At a July event hosted by the Dakota County Patriots, MNGOP-endorsed candidate for Senate District 52, Stephen Lowell, condoned the use of political violence, saying that Minnesotans might “have to vote with bullets” and comparing the United States government to the British during the Revolutionary War.
Lowell posted a link to his remarks on his campaign Facebook and campaign Twitter. A backup copy of the video is available here.
During his remarks, Lowell claims people who don’t get the results they want from “voting with a ballot” may “have to vote with bullets”. Lowell goes on to say people will stop trusting the democratic method if they believe their elections are corrupted. Lowell himself has repeatedly pushed election fraud conspiracy theories.
Lowell at 2:14: “…we need to grow our teeth back, fast. So, part of those teeth in this particular set of terms is voting with a ballot before we have to vote with bullets. Because at the end of the day, when people don’t believe that their elections are stable, they don’t believe that police can protect them, they stop using the democratic… method.”
Lowell went on to further condone the use of violence by comparing the U.S. government to the British during the revolutionary war, and seeming to threaten an armed revolution.
Lowell at 6:00: “So here I am, and I’m more than happy to lay waste to whatever comes my way. I’m happy to forge alliances and make bitter enemies. I don’t care because we gotta get this legislation – we gotta get these laws stricken because every single one of those laws is an excuse to shove a loaded gun in your face. The state has no right. I thought we had that out in 1776, but here we are, our country trying to be British again.”
After a clip of his remarks started spreading around social media, Lowell doubled down on his threat of political violence.
Lowell has also referred to his political opponents as groomers, accused public schools of Marxist brainwashing and called for them to be “ripped out root and branch”, and repeatedly downplayed the significance of the January 6th insurrection.
DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement:
“It is completely unacceptable that a candidate endorsed by the Minnesota Republican Party is talking about shooting his political opponents. Stephen Lowell’s violent, dehumanizing, and disturbing remarks embody the worst in our politics, and the Minnesota Republican Party should immediately begin the process of withdrawing their endorsement of him. If Republican officials do not send a strong signal that this violent rhetoric will not be tolerated, they will bear responsibility for what follows as a result.”
