Press Release

Today, Sunday, May 1, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin released the following statement after audio surfaced of Scott Jensen calling for jailing Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.

 

Jensen, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for governor, said that when he’s elected, he would push to send Simon to jail for “cheating” elections, saying that Simon better “see if he looks good in stripes” because “the hammer’s coming down” when he becomes governor.

“Scott Jensen is a dangerous right-wing extremist who will use the governor’s office to retaliate against his political enemies,” said Martin. “Minnesotans want their leaders to accept the results of the last election and focus on helping working families, but Scott Jensen and the other Republican candidates for governor won’t let go of the Big Lie.”

Jensen took a page out of Putin’s playbook and called for sending Simon to jail this weekend at the Minnesota GOP 3^rd Congressional District Convention. An audio clip of Jensen’s remarks is attached. A verbatim transcript of his remarks is included below:

Scott Jensen: “We are not voter suppressors. We have a simple attitude. Make sure every ballot in the box belongs there. Make sure it’s easy to vote, hard to cheat, and if you cheat, you’re going to jail. And Steve Simon, you maybe better check out to see if you look good in stripes, because you’ve gotten away with too much, too long, under Ellison, and the hammer’s coming down.”

At a debate in December, all of the Republican candidates running for governor refused to acknowledge that the 2020 election was not stolen from Donald Trump. The Big Lie conspiracy theory has been disproven and refuted by experts, journalists, and federal judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents.

This isn’t the first Jensen has expressed his admiration for using government to retaliate against political opponents and for the leaders who do it. Earlier this week, Jensen called Ron DeSantis a hero for retaliating against Disney after they criticized Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. Jensen has faced criticism from members of his own party for bragging about receiving support from Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin-backed propaganda outlets.

Under Simon’s leadership, Minnesota has led the nation with the highest voter turnout for the past three elections in a row.