is garbage,’” Brodkorb said."

"In response to a request for comment to a Walz spokesperson, Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Richard Carlbom said in a statement that Walz “heads into reelection with a record focused squarely on working people and kitchen-table issues.” “While the GOP clown-car primary remains consumed by infighting and loyalty tests for Donald Trump, Minnesota families are falling behind as Republicans unleash higher grocery prices, skyrocketing health care bills, and giant tax breaks for billionaires,” Carlbom said. “Minnesotans see the difference — a governor delivering for working families, or Republicans delivering loyalty to Donald Trump and a Washington agenda that puts billionaires first.”"

"Still, Republicans see an opportunity to win back the Minnesota governor’s seat for the first time since 2006 by hammering Walz, who is running despite scrutiny into his oversight of state benefits and a star turn as the Democratic vice presidential nominee that put him in the crosshairs of Republicans across the country. At the same time, Trump has also used the arrests of some Somali immigrants in federal fraud cases to broadly characterize the state’s Somali population as criminals — leaning on his trademark use of divisive rhetoric that some Republicans worry will fall flat. That risk, insiders warn, could be exacerbated if Lindell, a Trump ally, wins the Republican nomination. “We’d be cooked,” said Dustin Grage, a Minnesota Republican strategist. “I’d be moving to Florida very shortly. We would lose pretty badly if Mike Lindell were to get the nomination.” Those close to the president strenuously disagree, arguing the state remains on the map. House GOP Whip Tom Emmer, the most high-profile Minnesota Republican and an ally of the president, said he’s spoken to Trump about the governor’s race and is confident that any of the 13 Republicans seeking the party’s nomination could defeat Walz."

"In the years since his tenure heading the GSA, Walz has made supporting LGBTQ+ rights a pillar of his political career, never shying away from it even when it may have helped him win elections to do so."

"Minnesota has been the white whale for Republicans in the Trump era. And 2026 could be the year they finally break through — if President Donald Trump and one of the most prolific peddlers of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election don’t sink their chances. Republicans are growing optimistic about their chances of unseating Democratic Gov. Tim Walz next year, as he seeks a historic third term. But Trump’s increasingly caustic attacks on Walz and disparagement of Minnesota’s Somali community — and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s entrance into the gubernatorial race — could hurt Republicans’ chances of regaining ground in the state, some party strategists argue. “When the president comes in with a flamethrower and just throws that type of rhetoric, there’s no oxygen, and there’s no space for the Republican to offer suggestions and to be thoughtful in that space, because the rhetoric of the president just paints them into a corner,” said Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy chair of the Minnesota GOP who backed the Democratic ticket in 2024. Republicans have insisted they can be competitive statewide in the blue-leaning Minnesota ever since Trump lost Minnesota by less than 2 points in 2016. But since then, winning the state has beguiled both the president — who faced a 7-point loss in 2020 and a 4-point loss in 2024 — and Republicans in other statewide races, including two fairly comfortable wins for Walz in 2018 and 2022."

"Walz has emerged as a vocal critic of the second Trump administration, prompting a feud between the two. After a Democratic lawmaker was killed by a gunman and a second was seriously injured earlier this year, Trump said he would not “waste time” calling the “whacked out” governor. Walz’s growing national profile both makes him a high-profile target in the 2026 midterms worthy of trying to defeat, GOP strategists say — but Trump’s intense focus on the race could also backfire given the state’s political makeup. “Having Donald Trump being active in the race for a particular Republican may not be helpful, but it would be extremely helpful to raise the attention on Tim Walz and his record here in the state,” Daudt said. And if Trump ends up throwing his weight behind Lindell — who conspired with Trump in 2020 to advance false claims that the presidential election was stolen — Republicans worry that could give Walz a clearer path to reelection."

"With Walz at the helm and the support of the well-respected school principal, the GSA didn’t face as much hate as they expected, but there were still detractors. Reitan recalls that every time the GSA put up posters advertising the group or one of their events, they would get pulled down and ripped up. Not to be deterred, the high school senior always picked up the pieces and eventually turned them into a mural emblazoned with the words, “Symbols of our hate.” The group also faced backlash when it came time for them to organize a Human Rights Week for the school, which focused on a different form of discrimination each day for a week, including gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. Both the school and Reitan’s parents received angry letters and phone calls from disgruntled parents who threatened to keep their teens home on the day sexual orientation would be highlighted, but Walz refused to back down and kowtow to closed-minded parents."

