More than three-dozen Minnesotans have served in at least two of the 13 offices that have been on a statewide ballot since 1857

Photo of Amy KlobucharThere is a mounting expectation that four-term DFL U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar will run for Minnesota’s open gubernatorial seat, following Governor Tim Walz’s abrupt plans to withdraw from the 2026 race – four months after announcing his bid last September.

Klobuchar has comfortably won each of her four U.S. Senate campaigns by double-digits and would enter the election cycle not only with national Democratic midterm partisan winds likely at her back but also with a more positive favorability rating with her constituency than the retiring incumbent.

Minnesota Republicans, meanwhile, hope to blunt any headwinds they may face by tying the state’s burgeoning issues with fraud in its governmental assistance programs to any Democrat that gets the nomination – and use the controversy as fuel to get out the vote in a cycle in which Donald Trump will not be on the ballot.

But if Senator Klobuchar does run and is victorious, she will become the 38th individual in state history – and second woman – to serve in two elected Minnesota statewide offices.

[Note: The data below is based on the 13 state offices in Minnesota that were at some point in history elected on a partisan statewide ballot: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor, Attorney General, Treasurer, Railroad Commissioner, Railroad and Warehouse Commissioner, Public Service Commissioner, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative (at-large), Supreme Court Associate/Chief Justice, and Clerk of the Supreme Court. Elections to at-large seats on the Court of Appeals (established in 1983) are not included as that office has always been non-partisan].

Klobuchar’s fellow U.S. Senate delegation member, DFLer Tina Smith, became the first woman to achieve this feat when, while serving as Lieutenant Governor, she was appointed by Governor Mark Dayton to fill Senator Al Franken’s vacant seat in January 2018. Smith would later win election to the seat in her own right in 2018’s special election and in 2020.

To date, six Minnesotans have served in three different elected statewide offices:

  • Republican J.A.A. Burnquist: Lieutenant Governor (elected 1912, 1914), Governor (1916, 1918), and Attorney General (1938, 1940, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1950, 1952)
  • Republican Ray Chase: Auditor (1922, 1926), U.S. Representative At-Large (1932), and Railroad & Warehouse Commissioner (1944)
  • Farmer-Laborite and DFLer Hjalmar Petersen: Lieutenant Governor (1934), Governor (ascended 1936), and Railroad & Warehouse Commissioner (1936, 1954, 1960)
  • Republican Edward Thye: Lieutenant Governor (1942), Governor (1944), and U.S. Senator (1946, 1952)
  • DFLer Karl Rolvaag: Lieutenant Governor (1954, 1956, 1958, 1960), Governor (1962), and Public Service Commissioner (1972)
  • DFLer Mark Dayton: Auditor (1990), U.S. Senator (2000), and Governor (2010, 2014)

Dayton and Tina Smith are the only Minnesotans to accomplish this feat during the 21st Century, although seven others (in addition to Rolvaag) did so during the second half of the 20th Century:

  • Republican C. Elmer Anderson: Lieutenant Governor (1938, 1940, 1944, 1946, 1948, 1950) and Governor (1952)
  • DFLer Walter Mondale: Attorney General (1960, 1962) and U.S. Senator (1966, 1972)
  • DFLer Sandy Keith: Lieutenant Governor (1962) and Supreme Court Associate (1990) and Chief (1992) Justice
  • DFLer Wendell Anderson: Governor (1970, 1974) and U.S. Senator (appointed 1976)
  • DFLer Rudy Perpich: Lieutenant Governor (1970, 1974) and Governor (ascended 1976, 1982, 1986)
  • DFLer Robert Mattson, Jr.: Auditor (1974) and Treasurer (1982)
  • Independent-Republican Arne Carlson: Auditor (1978, 1982, 1986) and Governor (1990, 1994)

A dozen other politicians occupied two statewide elected offices during the first half of the 20th Century:

  • Republican Adolph Eberhart: Lieutenant Governor (1906, 1908) and Governor (ascended 1909, 1910, 1912)
  • Republican Julius Schmahl: Secretary of State (1906, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1914, 1916, 1918) and Treasurer (1926, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1944, 1946, 1948)
  • Republican J.A.O. Preus: Auditor (1914, 1918) and Governor (1920, 1922)
  • Republican Clifford Hilton: Attorney General (1918, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926) and Supreme Court Associate Justice (1928, 1934, 1940)
  • Farmer-Laborite Magnus Johnson: U.S. Senator (1923) and U.S. Representative At-Large (1932)
  • Republican Theodore Christianson: Governor (1924, 1926, 1928) and U.S. Representative At-Large (1932)
  • Republican William I. Nolan: Lieutenant Governor (1924, 1926, 1928) and Railroad & Warehouse Commissioner (1942)
  • Farmer-Laborite Henry Arens: Lieutenant Governor (1930) and U.S. Representative At-Large (1932)
  • Farmer-Laborite Ernest Lundeen: U.S. Representative At-Large (1932) and U.S. Senator (1936)
  • Farmer-Laborite Harry Peterson: Attorney General (1932, 1934, 1936) and Supreme Court Associate Justice (1938, 1944)
  • Farmer-Laborite Elmer Benson: U.S. Senator (appointed 1935) and Governor (1936)
  • Republican Luther Youngdahl: Supreme Court Associate Justice (1942) and Governor (1946, 1948, 1950)

