Two Republican candidates for statewide office in Minnesota had tepid reactions to late-in-the-campaign endorsements from former President Donald Trump.
Secretary of state nominee Kim Crockett issued a statement saying she was surprised by the endorsement. “I appreciate this unexpected vote of confidence.” But she quickly added that she would guard the vote for all voters “no matter one’s party affiliation.”
GOP nominee for governor Scott Jensen tried to steer the conversation away from Trump, calling it one of many endorsements he has gotten this month.
“While we have not actively sought the endorsement of political leaders, we are grateful for those who have recognized our ability to lead and Heal Minnesota,” Jensen said in an early morning statement.
Why the lack of enthusiasm? An endorsement from the controversial president might have been helpful when both were trying to win the endorsement from a group of GOP delegates that remains dominated by Trump supporters. But in a general election, Trump’s support can be as damaging among independent voters as it is helpful among the GOP base.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Walker Orenstein[/image_credit][image_caption]Secretary of state nominee Kim Crockett issued a statement saying she was surprised by the endorsement.[/image_caption]
Among independent voters, just 20% said they felt very or somewhat favorable toward the former president, with 64% reporting very or somewhat unfavorable feelings toward him.
Especially in the secretary of state’s race, Trump’s endorsement and the message he sent to his followers on Truth Social repeated a false claim by Trump that Crockett has been trying to downplay: that the 2020 election was stolen.
Crockett has said in the past that the election was rigged and continues to raise doubts about how it was conducted in Minnesota and the nation. More recently, though, she has said the 2020 election is not an issue and that she can be counted on to oversee elections in a nonpartisan way. Her DFL opponent, incumbent Steve Simon, repeatedly says her sowing of doubts in the count is disqualifying.
So while Crockett would prefer to not go there, Trump went there and beyond.
Calling Crockett “a strong and wonderful woman,” Trump said “fraud is rampant” in Minnesota. He added that it is a state “where nothing is done about it, or more important, to FIX IT. Kim will get to the bottom of it and so much else.”
Joe Biden won Minnesota by 233,012 votes, more than 7 percentage points over Trump, and there were no successful legal challenges of the Minnesota vote.
Trump’s endorsement of Jensen said he would bring the state “back from the brink,” citing his positions on crime and education.
“… there won’t be any more fiery takeovers of police precincts. Minnesota will be great again,” Trump wrote before offering his “complete and total endorsement.”
Jensen didn’t cite the Trump endorsement specifically, instead grouping it with others including the Forum Communications newspapers, police officers and the Hmong American Leadership Council.
Jensen has trailed Gov. Tim Walz in media polls, but the gap has closed since the summer. The MinnPost/Embold Research poll reported Walz with a five-point lead. Simon led Crockett by seven percentage points in the same poll.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Peter Callaghan[/image_credit][image_caption]GOP nominee for governor Scott Jensen tried to steer the conversation away from Trump, calling it one of many endorsements he has gotten this month.[/image_caption]
“As this campaign takes the lead in the polls, I expect many individuals and organizations to ride the momentum and endorse our campaign,” Jensen said.
State DFLers, however, quickly tried to take advantage of the endorsement by an unpopular former president who has spent nearly two years saying his defeat was fraudulent. That despite no court victories in dozens of challenges and rejection of his claims by his own Justice Department. The Jan. 6 special investigation of the U.S. House has presented evidence of his actions to trigger the violent takeover of the Capitol that delayed, but did not stop, the certification of the Electoral College victory for Biden.
“It is more important than ever that we do not allow one of Donald Trump’s lackeys into office to continue attacking the legitimacy of our elections and spreading conspiracy theories that incite political violence,” said state DFL Chair Ken Martin of the Crockett endorsement.
Simon’s campaign sent out a fundraising appeal based on the endorsement within hours of it being posted by Trump.
Early Wednesday, Martin responded to the Jensen endorsement: “Scott Jensen has embraced the Big Lie, even calling for throwing our Secretary of State in jail. Now, Donald Trump has rewarded him with an endorsement.”
It’s too late for these anti-democratic authoritarians to hide their Trumpian foolishness. They have been chanting Trump’s BS since their campaigns began and they are saddled with him for life now.
Well of course, Crockett, Jensen, Trump….a perfect fit; Thank you Donald. But with that said, he won’t come to Minnesota to personally endorse them. Remember Trump vowed never to set foot in Mn again if he lost in 2020…. and he did lose. He wouldn’t lie, would he ?
Talked to my Republican leaning neighbor yesterday. His big wish is that Donald would just go away. I suspect that an endorsement from Donald will not be a plus in his view.
It reminds people that Trump did not accept his defeat, trying to overturn the will of the people by frivolous lawsuits and inciting a violent riot that injured 140 police officers, with virtually all his party agreeing with him or avoiding tgd subject. Crockett said she would not automatically accept the verdict of the voters and has an agenda that would reduce voter participation in which Minnesota leads the nation. Jensen supported Trump’s management of a global pandemic which cost a million American lives, a death rate four times the global average. Minnesota’s effort to reduce the impact was science based and results in substantially lower death rates than in more rural Rrpublican neighbors. A family doctor disinterested in preventing serious illness lacks the capacity to handle other serious challenges.
Did we really need an additional reason to vote against these two?
Yes. They cannot possibly lose badly enough.
This reads like an op-ed piece. There’s no evidence the candidates are unhappy with Trump’s endorsement, other than the reporter’s imagination.
“There’s no evidence the candidates are unhappy with Trump’s endorsement … ” Neither did they express joy with his endorsement.
Politically, they have to be vague (which they were). On one hand, neither can risk alienating hard-core Trumpians who still are a core (albeit shrinking) for Republicans. On the other, both have to realize that — in a general election — embracing Trump may alienate a significant number of independents. They need the votes of both Republican loyalists and independents to defeat Democratic incumbents.
Trump’s endorsement of Jensen probably is a nice shot in the arm for the Walz campaign. Independent votes were responsible for Trump’s win in ’16 and his defeat in ’20 (a majority soured on him). Nationally, both major parties are minorities — independents and moderates decide elections, not the party faithful.
(Surprising that Crockett wasn’t pleased since she had enthusiastically embraced Trump’s Big Lie.)
P.S. I’m a conservative — albeit a “traditional” one.
Very accurate. Although Big Lie is a partisan term adopted by the media for what should be called Big Opinion.
If you believe in and have trust in the Constitution, you know it is fact, not opinion.
Yer gonna have to give me a definition, because I’ve seen it defined dozens of ways. Pick a card any card.
We resolve our differences through the courts in our judicial system.
Have a grievance or a wrong to be righted you can file case.
Don’t like the court’s decision? You can appeal it.
Don’t like the appealed decision? It can be appealed again to the SCOTUS.
The Rs and Mitch McConnell have certainly worked long and hard to appoint conservative judges at every level. If you support the Dobb’s decision and other recent SCOTUS decisions as evidence of a wise and just judicial system you must also agree that this same system said there was no rigged election and the rightful winner was elected by the people.
Not a lot of wiggle room here if you believe in and trust the Constitution, the card I am picking and not sure what all the others are: suggestions?
“The Big Lie” is a partisan label, undefinable, used as a blanket smear. Your statement, “there was no rigged election and the rightful winner was elected by the people” rather makes my point. It’s a two-part statement, a mix of fact and opinion, one part meant to impugn the other, muddying discourse.
What’s rightful? If by rightful you mean Biden holds office legally as determined by our courts, no one asserts otherwise. It’s fact. If you find someone who contests this, quote and cite.
As for rigged, this might apply to anything, from rushed last minute rule changes to liberalized early voting to social media censorship. It’s opinion. We are allowed to have opinions without being called liars. Or should be.
In re-reading your post I see you thought I was referring to the Constitution when I said define it. I was referring to the term “Big Lie”. I was perhaps unclear, and take responsibility for the misunderstanding. Nevertheless my ensuing comment is to the point.
Whew…
If the election was “rigged” the person or people being harmed by the rigging have Constitutional remedies that have worked for over 200 years to right any wrongs.
