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State Rep. Kristin Robbins, west metro Republican, announces run for governor • Minnesota Reformer [1]

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Date: 2025-08-20

State Rep. Kristin Robbins, R-Maple Grove, a traditional suburban Republican who has raised her profile in recent months by publicizing fraud in public programs, announced Wednesday she’s running for governor.

“Over the last 8 years, (Gov.) Tim Walz has hurt families, businesses, and Minnesotan’s most vulnerable citizens. Under his mismanagement and leadership failures, our state has been heading in the wrong direction,” Robbins said in a statement.

Walz is expected to announce in the coming weeks whether he’ll seek a third term. Also in the race: 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee and former state Sen. Scott Jensen, and former GOP congressional and gubernatorial candidate Kendall Qualls.

Robbins was first elected to the House in 2018, representing west metro cities like Maple Plain, Maple Grove and Medina. She is chair of the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee, where she’s used the gavel to highlight a wave of fraud that’s beset public programs in recent years, including a pandemic-era food aid program and Medicaid.

A campaign video shows her talking about the good life in the western suburbs, “cheering on soccer, softball and choir, and teaching Sunday school,” before pivoting to the state’s taxes, fraud in safety net programs, sanctuary laws protecting undocumented immigrants, and transgender girls in sports.

Earlier this year, Heartland Signal noted Robbins scrubbed her social media of her support for 2024 presidential candidate Nikki Haley, for whom Robbins served as state chair.

Given the importance of the endorsement of President Donald Trump — and Trump’s long memory when it comes to his vanquished opponents like Haley — Robbins’ biggest challenge will be to persuade Trump and Republican voters that she’s sufficiently obeisant to the president and his agenda.

Republican primary voters tend to follow the party’s convention endorsement, wherein mere hundreds of hardcore activists — often the most ideologically dogmatic — decide the candidates’ fate.

But a campaign too focused on the Trumpiest GOP activists could spell trouble in a general election, where Minnesotans have thrice rejected Trump — and every statewide Republican candidate for nearly two decades.

Indeed, Alliance for a Better Minnesota, a well-funded outside group aligned with Democrats, was ready with a release about Robbins late Tuesday, tying her to Trump: “Robbins is an anti-choice extremist whose record shows she’ll side with Trump and conservatives’ harmful agenda over looking out for Minnesota families every time,” said Marissa Luna, the group’s executive director, in a statement.

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[1] Url: https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/08/20/state-rep-kristin-robbins-west-metro-republican-announces-run-for-governor/

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