"The late ‘90s and early 2000s were a rough time to be a gay teen. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was still in effect, the U.S. was many years away from the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage, Mathew Shepard was murdered in a horrific anti-gay hate crime that made national headlines in 1998, homophobic jokes were the norm on TV, and LGBTQ+ students were being harassed at schools all across the country. Today we are living through a moment when history is being made by a woman of color becoming the Democratic nominee for president of the United States for the first time — and by Kamala Harris' side is Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz, who has been breaking down barriers and standing up for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community since his days as a high school teacher in the '90s."

"It was during this turbulent period that gay attorney and LGBTQ+ rights activist Jacob Reitan attended Mankato West High School in a Minnesota suburb where Walz taught social studies and coached the football team. “I did receive a fair bit of bullying,” Reitan told PRIDE. “My house was egged, my car window was smashed in the school parking lot, gay epithets were chalked in my driveway, a brick was thrown through my dad’s office window.” Born out of his “activist spirit” and his desire to come out of the closet and stop the bullying, Reitan founded his school’s first Gay Straight Alliance in 1999 with the help of the man who is now delivering stump speeches alongside presidential hopeful Harris."

"In 2023, Walz signed a statewide bill banning so-called conversion therapy, the widely discredited and disavowed practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The conversion therapy ban forbids any medical or mental healthcare practitioner from offering such therapy to minors and “vulnerable” adults. It also forbids any entities from publishing advertising that refers to LGBTQ+ identities as “a mental disease, disorder or illness” or promises to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Practitioners who break the law could face discipline from the state’s health licensing boards. During the law’s signing ceremony, Walz stated, “Minnesota says, ‘Welcome to a state who values who you are and protects you for who you are.’”"

"Last year, as Minnesota’s governor, Walz returned to Holocaust education, and supported and signed a law requiring the state’s middle and high schools to teach about the Holocaust. The law, initiated and championed by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, also encourages schools to teach about other genocides. A working group for the curriculum hit snags earlier this summer when a pro-Palestinian activist was removed from the committee amid debates on whether Israel’s conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide. The mandate is still anticipated to go into effect in the 2025-2026 school year. “This is going to work out, this is going to be good, because the governor and his staff are highly attuned to the concerns and sensitivities of the Jewish community,” Ethan Roberts, the JCRC’s deputy executive director, told JTA. Speaking at a JCRC event in June, Walz said he had been “privileged and proud” to have participated in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum training early in his career. But he said more needed to be done, and he emphasized that the curriculum chosen to accomplish the requirement would determine its success. “We need to do better on Holocaust education. We need to do better on ethnic studies,” he told the crowd. “And I tell you this as a teacher and as governor, too, we don’t need test scores or anything to tell us that we’re failing.” It was the kind of message that former Mankato West students said they came to expect from him. “He is what you hope a great teacher is,” said Solo, “which is someone who’s not only teaching, but also learning at all times.”"

"Effective July 2025, teacher licensing rules passed last year in Minnesota under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz will ban practicing Christians, Jews, and Muslims from teaching in public schools. Walz is now the presidential running mate of current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris. His resume includes a stint as a high school social studies teacher who sponsored a student queer sex club in 1999. Starting next July, Minnesota agencies controlled by Walz appointees will require teacher license applicants to affirm transgenderism and race Marxism. Without a teaching license, individuals cannot work in Minnesota public schools, nor in the private schools that require such licenses. The latest version of the regulations requires teachers to “affirm” students’ “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to receive a Minnesota teaching license: "The teacher fosters an environment that ensures student identities such as race/ethnicity, national origin, language, sex and gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical/developmental/emotional ability, socioeconomic class, and religious beliefs are historically and socially contextualized, affirmed, and incorporated into a learning environment where students are empowered to learn and contribute as their whole selves.""

"Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, has emerged as a prominent figure in American politics, known for his dedication to creating an inclusive and equitable society for all and his unwavering support of LGBTQ+ rights and commitment to social justice. Serving since January 2019, Walz’s political career spans over a decade, including his tenure as a U.S. Representative for Minnesota. His background as a retired Master Sergeant in the Army National Guard and a former high school teacher uniquely positions him as a leader who understands the values (and shortcomings) of military, educational, and governmental realms. Recently, his strong leadership and progressive values have placed him among those being considered as a potential vice presidential pick for Kamala Harris, further elevating his national profile and influence."

"Walz was describing, in effect, his own approach to teaching the Holocaust that he implemented in Alliance, Nebraska, years earlier. In the state’s remote northwest region, Walz asked his global geography class to study the common factors that linked the Holocaust to other historical genocides, including economic strife, totalitarian ideology and colonialism. The year was 1993. At year’s end, Walz and his class correctly predicted that Rwanda was most at risk of sliding into genocide. “The Holocaust is taught too often purely as a historical event, an anomaly, a moment in time,” Walz told The New York Times in 2008, reflecting on those Alliance lessons. “That relieves us of responsibility. Obviously, the mastermind was sociopathic, but on the scale for it to happen, there had to be a lot of people in the country who chose to go down that path.”"

"When Mankato West High School principal John Barnett suggested Walz for the role of GSA faculty advisor, Reitan knew he’d be the right fit because of how accepting both Walz and his wife Gwen — who was also a dedicated high school teacher at the time — had always been. In fact, Gwen Walz was the third person Reitan ever told he was gay after first coming out to his sister and a close friend. “Gwen was my teacher in the 10th grade, and [she] started her 10th-grade class by saying, ‘This is a safe space for LGBTQ+ people.’ I’d never heard a teacher say positive things about gay people from the front of the classroom,” he said. Starting a group for LGBTQ+ students and their allies in a small city in the Midwest during the late '90s was no easy feat, but choosing the ultimate All-American teacher to lead it turned out to be a brilliant decision."

"Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) likened President Trump’s immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities to the barbaric Nazi occupation chronicled by Anne Frank. “We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz declared during a fiery press conference on Sunday. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank.” “Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.” Frank famously chronicled her harrowing time in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands for over two years before her capture. Ultimately, she died in a concentration camp. Taking a somber tone, Walz vowed to be defiant in the face of Operation Metro Surge and re-upped his well-worn demands for the Trump administration to end the surge of federal law enforcement personnel to the state."

"“If it was the intention of Donald Trump to make an example of Minnesota, then I’m damn proud of the example that the world is seeing,” the governor added. Tensions in Minneapolis have soared in the wake of a Border Patrol agent’s shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse, on Saturday. Footage showed multiple officers pinning Pretti to the ground and removing his 9mm handgun, the gun slide of which appeared to move. Officers then opened fire on Pretti. Attorney General Pam Bondi penned a letter to Walz on how to end the chaos in Minnesota but the governor shrugged that off. “There’s 2 million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on. Go ahead and work on those,” Walz snapped back on Sunday. “We cooperate. We don’t do their job,” Walz later contended when pressed about the Trump administration’s demands that it can get more access to the state’s jails. “It’s their job to do immigration.” The shooting of Pretti came some two weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot Renee Good, also 37, after she accelerated her SUV in his direction. An investigation into Pretti’s death is ongoing, according to top officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem."

"I heard that when {Walz} was vetted {by the Harris campaign}, one of the questions they asked was how skilled is he at using a teleprompter, and he said: "I don’t use a teleprompter. You’re going to have to teach me how to do that." This is a teacher who knows what needs to be said, whether it’s on the field or in the classroom. He doesn’t need it written out on cue cards or teleprompters because it’s coming from the heart . . . ."

"You know, when I was teaching, every year we’d elect a student body president. And you know what? Those teenagers could teach Donald Trump a hell of a lot about what a leader is. Leaders don’t spend all day insulting people and blaming others. Leaders do the work."

"In August Vance claimed: “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him.” Several former National Guard colleagues have previously publicly voiced frustrations at Walz’s decision to leave their unit before deployment to Iraq but others have rejected assertions that he retired to avoid combat duty. In February 2005, while he was still in the National Guard, Walz filed an application to run for election as a member of Congress from Minnesota. The following month it was announced that there would be “a possible partial mobilisation of roughly 2,000 troops from the Minnesota National Guard” to Iraq within the next two years, according to a 2005 press release from Walz’s congressional campaign. In the statement, Walz said: “I do not yet know if my artillery unit will be part of this mobilisation.” He added: “I don’t want to speculate on what shape my campaign will take if I am deployed, but I have no plans to drop out of the race." Walz retired from the National Guard in May 2005, which he later said was so he could focus fully on running for Congress. His National Guard unit received orders to mobilise for Iraq in July 2005, and was sent there in March 2006, according to the battalion’s history page. On 13 August 2024, Mr Walz responded directly to his critics, recalling that he'd joined the National Guard aged 17: "I served for the next 24 years for the same reason all my brothers and sisters do, we love this country. Then in 2005 I felt the call of duty again, this time giving service to my country in the halls of Congress.""

"In Judi Agustin’s freshman year at Mankato West High School, her teacher instructed her to wear a yellow star. It was part of a Holocaust curriculum at the school, located in a remote area of Minnesota with barely any Jews. For a week, freshmen were asked to wear the yellow stars, which were reminiscent of the ones the Nazis made the Jews wear. Seniors played the part of the Gestapo, charged with persecuting the “Jews.” Unlike everyone else in her class in the 2001-2002 school year, Agustin was Jewish. The experience “was incredibly hurtful and offensive and scary,” she recalled on Tuesday. Her father complained to the district, and wrote a letter to the local paper decrying the lesson. In response, she recalled, the head of the department put a stop to them. The teacher who intervened, according to her recollection was the current vice presidential nominee Tim Walz. “When Tim Walz found out about it, he squashed it real quick, and as far as I understand they never did it again,” Agustin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “So he was an advocate for my experience, as one of four Jewish kids in the entire school district. And I always felt like he had our back.” Walz is on the campaign trail this week with Vice President Kamala Harris, his running mate, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. JTA could not independently verify that he was the teacher who stopped the Mankato West lesson. But it’s clear that how to teach the Holocaust well has occupied Walz for decades. In 1993, while teaching in Nebraska, he was part of an inaugural conference of US educators convened by the soon-to-open US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Eight years later, after moving to Minnesota, he wrote a thesis arguing for changes in Holocaust education. And as governor, he backed a push to mandate teaching about the Holocaust in Minnesota schools. Through it all, Walz modeled and argued for careful instruction that treated the Holocaust as one of multiple genocides worth understanding."

"You know, you might not know it, but I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this. But I have given a lot of pep talks. So let me finish with this, team. It’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal. But we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball. We’re driving down the field. And boy, do we have the right team."

"If you’ve never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you, you know somebody who has. I can remember praying each night for a phone call. The pit in your stomach when the phone would ring, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked."

"Even if we wouldn't make those same choices for ourselves, we've got a golden rule. Mind your own damn business, [the audience responded with a round of applause] and that includes, IVF infertility treatments, and this is personal for Gwen and I."

"The USDA’s announcement coincides with a federal ruling that the Trump administration cannot block federal money for childcare subsidies and other programs aimed at supporting low-income families with children from reaching five Democratic-led states, including Minnesota. The Trump administration has targeted Minnesota over the past year over allegations of fraud, specifically going after the state’s Somali population. Federal prosecutors estimate as much as $9bn has been stolen across schemes allegedly linked to the state’s Somali population. Trump ended legal protections for Somali immigrants in the state in November 2025, claiming that “Somali gangs are terrorizing the people of that great State, and BILLIONS of Dollars are missing. Send them back to where they came from.” Shortly thereafter, Trump went off on both Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota congressional representative who is from Somalia and is a US citizen, in a xenophobic rant during a cabinet meeting. “They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” the president said. He called Omar “garbage” and said “we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country”."

