Amy Klobuchar, the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, announced Thursday that she’s running for governor in her home state of Minnesota.
“Minnesotans, we’ve been through a lot. And I believe this moment calls for grit, resilience, and faith in each other,” Klobuchar says in an X post, referring to the violence that has wracked Minneapolis under an immigration crackdown.
“I believe we must stand up for what’s right. And fix what’s wrong. Today, I’m announcing my candidacy for Governor,” she says.
A four-minute video that accompanied the state cited the recent killings of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration.” she says in the video.
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who has been under fire for a scandal involving federal assistance programs, announced earlier this month that he wasn’t seeking re-election.
Klobuchar, who is instantly the favorite to win the Democratic primary and the governorship in the predominantly Democratic state, was elected to the Senate in 2006 and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2020. The graduate of Yale University and the University of Chicago law school served as Hennepin County attorney for eight years before getting elected to the Senate.
She took over as the ranking member of the Agriculture Committee in 2025 after the retirement of Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., would be next in line to succeed Klobuchar on Senate Ag, if Klobuchar leaves the Senate. None of the three other Democrats on the committee ahead of him in seniority are running for re-election: Michel Bennet of Colorado, Tina Smith of Minnesota and Richard Durbin of Illinois.
Booker told Agri-Pulse earlier this month he would be interested in succeeding Klobuchar. "I would be excited and privileged to be the chair of one of the most important committees to Americans and American farmers and the American food system," Booker said. "It's a vital committee."
On Thursday, as Democrats pushed the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers to rein in the U.S. Homeland Security Department after the shooting death of protesters in Minneapolis, Booker declined to comment on the prospects of a bigger role on the Ag Committee, saying he’s focused on “an agency out of control.”
Booker, who follows a vegan diet, has been an outspoken critic of concentrated animal feeding operations and checkoff programs, and a proponent of conservation funding.
In a 2022 interview with Agri-Pulse, Booker said his ag policy priorities were reforming federal nutrition assistance to address nutrition insecurity, rolling back what he called “hyper-concentration” in the ag industry, and investing in local and regional food systems.
Next in line behind Booker is Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico.
With contributions from Lydia Johnson and Kim Chipman.
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
