Minnesota Democrats apparently tried to launch a scheme to intentionally deceive Republican voters in the upcoming gubernatorial election.
Minnesota has long been host to a party called the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party. However, conniving activists want to change the party’s name in an attempt to split the GOP vote.
A slew of DFL operatives attended a recent meeting to plan the name change including DFL Rep. Aisha Gomez, House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler’s chief of staff Paul Cumings and Sen. Erin Murphy’s campaign manager Daniel Cox.
The meeting to fix the weed party’s convention occurred last week but the convention itself was canceled. The stated reason is that party leadership learned that GOP activists planned to attend. Some have noted, though, that the convention was sacked very shortly after a recording of the pre-convention meeting leaked online.
During that meeting, an unidentified man is heard outlining the scheme to ram the name change through without democratic approval. He also confirmed that the name change was intended to help fortify the results of the 2022 state election.
“We don’t give a shit if it’s unfair,” he explains to those in attendance. “We gotta get this done. We gotta do it now or we’re going to lose 7%. We’re going to lose Walz if we don’t do this shit and we gotta do it and we gotta do it now and being nice is nice but fuck that let’s just do it.”
When faced with the question of whether or not convention attendees would consent to the renaming of their party, the man was indifferent. Whoever is elected to chair the convention can “just gavel it through without debate,” he says. “As chair, you don’t even have to recognize [unintelligible], you can call for the affirmative vote, you don’t even have to call for the negative,” he can be heard saying. “That’s life man,” he concludes.
He restated this point several times, advocating against a democratic approach:
- “It’s up to the chair. He can say ‘in the view of the chair, the ayes have it’ … and then adjourn the convention and be done in five minutes.”
- “Set the agenda, call for the name change and adjourn.”
- “I would not give anyone in the opposition a second to speak.”
At one point, a woman is heard interjecting, highlighting how the proposed approach is “not very democratic.”
“No, no, it’s not,” the man acknowledges, before reassuring those present that “there’s nothing in parliamentary procedure that calls for democracy.”
He is also heard discussing Republicans’ ability to challenge the marijuana party’s rebrand, stating his confidence that there will be no legal retribution. “No one has done this [renamed a Minnesota party] in 100 years or more,” he says, so “there’s no standing, they can’t go to court on this.”
Republican candidate for governor Dr. Scott Jensen chimed in on Twitter after recordings of the plan to rename the marijuana party surfaced. “Why are Democrat (DFL) staffers trying to hijack a convention and change the name of a political party they’re not part of?” he asked.
A disturbing thread. Why are Democrat (DFL) staffers trying to hijack a convention and change the name of a political party they're not part of?….
"We're gonna lose Walz if we don't do this."@MinnesotaDFL? @_RyanWinkler? @Tim_Walz? Media? https://t.co/cvHlzAzhQ7
— Scott Jensen (@drscottjensen) May 28, 2022
Some have claimed that activists wanted to change the name of the party to “MAGA Party,” though the recording doesn’t mention what the new name would be.
However, this is not the first time the Grassroots Legalize Cannabis Party has mulled a name change. It recently considered a transition to the Constitutional Liberty Party after Republican activists allegedly recruited people to surreptitiously run as cannabis candidates to split Democrat votes.
The cannabis party referenced this controversy in a statement to Alpha News that also confirmed the DFL’s attempted takeover:
“In 2020, Republicans attempted a takeover by running Republicans In Name Only, RINO’s, as WINO’s, Weed In Name Only, to siphon votes from Democrats. The strategy backfired when it was discovered that Republican voters support the weed parties too.
Now, in 2022, the DFL is facing stiff odds that they estimate is 7-points behind the GOP. By infiltrating the Grassroots Party, they could destroy the weed movement to eliminate the competition.
The DFL & GOP will stop at nothing to win, even if democracy is destroyed in the process.
You know what the owners of power fear by what they try to destroy.
Cannabis makes you cough, politics makes you gag.”
The Minnesota Republican Party has also issued a statement. “Democrats can’t fix the economy, the crime wave or the other massive problems they’ve created, so they’re trying to fix a convention to disenfranchise voters. Minnesotans know better and won’t fall for Democrats’ smoke-blowing schemes,” Executive Director Mike Lonergan said.
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
