- After the absolute debacle that was the MNGOP convention this past weekend, the runner-up in the gubernatorial endorsement is taking it to the August primary.
House Speaker Lisa Demuth will continue her campaign for Minnesota governor despite losing the state Republican endorsement to former healthcare executive Kendall Qualls at the state party convention in Duluth.
She and her running mate, attorney Ryan Wilson, announced their decision on Tuesday. Demuth will run in the GOP primary on Aug. 11 against Qualls and My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, after this weekend’s convention failed to eliminate top Republican candidates in the races for governor and U.S. Senate.
Demuth had originally pledged to abide by the GOP’s endorsement before the convention, but left the door open after “unusual circumstances” with the balloting process on Saturday.
“We fully expected when we agreed to abide by the endorsement that that process would be fair,” Demuth said on the steps of the state Capitol after filing paperwork to run. “That was brought into question.”
Demuth had led on the first four ballots, increasing her percentage on each occasion. But then from ballots 4 to 5, the result went from Demuth leading Qualls 42.4% to 35.8% to her trailing 49.9% to 46%. And if that wasn't suspicious enough, the number of delegates casting votes dropped by nearly 400. It was when results were being tabulated for ballot #6 that it was ascertained there were technical issues involving the clickers being used to cast votes. A 15-minute recess to address the issue turned into multiple hours before voting resumed. Qualls would eventually reach the 60% threshold on the 10th ballot.
Look, I'm not suggesting that Qualls' victory is illegitimate. However, given the flawed process, the state party was absolutely justified in allowing Demuth to rescind her pledge to abide by the endorsement if she so chose.
Finally, friend of the NARN (and occasional guest host) Dave Osmek with perhaps the paramount reason why the endorsement process should be gassed altogether.
If MNGOP activists indeed don't want the party to perpetually be in the minority, what would they be doing differently if they did?
- Given it's the month of June, major organizations look to pander to the LGBTQIA2S+ community. And certain media outlets are witting accomplices in calling out those who refuse to do so.
Unless the Rangers are actively banning gays from participating in their various promotional nights, I'm not really seeing an issue here.
- I wrote a few weeks ago that the national Democrat party has an extremism problem.
A lot has been made of Graham Platner (or is it Grähäm Plätner?), the guy vying to be the Dem Senate candidate to oppose Susan Collins in Maine. Turns out the Nazi tattoo on his chest may, shockingly, be the least of his issues.
But if you think that's jarring, get a load of the official Democrat candidate for Congress out of New Jersey's 12th Congressional District.
I guess this all makes sense. For a solid decade now, progs have painted Donald Trump as evil and morally bankrupt. Turns out they were only doing so to justify the lunatics they're now regularly putting forth for political office.
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