"[If] you're feeling deflated, discouraged today, I get it. Take some time, take care of yourselves, take care of your loved ones, take care of your community! There's a million ways to make a positive difference and get back in this fight when you're ready. And know that, when you're ready to get back in that fight, I'll be standing right here, ready to fight the fight with you."

"Born on April 6, 1964, in West Point, Nebraska, Tim Walz grew up in the state’s rural northwestern area of Valentine. He entered the Army National Guard in 1981 at the age of 17, serving 24 years and retiring as a Command Sergeant Major in 2005. In 1989, he earned a bachelor’s in social science education from Chadron State College, and In 2001, he earned a master’s in educational leadership from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Walz was a high school teacher and coach. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, representing Minnesota’s 1st congressional district and winning re-election every two years until he became governor in 2018. In the House, he focused largely on veterans issues and became known for his bipartisanship. As governor, he focused on police and firearm reform, cannabis legalization, and educational funding. He won re-election as governor in 2022."

"Walz’s first executive order as governor was to install a “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” or DEI, council. Former Minnesota state legislator Allen Quist notes that “The radical Walz administration Department of Human Rights has also forced school districts to report student discipline by race and require equal outcomes (equity) in discipline. The results have been horrific chaos and violence.” During Walz’s governorship, student achievement in Minnesota has gone from among the best in the nation to declining more sharply than anywhere else in the nation, according to the Minneapolis-based Center for the American Experiment. The most recent scores show Minnesota fourth graders dipping below the national average in reading for the first time ever recorded on the well-respected Nation’s Report Card. Research has found for decades that there is no link between teacher certification and student achievement. People who enter teaching with a degree other than in education tend to have significantly higher personal and student academic performance."

"Look, I know guns. I’m a veteran. I’m a hunter. And I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress, and I’ve got the trophies to prove it. But I’m also a dad. I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe."

"Freedom. When Republicans use the word freedom, they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. Corporations — free to pollute your air and water. And banks — free to take advantage of customers. But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love. Freedom to make your own health care decisions. And yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall."

"“Schools are teaching about the Jewish Holocaust, but the way it is traditionally being taught is not leading to increased knowledge of the causes of genocide in all parts of the world,” Walz wrote in his thesis, submitted in 2001. The thesis was the culmination of Walz’s master’s degree focused on Holocaust and genocide education at Minnesota State University, Mankato, which he earned while teaching at Mankato West. His 27-page thesis, which JTA obtained, is titled “Improving Human Rights and Genocide Studies in the American High School Classroom.” In it, Walz argues that the lessons of the “Jewish Holocaust” should be taught “in the greater context of human rights abuses,” rather than as a unique historical anomaly or as part of a larger unit on World War II. “To exclude other acts of genocide severely limited students’ ability to synthesize the lessons of the Holocaust and the ability to apply them elsewhere,” he wrote. He then took a position that he noted was “controversial” among Holocaust scholars: that the Holocaust should not be taught as unique but used to help students identify “clear patterns” with other historical genocides like the Armenian and Rwandan genocides."

"I was born in a small town in Nebraska, where community meant everything. . . . At 17, I joined the Army National Guard. For 24 years, I proudly wore the uniform of this nation. . . . I had the privilege of teaching public school social studies and coaching football for 20 years. . . . I lived in a red district, but my neighbors . . . graced me with the opportunity to go to the United States House of Representatives for 12 years to represent them. . . . And as governor of the great state of Minnesota, I brought all that experience . . . to tackling the challenges that were facing our state."

"[S]ome of us who have less hair and are old enough can remember when you could go to Thanksgiving . . . and not complain about politics the whole time . . . because you shared a commitment to democracy, a commitment to personal freedoms, a commitment to public education, a commitment to infrastructure."

"These are weird people on the other side. They wanna take books away, they wanna be in your exam room. That’s what it comes down to and don’t, you know, get sugar-coating this: these are weird ideas."

"Thank you, Madam Vice-President, for the trust we have put in me — but maybe more so, thank you for bringing back the joy. I am thrilled to be on this journey with you and Doug — this incredible journey."

