Minnesota
Amy Klobuchar’s campaign raises $4.8M for Minnesota governor bid
Amy Klobuchar launches run for Minnesota Governor
The four term Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is launching her run for governor of Minnesota, emphasizing the need for leaders to find common ground.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar has raised $4.8 million for her campaign since she launched her bid for Minnesota governor at the end of January, her campaign announced Wednesday.
Klobuchar’s total, amassed in just 62 days, suggests she’ll have a staggering cash advantage from now until November, compounded by outside spending by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and well-funded allies like Alliance for a Better Minnesota.
Over 90% of donors have given Klobuchar’s governor campaign less than $100, which means she can keep asking them for more as the contest heats up, and she has $3.4 million cash on hand. Klobuchar’s campaign said her haul is the most raised by any candidate for governor in its first two months. In 2022, Gov. Tim Walz raised just over $1 million in the first quarter of that year, according to Minnesota campaign finance data.
“(Klobuchar’s) grassroots donor base knows that she fights for people no matter the odds, and they stepped up the moment she announced her campaign for governor,” said Joe Radosevich, her campaign manager, in a statement.
Klobuchar, Minnesota’s senior senator and the state’s most accomplished vote-getter, has raised over six times as much as GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth, who is a leading GOP candidate for governor. Demuth has raised over $730,000 since she launched her campaign in November, Demuth’s campaign said. Demuth raised about $226,000 in the first quarter.
Kendall Qualls, an army veteran and former health care executive, has raised $700,000 since he launched his campaign for governor last summer, Qualls’ campaign said. In the first quarter of 2026, Qualls raised about $123,000, according to his campaign.
Since launching her campaign on Jan. 29, Klobuchar has held no campaign rallies and has largely refrained from campaigning on social media, unlike her Republican opponents.
Klobuchar hopped into the race after Walz ended his campaign for a third term after intensifying scrutiny of fraud in safety net programs. Walz reportedly met with Klobuchar and urged her to run.
Other Democrats have stayed out of the race since then, no doubt deterred by Klobuchar’s electoral record, top-flight political operation and fundraising prowess.
Klobuchar is a heavy favorite to win in November against a field of Republicans who are unknown to most Minnesotans, aside from MyPillow mogul Mike Lindell. Republican candidates include Demuth, Qualls, and state Rep. Kristin Robbins.
The DFL Party and the Republican Party of Minnesota will hold their endorsing conventions next month.
Klobuchar has spent two decades in the U.S. Senate, where lawmakers primarily send out press releases, take lots of votes and manage constituent services.
The governor of Minnesota oversees an enterprise with more than 36,000 employees, an annual general fund budget of $33 billion and billions more in Medicaid and other federal dollars now under considerable scrutiny following the discovery of hundreds of millions in fraud in recent years.
As the Republican Party of Minnesota has noted, since she launched her campaign, Klobuchar’s campaign website lists no priorities, top issues or even a description of her. She also hasn’t conducted any interviews with Minnesota media outlets.
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
After a press conference earlier today in St. Paul, we continue the conversation on food support across the state. Zach Rodvold with Second Harvest Heartland joins us to talk about growing demand, including estimates that as many as 1 in 5 Minnesota families may be struggling to afford food, and what’s being done to help meet the need.
Minnesota
Minneapolis nonprofit founders push back on lawsuit alleging they misused $2M in charitable assets
A Minnesota couple is accused of misusing nonprofit assets to fund “lavish lifestyles,” according to a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
The lawsuit is filed against Larry and Sharon Cook and their nonprofits, Real Believers Faith Center and Les Jolies Petites School of Dance, based in north Minneapolis.
“[The Cooks] diverted more than $2 million in charitable assets from Les Jolies and Real Believers to fund lavish lifestyles, luxury travel, designer goods, and for-profit ventures masquerading under nearly identical names, while pretending to serve their communities,” the lawsuit reads.
Larry Cook is the senior pastor at Real Believers Faith Center and called the lawsuit a lie.
“It’s an absolute 1,000% fabrication of the facts,” Cook said on Tuesday. “It’s a fiction, and I’m glad we’re here to talk about it, because we do great work in the community.”
The Attorney General’s Office claims that over the course of about six years, more than $1.3 million in funds were misspent from Real Believers and approximately $800,000 from Les Jolies. The lawsuit says some of those funds were spent at Michael Kors, Louis Vuitton, at a hotel in London and to pay the Cooks’ homeowners association for parking fines and late fees.
The lawsuit also accuses the couple of making false statements to the IRS and taking out loans that “served no charitable purpose.”
When the couple sat down with WCCO inside the church, they didn’t dispute the purchases and said they were all made for charitable purposes.
“I do get a salary for what I do at [Les Jolies], so they’re acting like we took everything that was for the nonprofit and spent it on ourselves, which is a total lie,” said Sharon Cook.
As for the travel, the couple said those are ministry trips with church parishioners and each person paid their own way.
“[The Attorney General’s Office is] gonna have to answer when we get to the courtroom, because documents and truth don’t lie,” said Larry Cook.
The couple got some media attention a few years ago when they bought a nearby crime-ridden gas station. The lawsuit says they used nonprofit funds to help cover the gas station bills, while the money made went into a for-profit bank account.
The lawsuit also accuses the Cooks of failing to register with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office as required by law, as well as violating the Minnesota Nonprofit Corporation Act.
The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office said a temporary restraining order is in place to protect the nonprofit assets from being diverted.
A 19-year-old man is accused of driving a stolen car and crashing into a Minnesota State Patrol squad car in Minneapolis Friday evening, injuring three people, including a trooper.
Officials say the incident started around 10:30 p.m. in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. The criminal complaint says Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office deputies found a stolen red Hyundai and were following it when the driver of the car started to flee and drive recklessly.
The Hyundai entered Minneapolis and the deputies turned off their lights and stopped pursuing the car, the charges say. The car drove through Aldrich Avenue and 46th Street at approximately 80 mph, blowing through a stop sign before crashing into the side of a state patrol vehicle.
The 19-year-old, who was driving the Hyundai, fled on foot but was apprehended a short time later, the complaint says.
The trooper was hospitalized with a fractured right fibula and a fractured left scapula, court documents say. The two passengers in the Hyundai were also both taken to the hospital; one had a compound neck fracture and brain bleed, while the other had neck pain, the complaint says.
According to the charges, the teenager told police in a post-Miranda statement that it’s fun to drive around in stolen vehicles.
He faces three counts of criminal vehicular operation, one count of receiving stolen property and one count of fleeing a peace officer.
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