How a convention meant to unify Minnesota Republicans left them more divided

MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota Republicans entered their state convention in Duluth hoping to avoid a bruising August primary by narrowing down what was effectively a three-way race for governor and U.S. Senate.

The party emerged from the weekend, however, with a three-way race for both offices. Republicans also collected fresh political baggage that Democrats will use to bash them on the campaign trail.

The raucous weekend — complete with a scandal over the accuracy of electronic voting clickers, a T-shirt cannon and a person dancing in an elephant costume — has only amplified calls from within the GOP to ditch a system that some Republicans argue hurts their chances and is a waste of time and money.

It also comes at a time when many in the party believe Democrats’ handling of the fraud crisis has given them a unique opportunity to end their two-decade losing streak for statewide offices.

“I think what these two days have proven is that the endorsement process has lived its useful life,” said Sen. Bill Weber, a Republican from Luverne who was a delegate at the convention. “The Legislature should move us to an early primary.”

Delegates paid tribute to Derek Chauvin, forcing GOP candidates to later answer questions about the former Minneapolis officer convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of George Floyd. Several candidates at the convention also took increasingly conservative stances on President Donald Trump and issues like guns to appeal to the small crowd of party activists who make endorsements.

Those statements, however, might not play as well with a wider electorate. They also may have been unnecessary.

The delegates endorsed retired health care executive Kendall Qualls for governor and former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze for U.S. Senate. Yet two days after the convention, the Minnesota GOP undercut its own endorsement by saying candidates in the governor’s race should feel free to run in primaries after problems with the voting technology cast doubt on the outcome.

Weber’s view of the endorsement process is not universally held. Schwarze told the Minnesota Star Tribune that the endorsing convention ensures that people with name recognition and campaign money who “don’t represent our party values” won’t easily become the GOP standard bearers.

But Schwarze acknowledged the weekend did not accomplish the goal of building GOP momentum and unity. Last week, he was facing former NFL sideline broadcaster Michele Tafoya and ex-NBA player Royce White. Now, he still is.

“We should have come out united and ready to go and oppose socialism together,” Schwarze said. “Now I feel like there’s this unsettled feeling, which is unfortunate because it really is a good process.”

Calls to ditch the endorsing convention have grown louder in recent years, and some candidates have tried to ignore the delegates and go straight to a primary. It hasn’t worked.

Minnesota Republicans typically follow the GOP endorsement, with few exceptions. Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty ran in 2018 for a third term but wasn’t endorsed. He lost by a wide margin in the primary despite his name recognition and fundraising talent.

That is why many candidates pledge to drop out if they aren’t picked by the delegates. Coming into the weekend, Tafoya hoped to win the endorsement but planned to run in a primary either way. So did MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a candidate for governor.

House Speaker Lisa Demuth said she would honor the endorsement in the governor’s race, then changed her mind after the clicker issues, announcing Tuesday she planned to move on to the August primary.

The fracas in Duluth may pose the biggest test yet to the endorsement system. Minnesota Republican party chairman Alex Plechash said the GOP would still throw its financial resources and organizational skills behind Schwarze and Qualls. He stood by the vote tally.

But he said late Monday that “because of the unusual circumstances and the confusion caused by the disruption, I believe it is appropriate to make clear that any gubernatorial candidate who agreed to abide by the endorsement, should not be treated as bound by that pledge.”

Before the convention, Plechash said he wanted to put the “Party” back in “Grand Old Party,” improving the vibe at the convention in hopes of keeping its relevance alive.

Event DJ BennyK spun tunes and put some in the crowd — including one state lawmaker — on a kiss cam. State Rep. Danny Nadeau, a Republican from Rogers chairing the convention, periodically launched a T-shirt cannon at the delegates.

But as candidates and party officials disappeared behind closed doors for hours to sort out the clicker controversy, confusion gave way to frustration — and eventually something closer to delirium — on the convention floor.

“We cannot know the truth about this clicker,” declared state Rep. Dawn Gillman, a Republican from Hutchinson, as she addressed the convention and unsuccessfully pushed to adjourn without an endorsement.

Lindell, who is known for falsely claiming ballot machines in the 2020 election were rigged, was openly strategizing to chase Demuth from the race and appealing to the clicker-skeptical among the crowd with “Mike Was Right” signs.

A delegate and business lobbyist surveyed the chaos and concluded the convention had entered its “Elmo-on-fire” meme phase.

The later rounds of balloting also pushed candidates to the political right in hopes of swaying the delegates.

Demuth faced pressure this year from DFLers and parents at Annunciation Church and School to allow a vote on new gun restrictions after the mass shooting there. At the Capitol, she would often politely argue that there were better ways to prevent such violence.

From the convention stage Saturday, she took full-throated credit for blocking a ban on assault-style weapons.

“I fought completely for you, our constitutional rights and for the sake of Minnesota when it was looking like our gun rights were going to be in jeopardy,” Demuth said.

Demuth has not run away from Trump’s presidency, but at the convention she went further, pledging in campaign literature to fight “for the MAGA agenda.” Trump has lost Minnesota three times. Demuth made appeals to Lindell fans who don’t trust elections.

Tafoya, who has often framed herself as the most electable Republican in the Senate race, also moved to reassure conservatives at the convention, disavowing her past openness to red flag laws, which allow judges to temporarily remove firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.

“I will defend your Second Amendment rights, no red flag laws,” Tafoya said.

Those efforts to woo delegates may have been fruitless anyway, considering the clicker drama.

Weber, the state legislator from Luverne, said he did not believe anyone moved further right “during the course of battle” because their positions were already known.

But former state Sen. Dave Osmek, who chaired the 2022 GOP convention, said the state party “needs to realize that ... a very very small fringe group should not have the level of stranglehold control.”

Osmek, a one-time Qualls supporter who flipped to Demuth, said delegates should pick the most conservative candidate that is electable, and electability “is not what people were looking for at that convention.”

“We should change to a primary state for statewide office,” Osmek said. “That’s the end of this silliness, that’s the end of this garbage.”

On Tuesday, Demuth didn’t call for Republicans to move on from the endorsing process and didn’t directly address whether it still has value. But she did say Minnesotans are “really welcoming this opportunity, although unexpected, to have a voice in the process” and suggested it will be a test of whether bypassing the endorsement is worth it.

“Decisions will be made later by the parties, I’m sure, ” Demuth said.

In a blistering statement, Qualls said Demuth is “putting vanity and political ambitions ahead of giving Republicans their best chance in decades to elect a conservative governor.”

He said the waste of time and money was really the primary race, where Republicans will be “fighting amongst ourselves to come to the same conclusion: victory for our campaign.”

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—Allison Kite of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.