Eleven others served in two different elected statewide offices in Minnesota beginning in the 19th Century:

  • Republican Alexander Ramsey: Governor (1859, 1861) and U.S. Senator (1863, 1869)
  • Republican William Windom: U.S. Representative At-Large (1859, 1860) and U.S. Senator (1871, 1877, 1881)
  • Republican James H. Baker: Secretary of State (1859, 1861) and Railroad Commissioner (1881, 1883)
  • Republican Henry Swift: Lieutenant Governor (ascended 1863) and Governor (ascended 1863)
  • Republican William Marshall: Governor (1865, 1867) and Railroad Commissioner (1875, 1877, 1879)
  • Republican Samuel J.R. McMillan: Supreme Court Associate (1864, 1871) and Chief (1874) Justice and U.S. Senator (1875, 1881)
  • Republican Francis R.E. Cornell: Attorney General (1867, 1869, 1871) and Supreme Court Associate Justice (1874)
  • Republican Cushman Davis: Governor (1873) and U.S. Senator (1887, 1893, 1899)
  • Republican Moses Clapp: Attorney General (1886, 1888, 1890) and U.S. Senator (1901, 1905, 1911)
  • Republican Knute Nelson: Governor (1892, 1894) and U.S. Senator (1895, 1901, 1907, 1912, 1918)
  • Republican David Clough: Lieutenant Governor (1892, 1894) and Governor (1896)

Seven of the aforementioned Minnesotans have held both the governorship and a U.S. Senate seat: Alexander Ramsey, Cushman Davis, Knute Nelson, Elmer Benson, Edward Thye, Wendy Anderson, and Mark Dayton. Klobuchar would be the eighth.

However, only Benson and Dayton first served in the U.S. Senate and were subsequently elected governor, and Dayton is the only one to be elected to both offices.

Smart Politics has reported over the years on the relative rarity of sitting or ex-U.S. Senators later winning the governorship. Since the turn of the 20th Century, governors-turned-U.S. Senators outnumber U.S. Senators-turned-governors by more than a 7:1 margin.

Note: The electoral victories to national office of Hubert Humphrey in 1964 (VP, also elected to the U.S. Senate) and Walter Mondale in 1976 (VP) are not included in the above tallies.

If Court of Appeals elections were included in the above lists, seven names would be added: Paul Holden Anderson, Margaret Chutich, Sandra Gardebring, Samuel Hanson, Natalie Hudson, Peter Popovich, and Wilhelmina Wright were either appointed or elected to both an at-large Court of Appeals seat and the Supreme Court.

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5 Comments

  1. Neu Deutschland on January 7, 2026 at 4:10 pm

    – IMHO, Walz likely would have won a third 4-year term (something that has eluded all his predecessors, including Republican Tim Pawlenty and DFLer Rudy Perpich, who actually sought it in 1990 and 2018, respectively) but perhaps not by a sufficient margin to attain a majority in both legislative chambers, retain the other constitutional posts, or hold the Class 2 Senate seat. Whatever catcalls the national political media direct at him (“downfall” et cetera), he arguably chose an honourable course, one that prioritises his party and, yes, the State, over his personal ambition to hold on to power.

    – It is glaringly noteworthy that no “Democrat” had ever served in two or more partisan elective statewide offices, even as a half dozen Farmer-Laborites had done so (even after FDR had become the first-ever Democrat to carry the state “Democratic” down-ticket wins were few and far between indeed).

    – The gubernatorial path for Kloubuchar – or at least the speculation about it – is not totally new. In fact, I clearly recall coming across at least one report about it on this very forum, circa 2009 or 2011!

    Reply
    • Neu Deutschland on January 7, 2026 at 4:12 pm

      Oops, I had Perpich and Pawlenty mismatched with their comeback attempt years.

      Reply
    • Dr Eric J Ostermeier on January 7, 2026 at 4:22 pm

      Indeed – Klobuchar has been mentioned for a candidate for higher office almost every cycle it seems; though not nearly as often as a U.S. Supreme Court appointee when Democrats have held the presidency!

      Reply
  2. BlueDogs on January 10, 2026 at 11:29 am

    Klobuchar will win her 5th consecutive statewide victory this year & she will win the Governorship in a massive LANDSLIDE victory.

    Reply
  3. Flickertail-Pembina on January 13, 2026 at 12:02 am

    If I am not in error there have been but three women who have won and served as *state governor and US senator* – all in New Hampshire, which definitely does have a small population and apparently does not have a steep political hierarchy.

    That number seems certain to be augmented after the midterm balloting, with second-term TN US senator M M Blackburn widely expected to successfully make the jump from Potomac Washington to Nashville (1st non-New Hampshirite).

    Governor Mills of ME? Klobuchar of MN (Senate to governor post)? Murkowski of AK (ditto)?

    Reply

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