Trumpian forces filed over 60 challenges alleging a “rigged process” and lost all but one of them, right up to the Supreme Court.
If you believe in the Constitution and it’s’ ability to deliver justice you would have to agree that there was no “rigged election” and to still claim otherwise would be…
Wait for it…
A lie.
Maybe even a big lie.
And if you disagree please tell us how you would amend the Constitution to prevent this from happening again. And I am not talking about local rule changes from the Kim Crocketts of the world.
I am talking about the Constitutional principles that insure justice: Amend away…
No one’s saying the Constitution is rigged. It’s like you didn’t read my post.
That’s OK. You are in good company.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville could not identify the basic branches and functions of the Constitution either.
There is a distinct difference between “unhappy” and “tepid” requiring no imagination to interpret.
Everything in the article supports “tepid”, especially quotes from Crockett and Jensen.
“Everything in the article supports “tepid”, especially quotes from Crockett and Jensen.” Sounds like you share the reporter’s opinion, which should be kept out of front page reporting.
Oh, so now you respond with an insult instead of addressing my point? Again: “The Big Lie” is a partisan label, undefinable, used as a blanket smear, and I show exactly why. If you can respond to this, do so. Because impugning my intelligence says more about you than me. Far more.
This will help republican turnout. Especially with those who had been lukewarm on these two and might have just stayed home.
Do you really think Donald Trump is that popular?
Words fail me.
Trump practically hand-picked a whole bunch of primary candidates in tight races, putting them over the top. Oh, he’s that popular.
There is a difference between primaries and general elections. Primaries tend to draw the most hard-line ideological voters of either party.
So Kim Crockett, who tells us at great length and detail about how much she loves honesty and elections has welcomed, albeit with extreme tepidness, the endorsement of a man caught on tape trying to steal votes in Georgia, and ultimately the presidency of the United States. And what is worse, is that hardly anyone seems to be appalled by that. In fact, it is hardly commented on at all. We actively assume that all the lip service she pays to assorted ideal is nothing more than what she has to say to attain the power she needs to steal future elections, as the leader of her party has tried to steal past elections.
I do not understand this. I have been, on occasion, stuck with politicians who embarrassed me. I opposed Clinton’s impeachment. I didn’t demand Thompson’s resignation. When Republicans revealed to me that Hillary was an election denier, I was appalled. But the wonderful thing about our politics is that once embarrassing people leave office they can be unceremoniously dumped. You can make the easy choice not to be embarrassed by them anymore. Why don’t Crockett and for that matter take advantage of this incredible opportunity. What does their willingness to board a ship already in the process of sinking say about their ability to govern Minnesotans?
And any mention of Kim Crockett needs to include:
“Fired by the CAE for positions to extreme for right wing extremists”
Steve Simon claims the 2020 vote data, after every claim of voting irregularities has been addressed, shows less than .005% error.
Kim Crockett is at 7%
Only a 1000x difference….
When an electorate is polarized, what often happens is something that hurts one candidate will help the other. So the question becomes about anything, does it help more than it hurts?
With respect to the Trump endorsement, I think we learn a lot from the reaction of the candidates. Jensen and Crockett were both “tepid” about acknowledging and accepting Trump’s voters. I read that to mean that they felt they already had the Trump vote and they were confident that it would turn out. What worries them is too much talk about Trump will motivate city voters to get out, and will push suburban fence sitting voter to the Walz and Simon side of the fence.
What I see in suburbs from Republicans is a desire to distance themselves from the Republicans. They are very anxious to limit the discussion. In engaging them, I am almost always told, this or that issue isn’t on the ballot. They try very hard to convince me that only the issues they want to talk about are issues in this campaign. This plays to a natural advantage of Republicans. Republicans don’t believe in doing things. They ignore problems, or try to shift the solving of them to someone else. This makes it very hard to criticize what Republicans do, because Republican don’t do anything. And because they don’t take positive positions, they are able to criticize Democrats from multiple sides on the same issue. Where the glass is concerned, the lack of a positive agenda means they are always in a position to complain the class is both too empty and too full.