Minnesota Gov.-elect Tim Walz said Friday that while he is open to discussion on the topic, his administration plans to account for two years of free public college for families making under $125,000 a year in his first budget. During a Friday appearance on TPT Almanac, Walz was asked about…
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Keith Ellison has resigned as deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee after defeating Republican Doug Wardlow in the race for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. Throughout the campaign, Wardlow used Ellison’s high-ranking position with the DNC as evidence that the Democrat would conduct himself in a partisan manner while…
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Two of Minnesota’s newest Democratic members of Congress campaigned on platforms of promoting unity and bipartisanship in Washington, but will be working with a Democratic-controlled House set on punishing the president and placing the speakership back in the hands of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12). Pelosi speakership Pelosi is…
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With the help of a new Democratic majority in the Minnesota House, Gov.-elect Tim Walz is expected to renew efforts to pass gun-control legislation in the state. In response to Wednesday night’s mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, Walz and Rep. Melissa Hortman (D-Fridley), who was elected this week to…
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Newly-elected Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) made no mention of her Republican opponent Karin Housley during her victory speech Tuesday night nor in her posts made on social media after the election. Smith, who took over for Al Franken less than a year ago after his resignation, defeated Housley 53 percent…
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During one of his first public appearances as governor-elect, Democrat Tim Walz said Minnesotans can expect to see a gas-tax increase in his first budget proposal due at the beginning of the year. Speaking to reporters during a visit to his transition office in the Minnesota State Capitol Thursday, Walz…
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The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party won five of Minnesota’s eight congressional districts, adding to an already decisive night of Democratic victories across the state. There were, however, some key Republican upsets throughout Minnesota, particularly in Minnesota’s First Congressional District where Republican Jim Hagedorn was called the winner early Wednesday morning. Republican…
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Millionaire businessman and heir to the Phillips Distilling Company Dean Phillips has unseated Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN-03) in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District. Phillips ran his campaign on fighting the corrupt influence of money in politics, while attacking Paulsen for not making himself available to his constituents, at one point garnering…
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The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party gathered for its “Midnight Madness” event Monday night in an election-eve tradition where the entire slate of Democratic candidates cheered on Keith Ellison is his bid for attorney general. DFL Chairman Ken Martin delivered an impassioned speech when introducing Ellison to the stage, saying the Democratic…
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An emotional Keith Ellison took the stage at St. Paul’s Crowne Plaza hotel late Tuesday night to deliver his victory speech after defeating Republican Doug Wardlow in the race for Minnesota’s Attorney General Office. The race has been a constant source of controversy on both sides of the aisle, though…
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Both Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) hung on to their Senate seats Tuesday in a what turned out to be a big night for Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party. While there was little doubt that Klobuchar would win her bid for a third term in the Senate,…
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Democrat Tim Walz defeated Republican Jeff Johnson to become the next governor of Minnesota and extend the Democratic-Farmor-Labor (DFL) Party’s control of the governor’s mansion. Walz will succeed Gov. Mark Dayton (D-MN), who has been governor of the state since 2011 but chose not to seek reelection after struggling with…
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Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) was recently listed as one of the top 10 most vulnerable senators seeking reelection in the nation, joining fellow Democrats like Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND). Unlike like her Democratic colleagues, however, Smith is campaigning in her first race for the U.S.…
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Minnesota voters are pushing back against a final ad released by Democrat Angie Craig, who claims in her commercial that Minnesotans are known for saying “there’s nothing that can’t be solved over a beer.” “We’ve got a saying in Minnesota: there’s nothing that can’t be solved over a beer,” Craig…
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Minnesota’ candidates running in the special election to replace Al Franken in the U.S. Senate met for their final debate Sunday night in front of a raucous crowd at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater. One of the topics discussed was the rise of incivility and “extremism” in politics, which was on…
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Minnesota’s candidates for office are literally campaigning through the night to make their final appeal to voters, many of whom are still undecided with just two days to go before the election. In Minnesota’s race for the Attorney General’s Office, 12 percent of voters have yet to make up their…
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Minnesota’s gubernatorial candidates made their final appeal to voters Friday night, and Republican Jeff Johnson pulled no punches during the hour-long debate. Right off the bat, Johnson went after Democrat Tim Walz for “never” answering questions, criticizing Walz for refusing to clarify his support for making Minnesota a “sanctuary state.”…
