On Tuesday evening, I finally had the opportunity to see all six (possibly more in the near future) Republican gubernatorial candidates looking to unseat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this November. The Wright County Republicans did a great job putting on this forum in Otsego, including selecting our personal friend Carisa Rasmussen as the event's moderator.
I may be stating the obvious here, but any one of the six GOP candidates would be a significant upgrade from Walz (a low bar, I realize). That said, whomever will ultimately prevail as the Republican nominee will need to execute a Glenn Youngkin type campaign in that there will need to be 100% message discipline along with a helpful gaffe from their opponent. Victory is still a longshot though, as befits a party which hasn't won a statewide race since 2006.
Having never heard Dr. Neil Shah or Lexington, MN Mayor Mike Murphy speak in person, I was very impressed with both gentlemen. Dr. Shah has an inspirational story of his parents immigrating to America from India 50 years ago with literally nothing but dreams for a better future. Certainly those dreams were manifested with their son becoming a dermatologist. And while Murphy, to quote my friend and NARN colleague Jack Tomczak, has the appearance of a guy who just hopped outta bed, got dressed and headed to an event, he definitely is making a name for himself among the grassroots having won the MN Gun Owners Caucus straw poll over the weekend. While these two candidates have different speaking styles (Shah very even-keeled while Murphy can come off as a firebrand), both were very articulate and on message the whole night.
Kendall Qualls, who in 2020 ran for U.S. House in Minnesota's Third Congressional District, is the newcomer in this race.....and it showed. Qualls often struggled to answer questions within the allotted two minute time frame, though he was very passionate in responding to inquiries related to what is being taught in schools. Sadly, I see no realistic path for Qualls going forward given that Shah and Murphy are in a better position to assume the "political outsider" role.
Paul Gazelka, who has been the Senate Majority Leader for the past six years, is the one candidate who catches the most shrapnel from the rest of the field. For the past four years, Gazelka has had to make difficult compromises with a DFL Governor and DFL House Speaker when negotiating end of session policy and spending. Given he's outnumbered, he had to make difficult concessions in order to hold the line on his one non-negotiable -- tax increases. Nevertheless, those compromises have run afoul of conservatives, and it's Republicans of those ideological stripes that will lkely be the lion's share of the delegates at May's endorsing convention. As such, Gazelka likely won't get the endorsement, which he made a pledge to abide by.
Of all the candidates in the race, Dr. Scott Jensen, who was the first to declare his candidacy, has gotten the most name recognition (even on a national scale) due to his openly questioning COVID-19 policy. He's also raised north of $1 million, mostly via small donors. But, again, I don't believe the party delegates are sold on him, which means he will likely take the GOP race to a primary this summer. While the other five candidates vowed to honor the delegates' choice, Jensen's reply to that inquiry was basically that he plans on winning the MNGOP endorsement. I interpreted that as he will NOT drop out of the race if he doesn't prevail at the state convention this spring.
Then there's Michelle Benson. As I've mentioned in this space previously, Benson and her husband Craig are personal friends of my wife and me, so there is nothing short of an outrageous scandal that would cause her to lose our support. So yeah, I could tell you Benson was terrific last evening (she was) and that she actually had passion behind her articulate answers (she did), but what else am I gonna say? It's darn near impossible for me to be unbiased here.
I leave you this from local media guy Blois Olson's Wednesday edition of Morning Take.
STRAWPOLL: Wright County is among the most intense Republican areas of the state. It’s Rep. Tom Emmer’s home turf, and activists are among the most influential in the state party. The party unit for the area, will be the largest or one of the largest to the state convention. Last night, State Sen. Michelle Benson won the Wright County Republican Straw Poll by a wide margin. Organizing and persuading activists and likely delegates is the secret sauce of success in the GOP path to endorsement. Benson hasn’t been flashy, but she showed her campaigns organizing strength with her win in Wright County. Here are the results: Benson 35%, Shah 16%, Murphy 15%, Jensen 14%, Gazelka 11%, Qualls 8%.
BENSON: via memo, from the Benson for Governor campaign VERBATIM: “Michelle Benson has organized a grassroots campaign that is reaching out to traditional and new donors, especially those left behind in Tim Walz's Minnesota like small business owners. Michelle Benson has been in the race for Governor for only 120 days and raised $213,203 by building new, authentic relationships with Minnesotans…To date, Michelle accomplished this through hundreds of donor calls, dozens of in- person meetings and events, and mailing to the top donors in Minnesota and across the country. Tapping into her roots, Michelle has found incredibly strong support in the state's agricultural community. Minnesota agriculture is a powerhouse economic engine in our state; our farmers and ranchers know that Michelle is the only candidate in this race who will always work to support and strengthen them. At this point in previous campaigns, former leading Republican candidates for Governor had raised the following:
- 2009 Marty Seifert for Governor - $255,272
- 2009 Tom Emmer for Governor - $98,466
- 2013 Jeff Johnson for Governor - $242,689
- 2013 Marty Seifert for Governor - $150,151
- 2013 Dave Thompson for Governor - $124,648
- 2013 Scott Honor for Governor - $596,680 (includes a $100K loan)
- 2013 Kurt Zellers for Governor - $402,600
- 2017 Jeff Johnson for Governor - $258,992
So y'see, it's not just my wife and me who ascertain what a phenomenal leader Michelle can be.
Game on!
------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment