Sen. Amy Klobuchar issued more than 1,000 press releases over four years without once mentioning Minnesota's massive social services fraud scandal, and her Republican opponent for governor wants voters to know it.
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, used a Fox News Digital interview to hammer Klobuchar's record on the fraud that prosecutors say could exceed $9 billion in stolen taxpayer money. Demuth pointed to a review of Klobuchar's Senate office press releases, covering January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2025, that turned up zero mentions of Feeding Our Future, the defunct nonprofit at the center of the scandal, or any of the related fraud schemes that have consumed Minnesota politics for years.
The review searched for terms including "Minnesota fraud," "social services fraud," "Medicaid fraud," "autism fraud," "Housing Stabilization Services," "child nutrition fraud," "DHS fraud," "nonprofit fraud," and "Feeding Our Future." None appeared in any of the more than 1,000 releases. Klobuchar's office did issue press releases about other forms of fraud during that same period, just not the one unfolding in her own state.
The Feeding Our Future scandal broke in late January 2022. Prosecutors have described a sprawling theft of federal funds funneled through Minnesota's social services system, with the total damage potentially topping $9 billion. The scandal engulfed Gov. Tim Walz's administration so thoroughly that he announced on January 5, 2026, he would not seek reelection. National Review noted at the time that "his administration has been consumed not just by allegations of criminal fraud, but by actual proof of theft amounting, probably, to billions of dollars."
Klobuchar breezed through the Democratic primary and now heads into November as the favorite to replace Walz. Earlier this month, she released a campaign ad promising a state audit on her first day in office to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. She posted on X: "It's time for results, not excuses."
Demuth's response was blunt. In her Fox News Digital interview, she said the senator's newfound interest in fraud is a campaign convenience, not a record:
"As Feeding Our Future was breaking and all of the fraud that was being talked about, the absent voice that I was noticing was Senator Klobuchar."
Demuth did not stop there. She laid out a specific indictment of what Klobuchar failed to do with the power she held as a sitting U.S. senator:
"She with her extended time, twenty years as a senator, could have held hearings but not only did she not hold hearings, the hearing that took place a few months ago about fraud here in the state of Minnesota she didn't even attend and so I think that speaks very loudly to the people of Minnesota that we have a twenty-year senator, the most explosive fraud that has taken place a theft of our tax dollars here and yet, there was no mention."
The contrast Demuth drew is hard to miss. Klobuchar had the platform, the seniority, and the committee access to press the issue at any point over four years. She chose not to. Now she is running a campaign ad about it.
Demuth became Minnesota House Speaker in 2025 and moved to establish the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee. She released her own plan to fight fraud earlier this week and gave a speech drawing attention to Klobuchar's empty press release record on the subject.
The political fallout from Minnesota's fraud scandal has reached well beyond the governor's mansion. Vice President JD Vance sent Minnesota welfare fraud evidence to the Department of Justice and pushed for a criminal inquiry targeting Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison. The scandal has created a chain of political distancing among Minnesota Democrats.
Demuth pressed the accountability question directly:
"My question is, where were you for the last 10 years, but absolutely the last eight years?"
She also pointed to Klobuchar's past praise of Walz. When Walz was running for vice president, Klobuchar called him "an exceptional governor" and "a great governor," according to Demuth. That endorsement looks different now. Walz's administration presided over what may be the largest social services fraud in American history, and his political career ended because of it.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who served as Walz's second-in-command for seven years, has also tried to deflect blame for the fraud onto Walz rather than accept shared responsibility for the failures that allowed billions to walk out the door.
Demuth framed the choice for voters in simple terms:
"Who are Minnesotans gonna trust for their next governor? Somebody that has just decided to talk about fraud now that they're running for office or someone that has been fighting fraud this entire time? And I think I am the most trustworthy when it comes to ending fraud and respecting taxpayer dollars as your next governor."
Fox News Digital reached out to Klobuchar's campaign for comment. The article did not note any response. That silence mirrors the four years of press releases that never mentioned the scandal.
Walz's own troubles have continued to mount even after his decision to step aside. Beyond the fraud scandal, he has faced sustained criticism over his defense of a pardon granted to a convicted child sex offender who was later deported by the Trump administration, a decision Walz doubled down on publicly.
The $250 million Feeding Our Future case was the first fraud scheme to surface publicly in late January 2022. But prosecutors have since described a far wider network of social services fraud across Minnesota, pushing the estimated total past $9 billion. That figure represents an extraordinary failure of oversight at every level of government, state agencies, federal funders, and the elected officials whose job it was to ask hard questions.
Republican Senate hopeful Michele Tafoya told Fox News Digital earlier this month that Minnesota voters are "ready for a change." Demuth posted on X: "Billions of our tax dollars stolen. It's time for change."
The numbers tell a story that Klobuchar's press releases never did. Over $9 billion in potential fraud. More than 1,000 press releases. Zero mentions. And now a campaign ad about accountability.
Klobuchar had every tool a senior senator could ask for, hearings, press conferences, a national platform, and two decades of relationships in Minnesota politics. She used none of them on the biggest fraud scandal in her state's history. Voters will decide whether a campaign ad makes up for four years of looking the other way.
