The results of the 2024 elections demonstrated that Minnesota is a narrowly divided state.
With the hard-left Democratic trifecta delivering in 2023 a greatest hits of misbegotten governance — including spending away a $19 billion surplus, hiking taxes by $9 billion, free college for illegal immigrants, and a series of other bizarre policies — there was a lot to trouble Minnesotans. And they registered that dissatisfaction by delivering Republicans a three-seat gain in the Minnesota House, despite Minnesota’s governor sitting atop the ticket.
Even as the right-of-center shows some life in Minnesota, however, Republicans need to recognize that the path to consistent victories and the opportunity to govern from a statewide office for the first time since 2007 requires more than a critique of Democratic failures. It requires presenting an alternative vision for our state, a vision of reform and renewal in a crucial moment in our state’s history.
Minnesota is indeed at a critical juncture. Our economy has stalled, now routinely mired in the bottom 10 states for GDP growth, and job growth is likewise mediocre. We learned this month that, courtesy of Gov. Tim Walz’s reckless spending of historic proportions, Minnesota now needs huge budget cuts to head off a $6 billion deficit in a couple years. Minnesota’s education system, once a beacon for the nation, is now leaving a majority of kids without basic proficiencies in math and reading. Minnesota is no longer a low-crime state; and Minnesota’s largest cities, particularly Minneapolis, are dealing with some of the worst violent crime on record. And we have immense fraud in our public programs, with each week, it seems, uncovering more corruption in our state government.
Minnesota has not become a wasteland, but the North Star State faces serious long-term challenges that we must confront honestly and without the happy talk so often delivered by Walz. Minnesota desperately needs renewal.
Such a renewal must build on the foundation of opportunity through deep economic reform. This starts with tax relief. The tax burdens on Minnesotans are the highest in the Midwest and among the highest in the nation. State leaders have raised taxes even as a diverse array of other states have reduced the tax burden on working families and small businesses — and seen immense results. Minnesota should follow the lead of these other states, starting with a tax cut for working families by eliminating the first tax bracket, such that every Minnesotan receives a tax cut of about $2,500.
The state also needs deep regulatory reform. Business and labor leaders have sounded the alarm about the labyrinthine regulatory processes that kill projects, kill investments, and kill jobs in our state. Permitting and other regulatory processes must be streamlined, as the News Tribune opined March 17, and state agencies need a culture change in which goals are shifted to facilitate economic development rather than seeking opportunities to thwart it. Minnesota’s government is simply too big and too intrusive in our lives and in the economy. Meaningful tax relief and fundamental regulatory reform would unleash immense opportunity.
We also must restore safety to our major cities and beyond. Radical left-wing policies have devastated cities across America. As an example, Minneapolis’ disastrous defunding of its police force resulted in an immense increase in violent crime from which the city is still recovering. Today, the city has a fraction of the police officers it needs, and the Minneapolis City Council (composed of several self-avowed socialists) as a rule is divorced from reality.
Several things are required to restore safety to our state. An important start will be to unelect in 2026 the current attorney general, Keith Ellison, and the Hennepin County prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, two officials who have looked for practically every opportunity to excuse the conduct of violent criminals. And we should increase funding for recruiting and retaining police officers.
But we should go deeper. In order to ensure Minnesota’s cities provide public safety to citizens, going forward the local government aid delivered by the state to cities should be tied to ensuring adequately staffed police forces. If cities fail to deliver on this most basic of obligations to their citizens, they should not expect the state to step in to bail them out.
Finally, Minnesota renewal requires setting aside forever many of the outright weird policies embraced under Gov. Walz. It’s a long list: Illegal immigrants shouldn’t receive free college tuition, the state indifference toward historic levels of fraud must end, young men shouldn’t be in girls’ sports, a governor shouldn’t have the sole power to lock down our state for over a year, and it’s a disgrace that police officers were kicked out of schools and otherwise subjected to outrageous hostility from public officials. Any renewal of Minnesota requires setting aside such weirdness.
The Bible’s book of Proverbs tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Indeed. After years of government from the hard left, Minnesota needs a new vision in 2026 and beyond. Republicans need to offer it and focus on the policies necessary to deliver renewal, reform, and sanity to a state desperately in need of them.
Jim Schultz is president of the Minnesota Private Business Council (growthmn.com) and was the 2022 Republican nominee for Minnesota attorney general. He wrote this for the News Tribune.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
Jim Schultz
Jim Schultz is the President of the Minnesota Private Business Council and was the 2022 Republican nominee for Attorney General.
