Klobuchar makes history as Minnesota governor

AP is calling Peggy Flanagan in the U.S. Senate race. AP is calling Peggy Flanagan the winner in the U.S. Senate race here in Minnesota. We can pull up that graphic. 71% of the votes tallied and Peggy Flanagan with that dump jumped to 12 percentage points or 11 percentage points ahead of Michelle Tafoya there. You can see the numbers as they're slated, but the AP is calling. That race. And then we also have breaking news in the race for governor. This race has been called for Amy Klobuchar, again, the projected winner in the race for governor. So those numbers, that big jump that we received from Hennepin County made a big difference in races tonight. It made a huge difference. Let's break it down for you right now. This is our statewide map, right? Every county that you see here in red has voted Republican here tonight in the race for governor. Governor, our blue counties, those have voted. Voted DFL. Now, when we pull up Hennepin County. All right, here you can see the difference. Amy has pulled in almost 74% of the vote, almost 500,000 votes in Hennepin County, and that clearly put her over the top. Lisa Damoth only barely able to scratch out 24% of the vote in Hennepin County. Now, let's look at U.S. Senate. Again, the same thing for Peggy Flanagan. 54% of the vote statewide, but in Hennepin County, 72% of the vote. 472,000 votes in Hennepin County. That's the different maker. All right. I'm going to go full to Amy Klobuchar. She's taking the stage now in her undoubtedly acceptance speech. She is the projected winner as governor. There you can see her hugging her supporters. There she is. And she will be your next governor, which we talked about earlier. No matter who won tonight, Minnesota has elected their first female governor. That divisiveness. and not on hate and it is time to move this state forward interested in moving Minnesota to the left or the right I want to move us forward working not just for everyone who voted for me but for all Minnesotans whether or not whether or not I got your vote I will give you my best I want to thank my family, John, our daughter, Abigail, my lieutenant governor-elect, Ben Shapiro, and his family, his wife, Tessa, who you're about to see, his five kids, his two cats, and his one dog. I want to thank my incredible staff on this campaign. I want to thank our Senate office, and I also, now listen, I want to thank my opponent Lisa Demuth who just called to congratulate me, which I truly appreciate. I want to wish her family and Lisa the best and thank her for her work with the House of Representatives. I want to thank this incredible ticket, which is going to win Amy to Zach, A to Z. And to the people of Minnesota, thank you. Make no mistake, this was a hard election. Outside money flooding our state, ugly and hateful attacks that were meant to divide us. But I think we learned a few things tonight. For one, we learned that a Packers fan cannot buy our governor's seat, even if that guy is a billionaire. We learned that dark money doesn't win even when we were outspent two to one on ads. And we learned that you can't buy a seat when the people of Minnesota vote and when the people of Minnesota show up. Showed up, Minnesota. You showed up like you have all year, you inspire me. And as your next governor, I will work my heart out for you, I promise that. I will be a transformative governor for this state. In Minnesota, trust is not given, it is earned. It comes with expectations. And that is results, and we will deliver results. Results that you can see and feel in your life, and we will do it with our legislature. So you deserve to afford a good life, buy that first home, start that business, retire with dignity. You deserve a state government that matches your drive and ambition, and that is what we're going to do. We will root out the waste, the fraud, and the abuse, and cut through the red tape. A top to bottom audit of state government that starts on day one. If something works, we will keep it. If it's broken, we will fix it or get rid of it. We are going to speed up government, rebuild trust, and work for you. And I'm looking forward to bringing in a new team and working together with our state employees to make that happen. This is not going to be easy to do. I will need people out there at my side, both parties. And spoiler alert, you may not like every single thing I do. But that is what I ran on, and that is getting things done. So we face headwinds every day. Skyrocketing gas prices due to Trump's war, rising healthcare costs, and his tariffs. But as you know right now, he has had a lot of rubber stamps to enable him in these last two years. But tonight, the ink ran out. It ran in Texas. It ran out in Ohio. It ran out in South Carolina. Because next. The next senator from the state of Minnesota will be our own Peggy Flanagan. Minnesota is not going to be a rubber stamp for Donald Trump. And I will do