Some believe that Gov. Tim Walz should have deployed the Minnesota National Guard sooner when riots broke out following the police murder of George Floyd.

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A little more than a year into Tim Walz’s first term as governor, he faced his biggest test.

His state, already in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, was suddenly in the international spotlight after a Minneapolis police officer was filmed murdering George Floyd in May 2020.

Looting, arson and violence followed, quickly overwhelming the local authorities, and some faulted Mr. Walz for not doing more and not moving faster to bring the situation under control with Minnesota National Guard troops and other state officials.

Two days after Mr. Floyd’s death, with protests in Minneapolis turning increasingly violent, the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey, asked Mr. Walz to deploy the National Guard. Hours later, the city’s police chief submitted a written request for 600 troops. But it was not until the next afternoon that Mr. Walz signed an executive order allowing the Guard to assist cities.

“It was obvious to me that he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” said State Senator Warren Limmer, a Republican who helped lead a committee that investigated the response to the unrest. He suggested that Mr. Walz’s personal sympathies toward protesters might have delayed a muscular response.

Mr. Walz, a Democrat who has been chosen as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, has since defended his actions during those days, saying he and others in state government were acting in good faith amid unimaginable circumstances.

“I simply believe that we try to do the best we can,” Mr. Walz said recently at a news conference when asked about his response to the riots.

But critics have said that the riots grew larger and lasted longer because he did not move sooner.

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A burning building with a person raising a fist in the air.
Looting and arson were rampant as protests intensified in Minneapolis after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.Credit…Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
“Governor Walz had the ability and duty to use force and law enforcement to stop criminal violence, but he did not,” said a 2020 Minnesota Senate report on the riots, published at a time when Republicans controlled that chamber. “Governor Walz was not willing to do what was necessary to stop the rioting right away because he was having a philosophical debate about whether the use of force should be used to stop violence.”

Mr. Walz declined to be interviewed for this article. In a statement, a spokesman for the governor, Teddy Tschann, said it had been “a tragic time for our state and our country” and that “Governor Walz took action and deployed the National Guard to keep our city safe.”

Despite the criticism, Minnesota voters entrusted Mr. Walz with a second term in 2022, during which he has signed several progressive measures into law, and the political conversation in his state has largely moved beyond the unrest. But the governor’s actions in 2020, as his state faced the country’s most significant outbreak of rioting in a generation, are sure to be examined more closely by voters and his Republican rivals in the weeks ahead.

The murder of Mr. Floyd came in the early stages of the pandemic, when many businesses were closed and many Americans had been cloistered in their homes. As footage spread of a white officer kneeling on the neck of Mr. Floyd, who was Black, thousands of people took to the streets in Minneapolis and other American cities to demand criminal charges and the reinvention or abolition of the police.

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In front of a colorful mural that says “George Floyd” are piles of flowers and a woman sitting.
A memorial for George Floyd in Minneapolis.Credit…Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York Times
At the time, Mr. Walz, who had previously served in the National Guard, called the city’s response to the unrest an “abject failure.” In the months that followed, state officials said they did not immediately have enough information or a solid plan from Minneapolis on how the guardsmen would be used.

Mr. Frey, a fellow Democrat, told local reporters in 2020 that the governor had hesitated in deploying the Guard. Former President Donald J. Trump, who was in office at the time, has criticized Mr. Walz’s response to the riots, including during a recent rally in the state.

Mr. Frey, who was re-elected in 2021, declined to be interviewed for this article. A spokeswoman for his office, Ally Peters, said in a statement that “During one of the city and state’s most difficult moments, we collectively tried our best to navigate unprecedented times and to do so quickly.”

In the end, according to a state legislative report, more than 1,500 businesses and buildings burned, including a Minneapolis Police station, with an estimated $500 million in property damage statewide. Many police officers and protesters were injured, and at least three deaths were linked to the unrest. Some aspects of the state response will never be known: A Minnesota State Patrol major testified in 2021 that troopers deleted text messages and emails shortly after the protests.