Minnesota Republicans are recalibrating on abortion after past election losses

From the stage of the Minnesota Republican state convention in 2022, Kendall Qualls made his case for governor by offering a specific pledge: He would not pick Michele Tafoya, who had described herself as “pro-choice,” as his running mate.

“All life is precious, I’m a pro-life candidate,” Qualls told the convention delegates in Rochester who would decide the GOP endorsement. “Michele Tafoya is not going to be my lieutenant governor, I want to make sure I dismiss that.”

This year, Qualls is again running for governor. But he’s taking a different approach on abortion. During a January GOP debate, the retired health care executive said he would focus more on personal persuasion, not legislation, to reduce abortions in a state where “70% of people want access to it, including like 30% of Republican women.”

Meanwhile, Tafoya — a former sports broadcaster — is now a front-runner for U.S. Senate, supported by the powerful campaign arm of national Senate Republicans.

Support for abortion rights helped Democrats gain full control of the Legislature and hand Gov. Tim Walz a second term in office. Four years later, Tafoya’s presence in the Senate race — and recent comments from Qualls and others — reflect a subtle but consequential shift on the issue for Minnesota Republicans.

While many Republicans are promoting their anti-abortion credentials to appeal to a conservative base that often favors those who staunchly oppose abortion, some office seekers have demonstrated a willingness to recalibrate how they talk about the issue following the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade four years ago.

“I think we’ve learned from the aftermath (of the court ruling)],” said Teresa Collett, who is director of the Prolife Center at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and opposes abortion access. “We have to learn from this, we have to understand our neighbors, and I think that’s what Qualls is saying.”

At the 2022 Republican convention, Qualls’ distancing from Tafoya wasn’t enough to earn him the party’s nomination. Delegates instead chose Scott Jensen, a Chaska physician, former state senator and COVID-19 skeptic.

After the Roe reversal, Democrats went on the offensive against Jensen for previously saying he would try to ban abortion. But Jensen shifted his stance, saying abortion was constitutionally protected in Minnesota through a state Supreme Court ruling. He said he wouldn’t try to change that if elected.

Democratic groups spent millions on TV ads attacking Jensen for his earlier comments. He lost to Walz by nearly 8 points.

The next year, DFLers passed legislation that cemented abortion access in state law and cleared away legal restrictions on the procedure. Nationally, many states voted against strict abortion bans or in favor of abortion rights.

Collett said she thinks the litmus test for anti-abortion candidates in Minnesota now is “we have to believe you will do what you can to advance the protection of mothers and their unborn children.” She said that could even mean support for more limited measures, such as restoration state funding for pregnancy centers that counsel women against abortion.

Still, it can be difficult for GOP candidates to find a balance that satisfies their party’s faithful and still appeal to a broader electorate.

At the January GOP debate in Wright County, Qualls said he’s a “pro-life candidate.” But the question for Republicans, he said, “is how do we tactically” address abortion in Minnesota, where access is protected by state law and a court ruling.

“I’ve always felt we have to reach the heart,” Qualls said. “Just like you do in your personal faith, it’s a heart message, not a legislative message.”

He said Republicans “have to get elected first” and then educate Minnesotans about alternatives to abortion, including adoption. Qualls said he’s convinced that most Minnesotans aren’t aware that the state has few laws restricting the procedure.

The Qualls campaign said in a statement that the candidate has been clear that he is “proudly pro-life.” But it said abortion “isn’t a top priority for most Minnesotans” compared with lower prices, an end to fraud and more.

State House Speaker Lisa Demuth, one of the leading GOP candidates for governor, said she was, at one point, a single mom who knows “how hard it is to be facing a really hard situation alone.” She said the DFL expanded abortion laws “to the most extreme” and that the first thing she’d do as governor is restore money for pregnancy resource centers.

Other candidates have been more willing to openly buck the base and craft an argument geared toward general election voters.

Jensen recently dropped out of the race for governor and is running for state auditor. But before that decision, he clashed with the anti-abortion group Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. Despite his opposition to abortions later in pregnancy, he said, “I recognize that Minnesota is a pro-choice state ... we need to preserve the right.”

Minneapolis attorney Chris Madel, who ended his GOP campaign for governor in late January, said the issue of abortion is just as salient now as in 2022.

Madel said he could not support leading or being part of an administration that “provides my daughters with less rights than their mom or my mom.”

Still, many Republicans are promoting their anti-abortion credentials as they vie for the GOP endorsement.

Demuth noted that she carried a “heart beat bill” in the Legislature that would have mostly prohibited abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected. And nearly every GOP candidate, including Demuth and Qualls, have pledged to appoint judges that could overturn the ruling that protects access to abortion in the state constitution.

Qualls has also promised to veto state funding for abortion.

“I absolutely believe that we need safeguards that are missing,” said Demuth, who just two months earlier said she viewed abortion as settled law in Minnesota.

When MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, another GOP candidate for governor, was asked in December if he would try to ban abortion, he responded: “I don’t know, I’m not there yet on that.”

“Would I like to? Yeah, absolutely. 100%,” he said.

Despite some candidates’ efforts to deemphasize the issue, abortion continues to cause friction within the GOP.

In the U.S. Senate race, candidate David Hann has attacked Tafoya over her position on the issue. Minnesota Republicans, he said, “deserve better than a candidate who stabbed ... pro-life Republicans in the back.”

Tafoya’s campaign declined to comment on her current views on abortion. In 2024, she appeared in an advertisement for the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life to rebut the idea that Republicans would ban abortion in Minnesota if elected to majorities in the Legislature.

On her podcast that same year, Tafoya said she supports abortion access “up to a point.” She said she fears abortion drives the vote of many people, especially young women, and bashed “one of the guys running for governor” for saying in 2022 he would ban abortion.

That stance is “political suicide” that alienates a major portion of the public, Tafoya said.

“Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, just stupid,” Tafoya said. “Republicans, if they want to win anything in the future, better get their messaging right on abortion. ... Pro-lifers aren’t going to suddenly vote Democrat if the Republicans get a little more liberal on abortion.”

Tafoya said GOP candidates need a clear message “that has them appearing empathetic, understanding, realizing that for some people that is their only alternative when they find themselves in a situation they don’t want be in.”

Madel said that before he left the race for governor, independent voters frequently asked him about his abortion stance. Party delegates, he said, pressured him to oppose abortion rights.

Minnesota Republicans, Madel said, “keep saying that they want a big tent” but aren’t following through in their actions.

“The party itself doesn’t seem to tolerate anybody that isn’t unapologetically pro-life,” he said.

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