Trump’s rhetoric tests Republicans’ pitch in Minnesota suburbs
Candidates are betting concern about violence will follow voters to the ballot box, but Lisa Demuth and Michele Tafoya are distancing themselves from Trump’s attack on Somali immigrants.
Republicans see a chance to regain ground in suburbs shaken by the shootings after more than a decade of Democratic gains. And though some GOP strategists say Trump’s messaging keeps attention on an issue that could energize voters who might otherwise stay home, it also raises a harder question for many of their candidates: What happens when the president takes that argument further than they do?
Republican state Sen. Jim Abeler, whose north-metro district is one of the top targets for both parties in the fight to control the Legislature, said after the president’s post that he hoped Trump would leave the response to Minnesota officials.
“Minnesota and its police, sheriffs, communities are more than capable to handle this,” he said. “This is something for the states. Let us resolve it and we will.”
Trump’s recent comments reprise an attack he made just before launching Operation Metro Surge. In December, he called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said he did not want them in the United States.
In her response to his most recent post, Demuth said she planned to “continue talking to Minnesotans about my plans to stop fraud and directly confront the rising gang violence that we’ve seen over the past several weeks.”
She also turned the issue back on her opponent, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, saying the Democrat has “said nothing while these problems have spiraled out of control” under Gov. Tim Walz and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty.
