This weekend, Republican convention delegates have the unenviable task of trying to decide which right-wing extremist to endorse for the office of Attorney General.
Background on the field:
- Dennis Smith is so incompetent that he’s currently on legal probation and must be supervised by another attorney when practicing law. This probation was the result of a formal ethics complaint filed against Smith, which found he had “made multiple knowingly false statements” to a client, mishandled their money, and much more. Smith also wants to roll back abortion rights in Minnesota.
- Smith has pledged to skip the Republican endorsement process entirely and take the race to a primary.
- Doug Wardlow is a dangerous extremist who pledged to defend Minnesotans arrested at the January 6th insurrection from the federal government and claimed they were being improperly prosecuted. Wardlow has pledged to end Doe v. Gomez’s protection for abortion rights in Minnesota and work to ban abortion altogether.
- Wardlow is also general counsel for MyPillow and has been endorsed by its owner, Mike Lindell, who urged Donald Trump to use military force to stay in power and has done more to undermine faith in American democracy than almost anyone in living memory.
- Lynne Torgerson bragged about having two staff members that “were participants in January 6th”, called the January 6th insurrectionists “heroes”, and claimed that the election of Joe Biden was a coup.
- Tad Jude is an anti-abortion extremist who wants to criminalize virtually all abortion, even in cases of rape or incest where a police report is not filed within 48 hours of the crime taking place. Jude has also proposed legislation that would waste police resources by directing law enforcement agencies to investigate people who have an abortion.
- Jim Schultz is a far-right attorney who blames racial disparities in the criminal justice system on “cultural issues”, lies about widespread election fraud taking place in Minnesota, plans to use the limited resources of the Attorney General’s office to target trans youth, and hopes to roll back abortion rights in Minnesota.
DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement on the field of Republican candidates:
“The question Republicans are faced with is not whether to endorse a dangerous extremist for Attorney General, but which dangerous extremist to endorse. It should disturb every voter that the Republican candidates for Attorney General would rather use the office to attack their fellow Minnesotans and undermine democracy than uphold the rule of law.
“Fortunately, the Republican race for attorney general is already bound for a primary. While their extremist field lurches further to the right and spends precious resources to win their primary, the DFL Party will be talking to general election voters across Minnesota about our values of fairness, safety, and justice for all.”
