Trump endorses Minnesota GOP gubernatorial contender Scott Jensen
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Updated: 11 a.m.
Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen, saying he would be a “great governor” and giving an extra jolt to a race that is gaining more national attention in the closing weeks.
“Strong on both fighting Crime and delivering Solid and Sensible Education, the results will be quickly seen — and there won’t be any more fiery takeovers of police precincts,” Trump wrote late Tuesday night. “Minnesota will be Great Again. Dr. Scott Jensen has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”
Jensen’s campaign issued a statement expressing gratitude for the recognition, while suggesting his campaign had not “actively sought” an endorsement from Trump or other political leaders in his race against incumbent DFL Gov. Tim Walz.
“As this campaign takes the lead in the polls, I expect many individuals and organizations to ride the momentum and endorse our campaign,” Jensen said in the statement, referring to a recent poll sponsored by a conservative group that had him neck-and-neck with Walz.
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Most independent polls have put Walz up by single digits, although the gap has been narrowing.
The tightening race has given Jensen some steam heading into the final two weeks. And the Republican Governors Association, which had been on the sidelines of this contents, plowed $750,000 into a new Minnesota group that plans to launch anti-Walz TV ads this week. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will visit Monday to raise more money for the RGA play.
Walz has had significant financial backing from the Democratic Governors Association, which has helped pay for a barrage of anti-Jensen ads since summer.
In response to the Trump news, Minnesota DFL Party Chair Ken Martin noted an April speech in which Jensen suggested DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon should be jailed for his handling of elections in Minnesota — and Martin said Trump has now "rewarded" Jensen.
“Fortunately, voters who don’t want their governor to jail their political enemies and spread dangerous lies about our elections can prevent that from happening in Minnesota by re-electing Tim Walz," Martin wrote in response to Trump's endorsement of Jensen.
It was Trump’s second Minnesota endorsement of the day: he had formally offered his support to Republican Secretary of State contender Kim Crockett on Tuesday morning. It also comes just hours after the Washington Post reported Trump was poised to hire senior staff for his own campaign, a possible 2024 presidential run.
It isn’t clear what Trump’s endorsement might mean in Minnesota. He lost the state by 233,000 votes, a 7 percentage point margin, in the 2020 election.
While Jensen won the GOP endorsement in May and coasted to an August primary win, he hasn’t fully consolidated his party base in the same fashion as Walz has among Democrats. The Trump backing could help in that regard, although Trump’s favorability remains low in the state among voters as a whole.
Jensen has treaded carefully around his alignment with Trump during this campaign. In August, he was asked if he was seeking out the former president’s backing or made a trip to Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago resort as other Republican candidates had.
“I don’t even know where it is, but I’ve been to Disneyworld,” Jensen told reporters with a laugh. Pressed further about Trump, Jensen said, “I've never met him never had direct contact with him. We’re pretty much a Minnesota-run campaign.”
Walz used the Trump endorsement in an urgent fundraising appeal.
“The Jensen-Trump brand of divisive politics and dangerous rhetoric is the exact opposite of what Minnesota needs,” the pitch from his campaign read. “We can’t let Scott Jensen turn Minnesota into Trump’s extremist lab.”
MPR News reporter Brian Bakst contributed to this story.
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