# Amy Klobuchar Four-term U.S. Senator from Minnesota (first elected 2006, most recently re-elected 2024) and the **2026 DFL nominee for Governor of Minnesota** in the open-seat race to succeed [[Tim Walz]]. She is a former Hennepin County Attorney (1999–2007) and a 2020 presidential candidate, and she has won every statewide race by double digits. In the Senate she is ranking member of the Agriculture Committee and chair of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which puts her in the caucus leadership under [[Chuck Schumer]]. From 2021 to 2025, while Democrats held the chamber, she chaired the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]]'s antitrust subcommittee, and she remains one of Congress's most persistent advocates of Big Tech regulation. ## The 2026 governor's race - **Entry.** [[Tim Walz]] dropped his re-election bid on January 5, 2026, and Klobuchar filed on January 22. - **Nomination.** She won the DFL convention endorsement on May 30 over a challenge from the left, then won the August 11 primary with 89.7%. She is the first woman to win the DFL nomination for governor. - **Ticket.** Her running mate is Ben Schierer, the former mayor of Fergus Falls. - **Opponent.** In November she faces Republican House Speaker [[Lisa Demuth]], who beat [[Mike Lindell]] and [[Kendall Qualls]] in the GOP primary. Cook rates the race Solid D, and Minnesota has not elected a Republican governor since Tim Pawlenty in 2006. See [[MN-Gov-2026]] for the race file. ## The Senate seat If she wins, her Senate seat is filled by gubernatorial appointment. Walz would hold the power if she resigned before her inauguration. The expectation reported so far is that he defers and she makes the pick herself, probably as one of her first acts as governor. The appointee then serves until a special election. As of August 2026 she had named no shortlist. Because an appointee can hold the seat for decades, that choice may matter more than the governorship itself. ## RWKB angle Klobuchar's antitrust record is the Democratic mirror of the populist-right attack on Big Tech. Both sides want to break up platform power, for opposite reasons. Her departure would take one of the Senate's leading Democratic antitrust voices off the Judiciary Committee. ## Related - [[MN-Gov-2026]]: her governor's race - [[Lisa Demuth]]: 2026 Republican opponent - [[Tim Walz]]: the governor she would succeed - [[2026 Governor Races Hub]] · [[2026 Midterms Hub]]