my job without fear or favor. I will govern for Minnesotans and nobody else. And while the headwinds we face may well be a constant, they can never be an excuse. That's why I've committed to bring down the cost of health care premiums and bring down the cost of prescription drugs, working with the private sector to build 100,000 new homes from apartments to single-family homes. We are going to have a growth mindset, and we're going to have a growth agenda. Because we must continue to be a state that makes stuff, that invents things, and exports to the world. And we are going to make it easier to start a business and double the number of apprenticeships. And when it comes to our schools, we're going to see student achievement up and screen time in the classroom down. So after Tim decided not to run, and by the way, we thank Tim and Gwen for their commitment to our state. I look back at the year Minnesota had, losing Melissa and Mark, the shooting of the Hoffmans, the kids in the church, the 3,000 ICE agents, the serious fraud problem, and the affront on trust in our government. You know I've loved my job in the Senate, but I love our state more. In the words of Harry Truman about his years in Washington, I tried to never forget who I was, where I came from, and where I would go back to. I know where I come from, I know who I am, and I know who I ran for, the people of Minnesota. People across each of our 87 incredible counties that I travel to every year. I want to thank our staff because we walked 40 miles of parades. We had hours lines outside our state fair booth. We did 30,000 lawn signs thanks to you. I think of the people we met, the Nelson family outside of Moorhead, four generations who have now farmed the land. Kate Lundquist, a breast cancer survivor. Julie Piter, who turned her grief into a mission and carried it all the way to Washington after losing her husband to cancer from toxins. The students at Apollo High School in St. Cloud, Gwen Elliott who lives in a manufactured home in Blaine and has fought as we will do with the legislature to make sure these homeowners are treated fairly. And I think my friends of Harper Moiskey's parents, listen to this, Mike and Jackie. Little Harper, who had just begun fifth grade when those bullets rained through the stained glass windows, she would have turned 12 today. Today is her birthday. So thanks to your work and what I think is happening with the Minnesota legislature today, we will get that gun safety vote and I will sign that. Think of so many of you that have stood up. When ICE descended on our state, you brought food to strangers and kids to school. You marched 50,000 strong in sub-zero weather in what will be one of the top civil rights moments of our century in this country. And after the horror of Renee Goode and Alex Preddy, their senseless killings, we didn't look down. We looked up. We didn't look away. We looked at each other. And with their family's guidance, I went back to Washington and grilled Kristi Noem. And the next day, she got fired. And months after that, months after that, I got a call from Ambassador Caroline Kennedy. She said they were giving the Profiling Courage Award, named after her dad, to Minnesota. And she asked me, she asked me, should it go to an elected official? And I said, no, give it to the people. And that is what happened. And a few weeks later, a middle school class from St. Paul came to see me. And this little 14-year-old mongrel, who was this tall, but she stood like she was six feet tall, she looked at me and said, so the people got the award? I said, yeah. And then she said, That means, she said, I got the award. She said, I got the award. That is the spirit with which I decided to take this job. And that is the spirit of our state. It is a spirit that will carry us to a higher ground. We will not rest on our laurels. And I will end with my story. My grandpa worked 1,500 feet underground up in northern Minnesota. He saved money in a coffee can in the basement to send my dad to a two-year community college. My dad went on from that hardscrabble mining town to be a beloved journalist covering the Minnesota Vikings. My mom, a proud union member, and thank you, Labor, for being in the house. A mom taught second grade until she was 70 years old. I still have people come up to me on the street and say she is their favorite teacher. So I stand before you today as a granddaughter of an iron ore miner who never got to graduate from high school, the daughter of a teacher and a newspaper man. And thanks to you, the first woman elected to the United States Senate. From the state of Minnesota, and thanks to you, the first woman elected governor of the state of Minnesota. The past, Minnesota, has made us who we are, but our future is up to us. I want to build that future together. I want to build that future for everyone, and I know you do, too. We have a lot of work to do. We're going to start right away, working