A business owner who made national headlines when she refused to comply with Gov. Tim Walz’s COVID-19 executive orders announced this week that she is running for the Minnesota Senate.
Larvita McFarquhar, owner of Havens Garden in Lynd, Minn., filed to run as a Republican in Senate District 15 against incumbent Republican Gary Dahms.
The single mother of four daughters claimed Dahms has “completely failed” the people of Senate District 15 and criticized the four-term senator for refusing to “sign onto the Never Again bill.”
This is a piece of legislation introduced by Rep. Erik Mortensen that would permanently repeal the governor’s ability to declare an emergency, instead transferring that power to the Legislature.
“Gary had the complete ability to co-author this bill and show he was willing to fight for people like me who have been persecuted by this tyrant Gov. Walz and the disgusting Attorney General Keith Ellison but he failed us,” McFarquhar said.
McFarquhar refused to close her restaurant in late 2020 when Gov. Walz ordered all restaurants in the state to suspend in-person service to stop the spread of COVID-19. Even when a judge ordered her to close, McFarquhar refused and was found in contempt of court, resulting in a daily fine of $250.
At the time, McFarquhar’s attorney told Alpha News that she was refusing to close “as an act of civil disobedience, as she believes it is unfair that bars and restaurants are open on Indian reservations while she is required to remain closed for inside service.”
McFarquhar says she was fined $10,000 for keeping her restaurant open.
Dahms, from Redwood Falls, was first elected to the Senate in 2010 and chairs the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee.
“The people, myself included, have lived through hell under this persecution by the State of Minnesota and its agents,” McFarquhar said. ”They have violated our individual liberties rubber stamped by Gary and his pals in the government.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