"Now is the time to be bold and build a bright future for all Minnesotans. Now is the time to deliver. We can lead the nation in ending child poverty and making sure every child receives a world-class education. And in doing so, we will continue to make Minnesota the best place to raise a family. I have a positive vision for the future of our state and it’s rooted in my belief that we’re in this together. I still believe that we’re One Minnesota – not that we are all the same or that we all the agree, but that we can work together across lines of difference to do what’s right, what’s fair, and make our state a better place for all. As I look into this room and see so many newly elected leaders—including the promising faces of our new majorities in both the House and the Senate—I can’t help but feel optimistic. I’m looking at a state legislature—on both sides of the aisle—that looks more like the people of Minnesota than any time in history. This gives me hope. It inspires me. And I look forward to working together – Republicans and Democrats alike. I’ll work with anyone who’s willing to work with me to get things done – because Minnesotans spoke clearly this last election, and they expect all of us to do just that: get things done. The era of gridlock is over. Minnesotans have chosen hope over fear, fact over fiction, and action over excuses. Our path is clear. It’s time to lead."

"To all who have been elected to serve: Be the decent, dedicated, and diverse leaders you were elected to be. Be the ally, and the role model, and the change maker your constituents need you to be. Work pragmatically. Work with someone you never thought you could to accomplish something you never thought possible. We are not here to score political points. We are not here for victory laps. We are here to improve lives. We have a moment – and it’s not about which party won or which party is in control; this moment is about our opportunity to work collaboratively and get things done for Minnesotans. This is our opportunity to model what public service and public servants look like. This is our opportunity to make change, to make what was previously impossible possible, and to strengthen faith in government as a force for good. This is our opportunity to restore civility, transparency, and accessibility to the decision-making table for Minnesotans of all ages, races, genders, and zip codes. This is our opportunity to build One Minnesota, and to make our state the best place in the country to live, to work, and to raise a family. This is our opportunity. Let’s get to work."

"I can't wait to debate the guy–that is if he's willing to get off the couch and show up."

"And to my mom, Darlene, who is with us today. When dad died, you worked tirelessly to keep us together. My dad — a Korean War era vet, an educator, and a cigarette smoker — died of lung cancer when I was a teenager, and my family struggled enormously to pay his outstanding medical bills. We got by on social security survivor benefits and my mom’s job in a nursing home. Mom, your hard work and courage was a powerful example for me. My mom raised four teachers – and three out of four of us married teachers. Education is in our blood. Gwen and I met teaching high school, and we taught together for many years after we were married. We saw firsthand the challenges our students face. While we were in the classroom, coaching football, organizing dances, and directing plays, Gwen and I got to know our students and the obstacles in their lives. It was my experience as a teacher and my passion for education that led me to run for governor."

"My mission as governor is simple: make Minnesota the best state in the country for kids. This is what I have charged my team to do – to make our state the best place to raise a family, and I’m proud to say we have made historic strides."

"But let’s be clear: we have more work to do. Across the country, the pandemic disrupted the lives of our students. And despite the heroic efforts of teachers, students, and parents, many of our kids have fallen behind. We’ve re-doubled our efforts with summer catchup programs but we have more work to do. And to be clear: the burden is not on our children, or even our teachers – it’s on all of us. That’s why in this coming legislative session, we will make the largest investment in public education the state has ever seen. We will pass universal meals to ensure every student is given something to eat and no child has to worry about the color of their lunch ticket. We will fund special education and make sure every young person in Minnesota has the resources they need to succeed. We will put mental health front and center. We’ll work together to stop the stigma and allow young people access to the help they need to reach their full potential. We will ban conversion therapy to ensure that every LGBTQ student knows they are perfect just the way they are. And we will fund programs to recruit and train the next generation of teachers – so a diverse generation of students has an equally diverse generation of teachers. But Investing in our classrooms is only the beginning. Building the best schools in the nation is a good start, but to make Minnesota the best state for kids we need to make sure that kids are thriving in and OUT of the classroom. Children can’t learn if they’re hungry or without a home. We have the opportunity to ensure every child has a safe place to call home and that no child goes hungry. I am committed to ending child poverty in Minnesota."

"Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. And that’s not even counting the crimes he committed."