Last year, I wrote about Gov. Tim Walz’s promise of “One Minnesota,” and whether there was still time for him to make good on it.
The idea was always bigger than a campaign slogan. Minnesota is politically, geographically and culturally divided in ways that can make us feel like we don’t belong in the same reality, let alone the same state. And the governor, maybe more than any other elected official, has an opportunity to remind us that we do.
Now, Amy Klobuchar will get that opportunity.
In fact, on election night she sounded a lot like a governor already thinking about that responsibility. “I am going to be a governor, not just for the people that voted for me, but for all of Minnesota,” she said. She also warned the more progressive members of her party that they might not like every thing she was going to propose.
Voicing those priorities, and those potential impediments now, is important.
We all acknowledge that governors are partisan figures. They run with a party label, endorse candidates, and advance policy agendas. Nobody should expect Klobuchar to stop being a Democrat when she becomes governor. But the office is different from being one member of a legislative caucus.
While no governor can be fully bipartisan or nonpartisan, the office carries an opportunity — and arguably an obligation — to model the kind of cross‑sector, cross‑party leadership required of a divided state. That role becomes even more important in years when control of the House and Senate is held by a single party.
This is something we explored in Majority in the Middle’s State of Bipartisanship report. We issued these recommendations to the next governor:
None of these things eliminates partisanship. They aren’t supposed to. Instead, they help create a culture in which disagreement doesn’t automatically mean distrust.
And Klobuchar has some experience here.
She spent 20 years in the U.S. Senate before being elected governor, and throughout the campaign she pointed to her willingness to work across the aisle. Her bipartisan record was part of the case she made to Minnesotans.
After the assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman in June 2025, Klobuchar returned to the same idea. Speaking on TPT’s “Almanac,” she said: “Courage is not just standing by yourself. Courage is whether you’re willing to stand next to someone you don’t always agree with, for the betterment of this country. That’s what we need to see more of.”
There may be no better example than January 2025. As chair of the bipartisan Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Amy Klobuchar helped oversee the inauguration of Donald Trump, a president she had opposed politically. She didn’t pretend those political differences didn’t exist. Instead, she talked about the “obligation to stand our ground when we must and find common ground when we can.”
The question is whether soon-to-be Gov. Klobuchar can turn her legislative experience working across the aisle into a governing practice in the executive branch.
“One Minnesota” was never going to mean one political party, one worldview or one set of priorities. It doesn’t require Minnesotans to agree. It requires something harder: recognizing that disagreement doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility to live together, govern together and occasionally solve problems together.
“Coach” Walz gave that aspiration a name. Maybe Amy Klobuchar can get it over the goal line.
Shannon Watson is the executive director of Majority in the Middle, a St. Paul-based nonprofit. She’s also a longtime State Capitol observer and provided occasional Voices commentaries during the 2026 legislative session. You’ll find Watson’s previous Middle Aisle columns here.
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