It doesn't take a Harvard degree.....

 ......to be a Lt. Governor candidate. But it's not an impediment either. 

Former Minnesota Vikings center (and Harvard alum - ed.) Matt Birk  will be Scott Jensen's running mate in his bid to unseat DFL Gov. Tim Walz in November.

Jensen, a Republican, announced his lieutenant governor pick at a Tuesday rally in Eagan.

"We need to take back the field, but we can't do it alone," Jensen said in a football-themed video announcement Tuesday evening. "We need a teammate who isn't afraid to hit back."

Jensen is the first in a large GOP field of gubernatorial hopefuls to announce a running mate.

In a statement, Minnesota DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said Jensen's choice is a sign his campaign is "doubling down on far-right extremism (**drink** - ed.)."

"Matt Birk has campaigned to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota, supports outlawing abortion, and is a vehement anti-vaxxer," Martin said. "The Jensen-Birk ticket's far-right extremism is out of touch with Minnesota's values, and the contrast with Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. [Peggy] Flanagan couldn't be clearer."

There have been others who have mentioned Birk's opposition to same-sex marriage, which I find.....odd. Despite Birk's advocacy to pass the MN Marriage Amendment (citing marriage as between one woman and one man) in 2012, it got shot down by voters. Less than a year later, gay marriage became legal in Minnesota and then was the law of the land nationwide in 2015. Unless the Jensen campaign platform includes overturning a codified law, I'm not certain why there's this obsession with a political stance from 10 years ago. 

That said, I will concede Martin has a point in that Jensen didn't pick a running mate with even a slight contrast in ideology from himself. Typically a gubernatorial candidate will select someone that can appeal to a group of voters of different ideological stripes (Hence, the perceived moderate Walz selecting the urban progressive Flanagan as his running mate in 2018). And with the COVID-19 pandemic waning with each passing day, what other positions outside of rightly panning Walz's unilateral decision making during said pandemic have the two even glossed over?

As of today, Jensen is the frontrunner among the GOP crop of candidates in that he is closest to Walz in the polls and has been the most prolific fundraiser. But what happens if COVID completely disappears this summer and into the fall, closer to Election Day? If indeed Jensen-Birk is the Republican ticket, they're definitely going to have to be better versed in other serious issues facing Minnesotans. 

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