with our legislators, Erin Murphy, Zach Stevenson, the next leader, Meg Flanagan, and by the way, let's thank Tina Smith for her service, with Keith Ellison and Steve Simon and Zach Filipovich. And when we're done, everyone will know how to say his name. And Ben Shire, Minnesota's next lieutenant governor, the first person elected statewide from the 7th Congressional District in over 90 years. So let us get to work. Let us move forward. And tonight we will celebrate this election. Thank you, everyone. Governor-elect Amy Klobuchar addressing Minnesotans and those supporters there at her victory party. Our celebration. It's probably not a party yet, but it will be at some point. There's a lot of music, a lot of yelling right now. And she talked about uniting Republicans and Democrats in this speech that she gave tonight, rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, doing a top to bottom audit. Those are themes that we listened to during the debate as well. And she said she needs both parties. And right now she is talking about how she's going to govern for all Minnesotans. She may end up with a united. uh... state legislature to hear so uh... if there's a time where the governor can get something done it might be the next two years or it might not she made a point tonight of saying you're may not like some of the things that i'm going to do and i think that she's going to have to wrestle with a progressive the democratic caucus in in a couple of uh... areas uh... and she's going to do some things that might be controversial Cutting program. She's doing a top to bottom audit, she says, of state government, which implies that some things may be cut. And she talked about fraud right away. And so clearly that is top of her agenda, top of mind. And that, you know, could could be more challenging than than meets the eye with and she'll need my bipartisan support, even with the DFL trifecta. I think she recognizes fully that she gets... got a lot of votes from moderates and independents and probably from a sizable portion of Republicans as well. And when she said right off the bat she's not interested in moving Minnesota left or right but forward. That's been her mantra throughout this campaign as well. Yeah, another thing that really struck me is she said that, you know, she loves the job in the Senate, but she loves the state of Minnesota more. You know, when she first decided to run, it seemed unlikely that Democrats would retake majority party control, and here Democrats are with a majority in the Senate, but she genuinely seemed excited about leading Minnesota. And then, so she has a lot of work to do as governor-elect, but then she also needs to appoint someone to her U.S. Senate seat. She does. So now the speculation and curiosity begins for that. She will be sworn in in early January, and she will have to resign her seat. She will probably be Probably resign it at or exactly the time that she takes the oath of office. Perhaps that will be. So you've seen this. Right. So then she would have the ability to appoint someone who would serve for then a year. And then in 2027, there would be a special election in Minnesota, which, of course, is an off year in Minnesota. Nothing's really on the ballot. And so there would have to be a lot of mobilization by a one-year incumbent, whoever that person is, and a Republican challenge. And what would surely be a low-turnout election. So now the speculation begins. Who could it possibly be? Who would it be? Catherine? Well, I mean, this is not, you know, we've heard speculation, you know, there were a few names that we've seen on the screen tonight. Kelly Morrison in Minnesota's third district. She was only elected for the first time two years ago, but she came from the state legislature, well respected, has this background as an OBGYN, has sort of hit the ground running in the U.S. House, so has that legislative experience. Of course, Steve Simon has been elected as Secretary of State, reelected tonight, elected He's been elected for several terms and has a lot of And those are the two top-tier candidates, I think, right now. I'm certain that Amy Klobuchar has others that she might be thinking about. But I know that the Democrats, in general, would like to have someone appointed to this spot that will continue to run. So the minute you're appointed, you could run for the full term. Amy's still got four years left in her term. Her appointed... Our successor would be one year, and then they have to run again for the remaining three years. Right, for three years, right. A special election, I'm just curious, does that happen in a November time frame? Yes, yes, that would be in November 2027. Can you imagine the attention, the money, the candidates, the swirl around this campaign for a U.S. Senate seat? It's going to be big. It would be a lot, especially because voter mobilization would really need to be huge since it would be the only race on the ballot.