Speculation is swirling around Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as he faces mounting pressure to withdraw from his reelection campaign amid the fallout from a significant fraud scandal involving Somali refugees. In response to the situation, Walz has scheduled a news conference for Monday morning, where he is expected to address the ongoing developments. State officials, however, have remained tight-lipped about the specifics of what Walz plans to disclose.

The controversy has led to a chorus of calls from Republican lawmakers demanding that Walz either resign or abandon his bid for a third term. According to political insider Blois Olson, Walz might be considering stepping out of the race, with Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar potentially stepping in as a replacement. Olson notes that Walz and Klobuchar reportedly met on Sunday to discuss their political futures.

Within Walz’s own party, there are growing concerns about the feasibility of his reelection campaign. As reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune, nearly a dozen Democrats have voiced their reservations, with some likening Walz’s situation to former President Joe Biden’s ill-fated 2024 campaign. State Senator Jen McEwan acknowledged the existence of these discussions, although she distanced herself from the group actively pursuing the governor’s ouster.

It was later revealed that Walz had connectionswith at least some of the refugees charged in the fraudulent scheme. He was previously once with Abdul Dahir Ibrahim, who has now been taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Ibrahim had previously been convicted in Canada of asylum and welfare fraud, according to the Department of Homeland Security. White House officials then declared that Somali refugees in Minnesota had committed the ‘biggest theft of taxpayer dollars in US history’ and that local Democratic officials were ‘fully complicit.’ On social media, President Donald Trump further called Minnesota a ‘hub of fraudulent laundering activity’ as he ended the Temporary Protected Status for Somali refugees. US Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller also said authorities ‘believe the state government is fully complicit in this scheme, and we believe that what we uncover is going to shock the American people. We believe that we’ve only scratched the very top of the surface of how deep this goes,’ Miller told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

As the backlash over the scandal continued, Republican Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen went on television and said the scandal reminded him of Watergate – which eventually led to former President Nixon’s resignation. However, this time in Minnesota ‘could be even worse,’ Jensen claimed to Fox News. ‘Because it’s possible that there’s something far more nefarious than simply covering something up,’ he said. ‘It could be a pay to play scheme that involves elected officials.’ The GOP candidate then claimed that Walz and the state’s Department of Education ‘knew in 2020 that there was a problem’ but did not involve federal investigators until the following year. ‘And yet they’ve made claims that as soon as they learned about it, they got the FBI involved,’ Jensen told Fox News. ‘That’s not true.’ Walz has said he is taking strong actions against the alleged fraudsters. ‘The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,’ a spokesperson for Walz told Fox Newslast week. He has strengthened oversight – including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.’

Walz also ‘hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.’ Meanwhile, Walz has tried to position himself as a major Trump opponent in his bid for re-election. He last appeared before reporters on December 23 for an event warning about the fallout from the continuing immigration efforts in Minnesota. On Saturday, Walz also hit out at Trump for blaming the murder of Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman on the Somali fraud scandal. The president had shared a post to his Truth Social page suggesting that Hortman was killed because she voted to repeal eligibility for undocumented adults to access MinnesotaCare.

After seeing the post, which was liked more than 14,300 times on the president’s platform, Walz said it was ‘dangerous, depraved behavior from the sitting president of the United States.’ ‘In covering for an actual serial killer, he is going to get more innocent people killed,’ the one-time Democratic vice presidential candidate continued. ‘America is better than this.’ If Walz were to now drop out of the race for governor, party insiders believe US Senator Amy Klobuchar, Secretary of State Steve Simon or Attorney General Keith Ellison could jump in as the Democratic nominee. They would then face about a dozen GOP candidates who have lined up to challenge Walz, including Jensen, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.