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The midterm elections are now just two days away, and the results from a final round of polling in Minnesota are in. The polls, however, have a substantial margin of error of +/- 5.3 percent, making the KSTP and Survey USA polling of the Minnesota attorney general race essentially inconclusive.…
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The Minneapolis police union called a press conference Friday to speak out against Rep. Keith Ellison’s (D-MN-05) bid for Minnesota attorney general. Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, was joined by two fellow officers in declaring their opposition to Ellison’s “anti law-enforcement views.” “Minnesota, the…
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Republican Karin Housley campaigned through the night Friday in her final push against Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) in their race for the U.S. Senate. The Housley campaign kicked off its 18-stop, 44-hour get-out-the-vote bus tour immediately following Thursday night’s debate at Hamline University, arriving in Duluth at 11:30 p.m. to…
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Minnesota is already home to several competitive congressional races, but its Seventh District just got added to the list. Minnesota’s Seventh Congressional District has been represented by Blue-Dog Democrat Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN-07) for nearly thirty years, but some in the rural district are looking for a fresh voice as…
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After much anticipation, The Star Tribune ultimately withheld an endorsement in the race for Minnesota’s attorney general after finding both candidates “too partisan” to occupy the office. “It’s deeply frustrating to withhold an endorsement in a statewide race that’s this critical,” The Star Tribune Editorial Board wrote in an article…
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Democrat Angie Craig recently refused to state whether she supports implementing a $15 federal minimum wage, calling the question “unfair.” During a debate hosted by the Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce, the moderator asked the candidates to simply state “yes” or “no” in response to the question. “No,” incumbent…
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Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) seemed to suggest during Thursday night’s debate that she would support President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall, but the Minnesota Republican Party called her comments insincere. Smith faced off against Republican challenger Karin Housley at Hamline University in St. Paul for the second-to-last debate of the…
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Most Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party candidates have avoided campaigning with Keith Ellison ever since he was accused of domestic abuse, but Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) praised him as a “terrific” candidate on Thursday. “Everybody, Keith Ellison is going to make a terrific attorney general,” Smith said during one of the first…
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Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party will be kicking of its 28-stop bus tour Thursday, but Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN-05) is conspicuously absent from the list of scheduled speakers. In fact, Ellison is just one of two DFL candidates not scheduled for any stops on the tour. The only other candidate not…
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Minnesota Republicans are in striking distance of former Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) seat, and national Democratic Party leaders are finally starting to take notice. Smith, who was appointed to replace Franken after he resigned, still leads in most polls, but received considerable criticism after skipping the only debate televised statewide.…
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Democratic congressional candidate Angie Craig talks a big game when it comes to showing up for Minnesota voters, but the press is beginning to agree that she’s hard to “pin down.” According to a recent press release, Craig’s final round of ads focuses on “her conversations with Second District families,”…
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A new recording released by Doug Wardlow’s campaign shows Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN-05) seemingly suggesting that he would use the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office to undermine a Republican legislature. It is unclear exactly when and where the recording occurred, but it appears to be recent, since Ellison is discussing his…
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The Star Tribune, Minnesota’s leading news source, has only endorsed one Republican for governor during the state’s last eight gubernatorial elections. Apart from its 1994 endorsement of Republican Arne Carlson, The Star Tribune has otherwise supported six Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party candidates, and one Independence Party candidate since 1990. In order,…
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Ken Martin, chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party, touted his party’s record of supporting women in an interview that aired just days after he publicly declared that he does “not believe” Rep. Keith Ellison’s (D-MN-05) accuser. During a Wednesday press conference, Martin expressed his “support” for Ellison’s ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan,…
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A group of prominent Minnesota Republicans visited a local ICE detention center to vocalize their support for the country’s federal immigration laws, but the real star of the show was the local sheriff in attendance. Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeff Johnson, along with Republican attorney general candidate Doug Wardlow and Congressional…
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A new poll shows that most Minnesotans do not believe the accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and actually approve of his confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. According to an Oct. 24 MPR/Star Tribune poll, 49 percent of Minnesota respondents approve of Kavanaugh’s confirmation, compared to 43 percent…
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Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN-03) is vowing to take on big pharma in his bid for Minnesota attorney general, but has received at least $100,000 in campaign donations from the pharmaceutical industry in his career. According to publicly available campaign-finance data, Ellison has taken $102,875 from the “pharmaceuticals and health products”…
