Scott Jensen announced Monday, Feb. 9, that he is withdrawing from the Minnesota governor’s race and will instead run for state auditor.
“Our state’s problems can’t be fixed by simply replacing a leader. Our biggest problem right now is broken trust in government,” Jensen said in a news release.
Jensen previously ran for governor in 2022 with the GOP nomination, but came up short by over 7 percentage points to Gov. Tim Walz. His announcement comes shortly after Jensen came in fourth place in the Feb. 3 caucus night GOP straw poll in a pool of 12 gubernatorial candidates.
Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth received 32% of the caucus goers’ support; Kendall Qualls, also a 2022 gubernatorial candidate, received roughly 26%; and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell had 17%.
Jensen acknowledged the numerous “highly qualified” gubernatorial candidates and said he is confident that one will be well-positioned to win in November.
“We don’t need more massive fraud that has demonized our state and made us the laughingstock of the nation. We need a
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watchdog,” he said. “It’s time to resurrect good government.”
Other candidates for state auditor include Republicans Elliot Engen and Nate George, Democrats Dan Wolgamott and Zack Filipovich, and Forward Independence Party candidate Jay Reeves. Current State Auditor Julie Blaha announced in September that she would not be seeking reelection.
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