The push to formally investigate Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) and Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has hit a wall as a Minnesota House committee blocked the effort before it could get off the ground.
On Wednesday, the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee voted 8-8 on a resolution to authorize a full impeachment investigation into both Walz and Ellison, killing it on a tie vote. The resolution, if passed, would have given the committee power to hold hearings, take testimony, issue subpoenas, and further investigate the two Democrats and their connections to fraud around the state.
This step backward in the impeachment efforts marks the latest twist in a months-long push by Minnesota lawmakers to hold Walz accountable for what Republicans have called corrupt conduct and criminal negligence in overseeing the state’s social service programs, as extensively covered by The Dallas Express. Conduct that has allegedly resulted in billions of dollars worth of fraud.
In March, GOP lawmakers introduced two separate House resolutions calling for their impeachment. The one targeting Ellison went even further, accusing the state’s top law enforcement official of ‘crimes and misdemeanors’ on top of the corruption charges.
Federal prosecutors have estimated that fraudulent activity across the state’s Medicaid and other benefit programs since 2018 could top $9 billion in total money intended for kids, disabled residents, and vulnerable families. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Feeding Our Future scandal alone – a now-defunct nonprofit at the center of what prosecutors have called the largest COVID-era fraud in American history – involved nearly $300 million in stolen federal funds meant to feed kids.
Republicans, and even some of Walz and Ellison’s former employees, have argued that both men were warned early and often, and did nothing to stop the widespread fraud. A House committee report titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing” concluded that both men knew about widespread fraud in federally funded programs as early as 2019.
Impeachment Faces Steep Odds in a Divided Legislature
Even if Republicans manage to find a new procedural route to revive the impeachment push, the numbers in Minnesota work against them.
To impeach either Walz or Ellison, Republicans would need a simple majority vote in the full House, which is currently split down the middle, making even that first step a steep obstacle.
Removal would require a two-thirds supermajority vote in the State Senate, where Democrats hold a one-seat majority. In practical terms, that means removal of either Walz or Ellison from office is, by any reasonable reading of the chamber math, almost impossible under the current legislature.
Members of the Freedom Caucus say they plan to keep pushing hard, but without a clear path around the committee roadblock, their options look limited for now.
As The Dallas Express previously covered, impeachment hearings against both Walz and Ellison had been scheduled to begin April 15 at the State Capitol in St. Paul – the same day the committee vote effectively pulled the rug out from under that timeline.
Walz announced in January that he’s dropping out of the 2026 governor’s race.