Press Release

A new report by CNN revealed 12 of the Washington Republicans’ top recruits for the 2022 midterms, including MN02 candidate Tyler Kistner, have sought to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Their refusal to recognize the election as free and fair and instead peddle baseless claims of election fraud demonstrates the party’s embrace of conspiracy theories and its continued radical rightward trajectory. And when asked by CNN, Tyler Kistner’s campaign refused to answer whether he believes President Biden won the 2020 election.

“Tyler Kistner can’t refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the 2020 election and call himself a moderate at the same time,” DFL Chairman Ken Martin said. “This revelation is disturbing, and should wake us all up to the stakes of next year’s elections. Trump may not be on the ballot, but Washington Republicans’ hand-picked candidates, including Tyler Kistner, are running on his legacy of disinformation and deceit and are a threat to our democracy.”

In Case You Missed It:

CNN: 12 GOP ‘Young Guns’ embrace Trump’s election falsehoods 

• At least a dozen of the House GOP’s most prized recruits for the midterms have sown doubts about the 2020 elections, embracing former president Donald Trump’s deceitful battle cry as they seek to flip the chamber next year.
• In Minnesota, Kistner filed a lawsuit in late November 2020 to temporarily halt the certification of his loss against Democratic Rep. Angie Craig and order a recount, which was rejected by the state Supreme Court. A spokesman for Kistner, a Marine Corps veteran, declined to answer questions about whether Kistner believed Biden legitimately won the election.

The Daily Reformer: Kistner and the Big Lie

• Marine veteran Tyler Kistner, running again in the 2nd District, has fibbed about 2020 election fraud, as I reported here. CNN did a roundup of highly touted GOP candidates, including Kistner, who are propagating the Big Lie. A Kistner spokesman declined to comment to CNN on whether Joe Biden was legitimately elected president.

WVTA: Misinformation is the invasive species of 2021

• Rather than becoming ostracized by Republicans, [Donald Trump’s] staying very much in their mainstream.
• A new CNN report by Alex Rogers, Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju scrutinizes a crop of House candidates in a special program for “Young Guns” — politicians showing promise. Read the report here.
• More than a third of these recruits from states across the country have, like Trump, sown doubts about the 2020 election or embraced his efforts to overturn it.
• That list includes: Eli Crane and Walt Blackman in Arizona; Cory Mills and Anna Paulina Luna in Florida; Karoline Leavitt, Gail Huff Brown and Tim Baxter in New Hampshire; Jake Evans in Georgia; Tyler Kistner in Minnesota; Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez in Texas; Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin; and Jesse Jensen in Washington.