Senate hopeful praises Tim Walz after fraud engulfed state on his watch

A massive fraud scandal is rocking her state, but Democratic Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig has been conspicuously silent.

Craig, a four-term lawmaker running in a contested Democratic primary in Minnesota’s 2026 Senate race, has largely avoided commenting on the multi-year welfare fraud schemes that occurred under Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s watch. When asked by the Daily Caller News Foundation whether the Walz administration bears responsibility for failing to protect stolen taxpayer dollars, Craig effusively praised the two-term governor and insisted they both have taken action to prevent fraud in the North Star State.

“I think the governor is taking and his team are taking an aggressive approach to crack down on fraud in Minnesota,” Craig told the DCNF in a brief interview Tuesday. “They’re prosecuting and putting the folks who are perpetrating the crime in jail.”

Craig’s defense of Walz comes after he said he takes “full responsibility” for the fraud scandal, which federal prosecutors say could have exceeded $1 billion in losses.

“Fraud happened. We need to take accountability, ultimately me,” Walz said during a press conference Friday.

Minnesota Democrats are facing scrutiny following federal prosecutors charging dozens of individuals — the vast majority of Somali descent — with stealing more than $300 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program through the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future. In separate schemes, groups allegedly stole taxpayer money from a federally-funded housing program and autism treatment services.

At least ten of the 78 individuals charged or convicted in the Feeding Our Future scheme since 2022 were residents of Craig’s district, including Aimee Bock, the nonprofit’s founder.

Prosecutors have dubbed the cases the “largest COVID-19 fraud scheme in the country.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Child Nutrition Program funded sites across Minnesota to provide meals to children. Bock oversaw a sprawling scheme in which sites fraudulently claimed to be serving millions of meals to children, according to the Department of Justice.