By Steve Karnosky – The Associated Press
ROCHESTER, Minnesota (AFP) – Business Executive Kendall Colles took the lead on Saturday as Minnesota Republicans gathered to endorse a candidate to challenge Democratic Governor Tim Walz in the November elections.
Qualls, who would become the state’s first black candidate for state governor if he won the endorsement, advanced on the fourth ballot and expanded his margin to 42% on the fifth ballot. Dr. Scott Jensen, the vaccine skeptic and former state senator who led the first two ballots, had 35%. Lexington Mayor Mike Murphy, who narrowly led on the third ballot, slipped to third with 22%. Candidate needs 60% to claim endorsement.
All have pledged to honor the party’s endorsement and relinquish the right to run in the August 9 Republican primary, assuming there is no dead end. Former President Donald Trump, who remains an influential force within the party, has not endorsed anyone in the Minnesota races.
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The 2,200 delegates had to complete their work by the 6 p.m. deadline Saturday to vacate the Rochester Mayo Civic Center, but Friday’s quick and relatively smooth electronic voting process appears to reduce the chances of time running out and leaving without a endorsement. Delegates and party leaders hope that at least one of their candidates will become the first Republican elected to a statewide office since Governor Tim Pawlenty’s re-election in 2006.
Qualls highlighted his rise from poverty, to going to college, to becoming an army officer and business leader. His life, he said, is testimony to the failure of the Democrats’ agenda and shows that the American dream is still alive.
“The Radical Left thinks I shouldn’t be here. The media doesn’t think I should be here. Tim Walz wishes I wasn’t here at all,” Coles said to loud applause. black, and that we are not black, and we did not vote for him. Well, after Donald J. Trump voted for president – both times – and I’m still black. And I’m still a Republican. And I’d be Joe Biden and Tim Walz’s worst nightmare.”
Former Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelica, the East Gil Lake senator who has stressed his support for law enforcement, withdrew after the third ballot and lent his support to Qualls. Senator Michael Benson of Hamm Lake, who was a candidate but withdrew before the convention, joined Gazelka in support of the Qualls.
Jensen, the family doctor from Chaska, got his first start in the race and made the most money. He has built a following nationwide as he frames his doubts about the COVID-19 vaccine — and his opposition to masking mandates and closing schools and businesses — as support for medical freedom. In his speech, he emphasized his efforts as a state senator to stand up against the Wales administration’s handling of the pandemic.
“Everyone in this room somewhat understood that Tim Walz had failed. He did. But who would step forward? Who would serve for the benefit, security, and protection of all people? Who would help Minnesota find the way back to be the shining and shining Star of the North?” he asked. Jensen in a video before his speech. “The answer is you.”
Murphy, the mayor of Lexington, a small suburb northwest of Minneapolis, has criticized Wales for his handling of the pandemic and the sometimes devastating unrest that followed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.
“When we shut down Walz, locked us out of our churches and hid our kids, I banned it in my city and shut it down by making my community a healthy freedom haven, free of all COVID bullshit,” Murphy said. “When Wales and (President Joe) Biden attacked our Second Amendment, I defended him in my community by declaring my city a Second Amendment Sanctuary and I will do it for the state.”
On the fourth ballot Friday night, the convention endorsed business attorney Jim Schultz for attorney general, an office that Minnesota Republicans haven’t won since 1968. He hopes to oust Keith Ellison, the former congressman who led the prosecution team that won the murder conviction. For ex-officer Derek Chauvin in Floyd’s death.
Schultz defeated Doug Wardlow, who was the party’s nominee in 2018 and is MyPillow’s general counsel. That company’s CEO, Mike Lindell, rose to national prominence perpetuating the false claim that Trump won the 2020 election. Former Washington District Judge Tad Judd and attorney Lynn Torgerson also lost. Former lawmaker Dennis Smith plans to challenge Schultz in the Republican primary.
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