Republican and Democrat candidates for Minnesota governor were at Farmfest Wednesday morning for a forum to discuss their competing visions for the state.
The approximately hour-long forum featured DFL U.S. Sen Amy Klobuchar, Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth, Republican Mike Lindell, and Republican Kendall Qualls. During the forum, candidates spoke about fraud, healthcare, state government and more.
In her remarks, Klobuchar touted her plan to modernize state government technology to provide better services for residents. Additionally, she expressed a desire for more healthcare workers and large-animal veterinarians for rural Minnesota.
On fraud, Klobuchar pledged to launch “a top-to-bottom audit of state government,” implement surprise inspections on businesses receiving state money, increase criminal penalties on fraud, and extend the statute of limitations on certain types of fraud.
“People were victims of this fraud, the taxpayers were victims of fraud, and I will make sure that people go to jail,” Klobuchar said.
Additionally, the four-term senator repeatedly criticized American tariffs on overseas goods. She also pledged to enact state-level healthcare tax credits to lower healthcare premiums if the federal government fails to enact similar credits.
During the debate, Klobuchar attacked her Republican opponents, saying they had embraced tariffs, failed to object to the war in Iran, and did not condemn “what ICE did” during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota.
Conversely, Demuth and Qualls offered no direct criticisms of Klobuchar during the debate. Instead, the pair directed their criticism to Democrats more generally.
Lindell was the only Republican on the stage to criticize Klobuchar directly. Lindell, who is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for governor, said Klobuchar was critical of voting machines leading up to 2020, but stopped talking about them after 2020.
“On the election fraud, [Klobuchar] went after the machines, she named them in [an HBO documentary on election fraud], she named them, and she went after this fraud, but then she stopped after the 2020 election,” he said.
“What did Mike Lindell do since then?” Lindell asked. “I spent $80 million trying to secure our elections in this country. What did Amy do since then? Amy went to Washington, brings back $20 billion to our state only to have it shipped off to Somalia. That’s not a good steward of our money.”
Lindell appeared to be referring to the $9 billion that was estimated stolen from state-run, federally-funded programs since 2018. Those programs have been overseen by DFL Gov. Tim Walz, not Klobuchar, since 2019.
In his remarks, Lindell touted a forthcoming state budget plan that he will be releasing tomorrow. Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, pledged to cancel unfunded state government mandates that increase property taxes.
The MyPillow founder also said he would implement an education system that is used in Mississippi which he said greatly improved the state’s test scores while also cutting education spending by 30%.
Similarly, Lindell said he would implement a health care plan that provides “direct primary care” to everyone. He said the plan would provide savings to individuals and businesses.
Additionally, Lindell said he would ask the federal government to pick up illegal aliens being housed in Minnesota’s prison system. The MyPillow founder also said he would root out fraud and do a “deep dive” on the efficiency of state programs.
Meanwhile, Demuth touted her work as speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives which includes the passage of temporary property tax relief and the creation of the Office of the Inspector General to root out fraud in state government.
Demuth criticized Democrats for the fraud that has occurred in Minnesota and said far more state money has been lost in fraud than is spent on agricultural issues.
“We are out of balance and need a different direction at the top of our state,” Demuth said.
The House speaker also criticized Obamacare for increasing healthcare costs, as did Qualls. In his remarks, Qualls, the GOP-endorsed candidate for governor, repeatedly touted himself as a political outsider who can change state government for the better.
Qualls, who has never held political office before, said Minnesota had become an “anti-business state” and is in need of “radical change.”
A former business executive, Qualls said he is going to get state government off the backs of farmers and said he is opposed to omnibus bills that include hundreds or thousands of different provisions. Instead, Qualls said he wants to pass single-subject bills.
The candidate forum was a relatively civil affair for most of the time, with audience members applauding after candidates finished their answers. At one point, however, the forum needed to be paused after Klobuchar’s answer on immigration.
Speaking to the crowd, Klobuchar said she had “long believed and supported funding for order at the border and I have worked well with law enforcement in Minnesota for years.”
She also criticized ICE’s conduct in Minnesota, said $70 billion of funding had been given to ICE, and said she wants that money to go to healthcare instead.
On a livestream of the event, a mixture of shouting, booing, and applauding can be heard during Klobuchar’s answer. At one point, Klobuchar appeared to call out one audience member. Afterward, the audience was told to be respectful and warned that the event would be cancelled if the audience did not comply.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
