President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has released the list of speakers for tonight’s Republican National Convention.
A “Land of Heroes” theme will honor America’s heroes and their contributions to writing our country’s story.
In addition to an array of governors, congressmen, senators and a famous football coach, Second Lady Karen Pence will also speak, while her husband, Vice President Mike Pence, closes out Night 3.
Coming on the heels of Eveleth Mayor Bob Vlaisavljevich speaking on behalf of the president’s reelection Tuesday, news broke this afternoon that Minnesota will again be represented this evening.
Scott Dane, who serves as the executive director of Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers of Minnesota, will address the audience.
“When plants closed in Duluth, Sartell, and International Falls, they were just numbers on a paper to the Obama-Biden administration. To me, they were people and jobs and families,” Dane said in a statement released Wednesday.
“Under President Trump, we’ve seen a new recognition of the value of forest management in reducing wildfires. And we’ve seen new support for our way of life — where a strong back and a strong work ethic can build a strong middle class,” he added.
Through his position, Dane supports the prosperity of Minnesotans working in the logging industry through advocacy.
Based in Gilbert, just a few miles northeast of Eveleth in St. Louis County’s Iron Range, one theme the organization conveys is “Make LOGGING Great Again,” which has been turned into hats and presented to the president and vice president.
In recent years, Dane and the timber industry welcomed the Trump administration’s tariffs, averaging 20 percent on lumber entering the country from Canada.
“It’s been frustrating to the timber industry for years to see full rail cars heading south from Canada,” Dane said in 2017.
Dane added that Minnesota lost seven major mills in the last decade, which cost the state 25 to 30 percent of its total logging workforce. Trump’s steel tariffs also aided taconite mines in the Mesabi Iron Range, which supply American steel mills.
Continuing efforts to make Minnesota a state Trump can flip in November, Vice President Pence again visits Duluth Friday.
Trump carried Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District, where Gilbert sits, by 15 percentage points in 2016.
The GOP already reclaimed the seat in 2018 when Pete Stauber, a retired police officer and former professional hockey player, became only the second Republican to represent the Eighth since World War II.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
