Minnesota Governor Tim Walz first burst into the national political scene in 2024, when Kamala Harris, operating under the long-standing principle "never choose a running mate who's smarter than you are," decided he would be her VP pick. Governor Walz then cemented what was left of his reputation in the one vice presidential debate: The nervous replies, the stammering speechlets, the perpetually stunned expression, the hoptoad eyes. Incidentally, current Vice President JD Vance likewise made his place in national politics with one smirking glance directly into the camera.
Since the Harris/Walz ticket's catastrophic loss in the 2024 election, Governor Walz has returned once more to governing Minnesota, a pretty darn blue state, and you'd think his place there secure. But, not so much; wave after wave of fraud has been revealed, to the point where no serious people believe that there's any way that Governor Walz was unaware of the billions of taxpayer dollars stolen. The governor has already announced he won't seek re-election after all this, but things are getting worse for him.
Polling in Minnesota is now reflecting that, with Governor Walz's approval ratings cratering, President Trump is now, according to at least one new poll, more popular in Minnesota than Tim Walz.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s approval rating in his state has plummeted to a level below President Donald Trump as the state's top executive continues to face blowback from the massive fraud scandal that erupted under his watch.
Walz, who is leaving office in January after announcing he will not run for re-election, has an approval rating of 39% in the state and a disapproval rating of 53% with 8% not sure, according to a new poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy Inc. for KARE 11, the Minnesota Star Tribune, and the University of Minnesota's Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
The poll surveyed 800 Minnesota registered voters likely to participate in the November general election via live telephone interviews from June 8-10, 2026 and the numbers represent Walz’s lowest approval rating since taking office six years ago.
Here's the fun part:
On the fraud issue, 45% of voters say they trust Republicans to fix it compared to 38% who chose Democrats and 14% who said neither party.
The same polling unit registered Trump's approval rating in the state at 41% this week, which conservatives on social media took notice of.
If you got a chuckle out of that, well, you're not alone, and that's for sure and for certain.
Read More: Tim Walz Had the Power to Stop the Fraud in Minnesota - He Didn't
The Feds Clean Up What Walz Didn't: First 'Most Wanted Fraudster' Arrested in Minnesota
Now, setting aside our justified schadenfreude over Governor Walz's worrisome woes (try saying that three times fast), there may be an opportunity here for Minnesota Republicans. It's probably a long shot, but it's not impossible that Minnesota might flip, at least in the next gubernatorial election, maybe even in the next presidential election. A quick look at the 2024 presidential election map in Minnesota shows a pattern we see in many states: A few small but high-population blue dots surrounded by a sea of red. Some of those blue counties in 2024 were only just; in western Clay County, the Harris/Walz ticket came in ahead by less than one percentage point, with northeastern Lake County and east-central Washington County both coming in with a Harris/Walz lead in single digits.
Most of the red areas were won pretty solidly by the GOP.
This is a pattern the GOP needs to break; they need to find a way to target those deep-blue urban enclaves and flip just a few percentage points, resulting in a statewide steamroll. Minnesota may just give them a great place to start learning how.
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