Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination this week, will not take on Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in 2012.

Pawlenty told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he did not know what his future plans would be, but he would “not be running against Amy in 2012.”

Pawlenty told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he was ending his presidential campaign after placing third in the Ames straw poll in Iowa the day before.

“I wish it would have been different. But, obviously, the pathway forward for me doesn’t really exist. And so we’re going to end the campaign,” the two-term governor said.

Before he dropped out of the race, Pawlenty told the Star Tribune that he wouldn’t run for Senate this cycle.

Klobuchar won her first term in 2006 with 58 percent of the vote. Fifteen months before the election, she faces what appears to be only nominal opposition from former state Rep. Dan Severson (R). Severson lost his 2010 bid to be secretary of state, 46 percent to 49 percent.