(C) Minnesota Reformer
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Action 4 Liberty candidates win GOP endorsements in eastern metro districts • Minnesota Reformer [1]
['Michelle Griffith', 'More From Author', '- March']
Date: 2024-03-12
Two candidates aligned with the far right-wing group Action 4 Liberty won the Republican endorsements in two eastern metro battleground districts, defeating more conventional conservatives and complicating the GOP’s effort to take the House majority.
Republicans this November are seeking to break up the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s trifecta by taking back the Minnesota House; the Senate isn’t on the ballot. All 134 seats are up for reelection and so far 15 House members have announced that they won’t run again in November. Democrats currently hold a narrow 70-63 majority in the House.
Grayson McNew — former legislative aid for semi-famous right-wing provocateur former Rep. Erik Mortensen* — on Saturday won the Republican endorsement for House District 41A, which includes Lake Elmo and Afton. McNew ran for the House in 2022, and this year he won the GOP endorsement over former Washington County Commissioner Wayne Johnson.
Johnson was supported by current Rep. Mark Wiens, R-Lake Elmo. Wiens in his endorsement said Johnson was electable and he could keep the district Republican. In 2022, Wiens won his seat by just 128 votes.
The Republican Party endorsement has remained important in GOP nominating contests.
After the local Republican party endorsed McNew, Johnson bemoaned his loss and blamed Action 4 Liberty.
“The Action For Liberty people, who are not actually … Republicans, once again were successful in keeping MN Blue and turning our District Blue in November,” Johnson said on Facebook.
Action 4 Liberty — whose members have questioned the efficacy of vaccines and the results of the 2020 election against all evidence — has long attempted to upend what they see as “weak and feckless Republicans.”
McNew said if elected he will advocate for school vouchers “immediately.”
“I will push for School Choice to be enacted immediately. We can either be leaders in education or slaves to the system,” McNew said in a Facebook post. “I think it is high time we broke the chain our schools have on us and put parents back in charge of their children’s education.”
(Minnesota parents already have significant public school choice; private school vouchers would siphon money away from public schools.)
Tom Dippel on Saturday won the GOP endorsement for House District 41B, which includes Cottage Grove and Hastings. Current Rep. Shane Hudella, R-Hastings, won his seat two years ago by 418 votes. In a video on his Facebook page, Dippel said he was “encouraged” by Hudella to run for his seat.
Dippel ran for the state Senate two years ago. In a Minnesota Family Council Voter guide at the time, Dippel said that if elected he wanted to be a strong advocate for “biblical family values.”
He said that he supports an abortion ban, and that “transgender ideology” is “a grave evil that amounts to child abuse and indoctrination into a sinful lifestyle that leads to destruction.”
In the voter guide, he also called homosexuality an “abomination.”
*Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Rep. Erik Mortensen’s name.
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[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/03/12/action-4-liberty-candidates-win-gop-endorsements-in-eastern-metro-districts/
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