THE BUCK STOPS WITH HIM
Quick question for you. When the state’s own website says “Office of Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan,” whose office was it? Take the red pill with me for a minute. The blue one has been telling Minnesota a bedtime story about delegation.
“The buck stops with him”
Friday afternoon, in what is likely the only debate of Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate race, the moderator asked Democratic nominee Peggy Flanagan whether she had “any ownership over the fraud.” Flanagan has been lieutenant governor since 2019. Her answer, per Fox News: “The governor has been very clear that the buck stops with him. He was the one who had oversight here.” Then she listed what she did lead on: paid family and medical leave, the child tax credit, and “making sure that kids get breakfast and lunch at school.”
Republican nominee Michele Tafoya pounced. Flanagan “demanded it be the Walz-Flanagan administration,” Tafoya said, “when she demanded to be in the room where everything happened, but suddenly she has nothing to do with this,” per MPR News. You don’t have to take Tafoya’s word on the branding. The state’s governor’s office website is titled “Office of Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan.”
THE BUCK STOPS WITH HIM: and the nameplate stops with both of them.
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in 2024. Asked in Friday’s Senate debate whether she owns any of the state’s fraud scandals, she said “the buck stops with” Gov. Tim Walz. Credit: Office of Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
What happened on their watch
Here’s the record, from MPR News’ timeline. Federal child nutrition money paid to Feeding Our Future through the Minnesota Department of Education went from $3.5 million in 2019 to nearly $43 million in 2020, then peaked at $198 million in 2021. Federal prosecutors called it “the single largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country,” and 78 people had been charged by late 2025. In 2024, the state’s legislative auditor found that “actions and inactions” by the education department opened the door.
Then came Medicaid. Autism-therapy centers were raided in 2024. The state shut down its Housing Stabilization Services program in 2025 amid fraud concerns. On Dec. 18, 2025, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson estimated that fraud in Minnesota Medicaid programs may have cost taxpayers as much as $9 billion since 2018. Walz called that “speculating,” and on Jan. 5 he dropped his bid for a third term. MPR notes there is no evidence Walz took part in the fraud.
One detail from Friday sticks. Flanagan’s signature line was school breakfast and lunch. Minnesota’s signature fraud case ran through federally funded child meal programs overseen by the same state education department. Different programs, same building.
The Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. Federal prosecutors estimated Medicaid fraud in state programs may have reached $9 billion since 2018; Gov. Walz called the figure “speculating.” Credit: xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
If you take credit for the school lunches, you get asked about the stolen meals.
The blue costume: accountability, outsourced
Democrats are running this fall as the anti-corruption party. Government ethics and scandal shows up in 12.6% of pro-Democratic Senate ad airings, per the Wesleyan Media Project. Fine message. It lands better when your Senate nominee doesn’t hand the ethics question to the guy who isn’t on the ballot.
Back in 2022, Walz defended the education department on Feeding Our Future: “We caught this fraud. We caught it very early.” Two years later the auditor said the department’s own actions opened the door. Friday, when the fraud came up, Flanagan pivoted to Trump. Tafoya’s reply, per Fox: “Peggy, Donald Trump isn’t on the ballot.” Check who’s actually funding Minnesota’s delegation on our Minnesota Money Map.
You can’t campaign on the record and leave the worst page in the governor’s drawer.
The red costume: fraud czars, with exceptions
Now the other side. Tafoya’s fraud plan, per Fox: deport noncitizens who defraud Americans, and for citizens, “mandatory prison minimums. Tough sentences, not an easygoing slap on the wrist.” Trump endorsed her days before the debate, per MPR.
On Oct. 17, 2025, that same president gave former Rep. George Santos, sentenced to 87 months for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, an immediate commutation of his entire sentence, “with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions.” Santos had served less than three months, The New York Times reported. Texas’ Republican Senate nominee, Ken Paxton, rang in 2025 in Dubai with two indicted healthcare-fraud fugitives, as we covered in The Fugitive Guest List. And when a YouTuber posted a video alleging child care fraud, the Trump administration froze federal child care funds to Minnesota; the state agency later found all nine sites he visited “operating as expected,” per MPR.
Mandatory minimums for fraud are a fine idea. Start with the fraudster your endorser let walk.
Former Rep. George Santos’s official House portrait. Sentenced to 87 months for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, he had his entire sentence commuted by President Trump on Oct. 17, 2025. Credit: U.S. House Office of Photography, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Both costumes
Here’s the adult version.
Flanagan can’t put her name on the administration and leave its biggest failure on Walz’s desk. Tafoya can’t run as the fraud czar while her endorser hands convicted fraudsters a clean exit. Both of them say they want tougher fraud penalties. Only one of their parties’ presidents commuted a convicted fraudster’s entire sentence last year.
Own the boring standard: whoever served as No. 2 owns the record, and whoever demands mandatory minimums for fraud says the same about fraudsters in their own party.
Ask your reps one question: will they back tougher fraud penalties that a president of either party can’t erase with a signature?
Receipts
- MPR News (Dana Ferguson, Peter Cox), Oct. 16, 2026. Debate; Tafoya’s “Walz-Flanagan administration” line; Trump’s endorsement days earlier; Flanagan on Walz taking the buck.
- Fox News (Leo Briceno), Oct. 16, 2026. Flanagan’s full “buck stops with him” answer; Tafoya’s “Trump isn’t on the ballot” reply and fraud plan.
- Minnesota governor’s office website. Page title: “Office of Governor Tim Walz and Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan.”
- MPR News timeline, Jan. 6, 2026. Feeding Our Future amounts; 78 charged; 2024 auditor finding; Medicaid probes; $9 billion estimate and Walz response; child care freeze; Walz’s exit.
- Wesleyan Media Project, Oct. 15, 2026. Government ethics in 12.6% of pro-Democratic Senate airings.
- U.S. Justice Department clemency grant, Oct. 17, 2025. Santos commutation terms. The New York Times, Oct. 17, 2025. Released early.
- Earlier Hypocrisy Democracy: The Fugitive Guest List. Reader tools: Minnesota Money Map; PACTracker.
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Originally published on Substack.
