Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday he will seek a third term in 2026, ending months of speculation about his political future.

Walz, 61, declared in a video posted to social media that “we’re not done yet,” adding that “I want to make Minnesota a place where everyone has a chance to succeed — in every corner of the state.”

The Democrat was expected to announce his re-election bid earlier this summer, but he put those plans on hold after the June 14 assassination of former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, as well as the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette.

“I’ve seen how we help each other through the hard times,” Walz said in his announcement, which also referenced the Aug. 27 shooting that killed two children at Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis. “And boy, we’ve seen terrible times this year. I’m heartbroken and angry about the beautiful people we lost to gun violence.

“But it’s in these moments we have to come together. We can’t lose hope because I’ve seen what we can do when we work together.”

No Minnesota governor has been elected three times since their terms were extended to four years from two years in 1963. Democrat Rudy Perpich sought a third term in 1990, but was defeated by Republican Arne Carlson.

Minnesota is one of 13 states that does not impose term limits on its chief executives.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) scoffed at Walz’s announcement and was optimistic that Republicans would win the gubernatorial election in the Land of 10,000 Lakes for the first time since 2006.

“He has nowhere to go — his own party doesn’t want him,” Emmer told The Post of Walz. “It’s probably good for a Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota because Walz is a proven liar, and he’s a failure.”

“Minnesotans are smart,” added the third-ranking House Republican. “It doesn’t really matter who you run against him. You just got to remind Minnesotans who he is.”

Walz won re-election in 2022 by 7.7 percentage points, defeating Republican Scott Jensen, a doctor and former state senator. 

In 2024, the Minnesota governor was tapped as then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, but failed to give the nominee the boost she needed with white men as Donald Trump was returned to the White House. 

Since the election defeat, Walz has held town halls across the country, blasting the Republican White House.

“We shouldn’t have been playing this thing so safe,” the governor was quoted as telling Politico in March of the Harris campaign. 

In May, Walz ignited a firestorm by comparing Immigration and US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany — and declined to apologize for those incendiary remarks.

That same month, he suggested that Democrats should be “meaner” and “bully” Trump.

The comments fueled speculation Walz might vie for the presidency in 2028.

But in July, he told Axios that he would not run for president if he sought a third term as governor — and elsewhere acknowledged that his status as Harris’ running mate may have hurt him with voters back home.

“He’s got no path to run for national office,” Emmer said Tuesday. “He ended up looking like a fool when he was exposed on national TV lying … hopefully I’m right that his future in state politics is over.”

During the 2024 campaign, Walz was criticized for exaggerating details of his biography, including implying he had combat experience while in the Army National Guard and claiming he was in Hong Kong for the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

“I’m a knucklehead at times,” he admitted during his debate against JD Vance last fall.

The prospective Republican field includes Jensen, healthcare tech executive Kendall Qualls, state Rep. Kristin Robbins and former UFC fighter Brad Kohler