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Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN-05) accuser Karen Monahan suggested over the weekend that she will join the growing number of frustrated liberal voters in “walking away” from the Democratic Party. Monahan, who claims she has been smeared and threatened since coming forward with her allegations, shared a video on Twitter published…
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With just days to go before the midterm elections, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) will spend the weekend campaigning for Democratic colleagues in Iowa. Such visits to the state, especially during an important reelection campaign, are often consider potential presidential feelers. Michael Avenatti, for instaNewnce, has made multiple visits to the…
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With just nine days to go before the midterm elections, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN-05) accuser Karen Monahan is speaking out on several local and national news programs. Monahan sat down with KSTP’s Eric Chaloux Tuesday for an in-person interview broadcast live throughout the state. She opened up about her “fears”…
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Billionaire political activist George Soros and his mega-rich son Alexander have dropped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Minnesota’s midterm elections. According to a recent report from MinnPost, the heir to the Soros fortune donated $100,000 to the People’s Lawyer PAC, an independent expenditure committee established to elect Keith Ellison…
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Democrat Dean Phillips has been railing against the corrupt influence of money in politics ever since announcing his bid for Congress, but on Thursday revealed that he was loaning his campaign $1.3 million. One of the pillars of Phillips’ campaign is his “Minnesota Way” pledge, which asks candidates to “reject…
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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim Walz spent Wednesday clarifying his stance on a $15 minimum wage hike, but in doing so seemed to only complicate his position on the issue. Speaking alongside a cohort of Minnesota mayors, Walz called his previous support of a statewide $15 minimum wage “aspirational” in response…
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Democrat Dean Phillips’ campaign manger suggested that Republican rhetoric is to blame for the recent bomb threat targeted at prominent Democrats, such as President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. “I don’t know whether flipping the House is enough to put a stop to this madness, but just imagine what it…
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New evidence released Wednesday supports the claim that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minneapolis) married her brother in an alleged effort to help him obtain U.S. citizenship. The story has been circulating ever since 2016 when Omar won her historic bid to become the nation’s first Somali-American lawmaker, but she has dismissed…
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Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Chairman Ken Martin admitted at a Wednesday press conference that he does “not believe” Rep. Keith Ellison’s (D-MN-05) accuser. Ellison was accused of domestic abused by ex-girlfriend Karen Monahan just days before his August primary, but has repeatedly denied the accusations, and a DFL investigation into the…
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House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump both made last-ditch efforts to bolster Rep. Erik Paulsen’s (R-MN-03) campaign in its final weeks against Democratic challenger Dean Phillips. Phillips’ energized campaign has attacked Paulsen left and right for being a “rubber-stamp” politician who doesn’t make himself available to his constituents,…
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A surprising new poll shows Republican Doug Wardlow now leading Democrat Keith Ellison in the race for Minnesota’s attorney general. According to the new MPR News and Star Tribune poll, 43 percent of voters said they plan to support Wardlow in the midterms, while 36 percent plan to vote for…
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Republican Karin Housley debated an empty podium Sunday night after Democratic opponent Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) declined to participate due to a “complicated schedule.” But nobody seems to know what scheduling conflicts in particular prevented Smith from attending, and Smith herself didn’t elaborate beyond saying that she has “just a…
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A new poll shows that Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) now has a staggering 16-point lead over incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) in North Dakota’s Senate race. According to a recent poll conducted by KVLY, KFYR, and Strategic Research Associates, Cramer leads Heitkamp 56 percent to 40 percent among likely voters. Of those voters, just 37…
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Sunday night’s Minnesota attorney general debate was a verbal “street-brawl” from start to finish, as one reporter put it, but at least three glaring lies spouted by Democrat Keith Ellison went unchecked by the moderators. The first came when Republican Doug Wardlow attacked Ellison for his past support of abolishing…
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Leaked recordings showing that Republican Doug Wardlow plans to fire a number of Democrats if elected to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office struck a blow to his campaign’s momentum this week. But similar tactics employed by his Democratic predecessors, both locally and nationally, have been mostly left out of the…
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During Sunday’s night of debates, Republican Karin Housley repeatedly criticized Democratic opponent Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) for declining the opportunity to debate due to a “complicated schedule.” KSTP’s moderators began the live interview by questioning Housley, who appeared on the stage unopposed, about her 2009 remarks comparing Michelle Obama to…
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