Another Minnesota Republican claims that she was attacked while on the campaign trail after she attempted to prevent the alleged assailant from destroying her campaign signs.
Rep. Sarah Anderson (R-Plymouth), who is seeking reelection in District 44A, spotted a man damaging Republican campaign signs near her home, and proceeded to exit her vehicle to confront the man. The man became aggressive with Anderson, who backed away from the suspect and into the road as he told her to, “go kill yourself.”
“I said, ‘You can’t do this.’ And he said, ‘Yes, I can. I’m an anarchist. I can do whatever I want.’ And I said, ‘No, you can’t, that’s not your property,’” Anderson told WCCO, saying that she followed the man to a nearby gas station in an effort to capture him on video.
She managed to capture a picture of the man while he charged at her, hitting her in the arm and attempting to prevent her from driving away.
“I said, ‘I’m leaving now. I’m leaving now.’ And he was still with his head in my vehicle, just yelling. He was irrational, just completely irrational,” Anderson recalled.
Police have identified the alleged suspect and plan to interview him Tuesday, though there were no witnesses to the incident.
“This is not going to change me. I refuse. I cannot live in fear. I refuse,” Anderson added.
Anderson, however, was not the only Republican victim of a politically-charged attack over the weekend. Shane Mekeland, a Republican running for District 15B, claims that he was punched at a Benton County bar after engaging in a conversation with a potential constituent.
“I suffered a concussion and the incident is now in the hands of law enforcement,” Mekeland wrote on Facebook. “When I chose to run for office, I expected to be politically attacked, but never physically.”
Additionally, Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Deputy Communications Director William Davis was suspended without pay over the weekend after suggesting that Republicans should be sent “to the guillotines.”
“The comment made by William Davis on social media this weekend was unacceptable,” DFL Executive Director Corey Day said in a statement. “The DFL offers its apologies and assurance that these types of remarks by our employees are not the way we conduct our business.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
