Minnesota governor race: Demuth demands firings over state fraud scandal

Republican Lisa Demuth named two state officials for dismissal after a new report on Minnesota's fraud response. Democratic rival Amy Klobuchar pledged a Day One audit.

Demuth names officials for dismissal in Minnesota fraud fight

Republican gubernatorial candidate and Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth called for the firing of two senior state officials on Monday, citing a new Star Tribune investigation into how state agencies handled a wave of fraud scandals between 2018 and 2025, wadenapj.com reports.

At a St. Paul news conference on 14 September, Demuth named Assistant Education Commissioner Daron Korte and Department of Children, Youth, and Families Deputy Commissioner Leah Montgomery as the officials who should go. She said Korte was aware of problems with the Feeding Our Future food-aid programme and failed to stop it, and accused Montgomery of having "chided" lawmakers who spoke out about the fraud.

"The Walz administration can't point to a single person who has been fired over the fraud that has skyrocketed over the last eight years," Demuth said.

The Star Tribune report draws on interviews with staff from Governor Tim Walz's administration and on documents from a 205-page congressional investigation published in June. That investigation gathered accounts from state government employees describing how they handled and became aware of the fraud at its peak.

A spokesperson for Walz responded that the governor had "installed" new leadership at both the Department of Human Services and the Department of Education. The spokesperson also turned the criticism back on Demuth, saying she "helped to kill the statewide OIG bill behind closed doors in 2025" — her "only meaningful contribution to the conversation on fraud" since she has overseen these programmes in the state legislature since 2019.

The claim about Demuth's role in the OIG bill's failure is not straightforward. At the time the bill stalled, Demuth publicly expressed frustration that it had not passed and blamed the House DFL. She did, however, negotiate with DFL lawmakers and Walz on the 2025 budget deal, which could have involved the bill as a bargaining chip.

Asked whether state lawmakers bear any responsibility for the fraud — herself included — Demuth said she and Republican colleagues had repeatedly raised concerns and been shut down.

"I think state lawmakers, Republicans specifically, tried to bring up these concerns, and we were quieted down. We were also in the minority, but we were quieted down," she said.

Klobuchar labelled 'toxic' — and 'silent'

Demuth also trained sustained fire on her Democratic opponent, Senator Amy Klobuchar. She described Klobuchar's leadership style as "toxic," referencing 2019 reports about the senator's treatment of staff, and argued that such a style would deter government whistleblowers. Her running mate, attorney Ryan Wilson, said it would "certainly create a chilling effect for state government whistleblowers to come forward."

Not all observers share that assessment. Hamline University professor Steven Schier argued that Klobuchar's forceful style could be an asset in tackling fraud, comparing her potential intervention to "the principal coming into the classroom."

Demuth also displayed an X post from Klobuchar expressing support for Walz after he announced his re-election run in September 2025, and maintained that the senator has been "silent" on the fraud issue — despite Klobuchar having been a U.S. Senator, not a state official, throughout the period in question.

In a statement on Monday, Klobuchar said Minnesotans are right to be angry and that the fraud "should have been caught earlier and taken more seriously."

"That's why I have made clear that on Day One, I will launch a top-to-bottom audit of state government to root out fraud, replace decades-old technology to stop fraud before it happens, and strengthen criminal penalties to make sure people who commit fraud go to jail," she said. "I will not wait to take action, and that includes firing people who were in charge and failed to stop the fraud."

Klobuchar cited her endorsement from former U.S. Attorney Andy Luger, who prosecuted the Feeding Our Future case. Luger said in a statement that "Klobuchar's plan is exactly what the state needs to tackle and prevent fraud going forward," and called on the legislature to work in a bipartisan manner behind the next governor's anti-fraud plan.

Walz stays on the sidelines

Neither Klobuchar nor Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan has appeared at a public campaign event with Walz or sought his endorsement. The governor acknowledged on 8 September that he has become a "political lightning rod" and said that could be "distracting" for candidates running their own races.

Walz withdrew from the re-election contest in January amid mounting controversy over the fraud response. Since then he has said tackling fraud is his priority for the remainder of his term, stating "the buck stops with me."

His spokesman, Teddy Tschann, said on Monday that "hindsight is 20/20 — and there are many things we would do differently knowing what we know now." Tschann described updating government systems as "akin to turning an oil tanker" and said agencies "were too trusting" while policies and state law prevented faster action.

He added that "no state has been more scrutinised and politicised than Minnesota — and no state has moved faster to fix the problem," pointing to the prosecution of the Feeding Our Future case as evidence that Minnesota had acted while other states subsequently fell victim to similar fraud schemes.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)