Minnesota’s Tom Emmer says Trump, GOP wins would allow Congress to ‘put America first’
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Rep. Tom Emmer, the highest-ranking Minnesota Republican, previewed what a GOP-controlled Congress and second Donald Trump presidency would mean for America in fiery remarks Tuesday night at the partys national convention.
While the Republican-led House staved off many of Democrats’ policy priorities over the last two years under its slim majority, he said GOP control in Washington would allow them to do more than “hold the line.”
“We’ll be moving forward. We will turn ‘America First’ principles into law,” the Minnesota congressman and House majority whip told Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “Next year, Donald Trump, with the support of Trump majorities in the House and Senate, will put America first again.”
Emmer didn’t specifically spell out policies that the caucus would advance if they win in November, but he pointed to what he viewed as failures under the leadership of President Joe Biden. He said House Republicans blocked “reckless” federal spending, ended a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the military and sought to curb energy costs.
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And he said those efforts — along with the former president’s messages — would resonate in Minnesota and beyond.
“I know firsthand that Minnesotans can’t afford four more years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, which is why I’m confident that we will make history this November when we turn Minnesota red for the first time in 50 years,” Emmer continued.
After his speech, Emmer joined other top Republicans in the VIP box where Trump and his running mate JD Vance took in the night’s primetime speeches. Seated next to Vance, Emmer exchanged a handshake and words with a jovial Trump as he took his spot in the box's front row.
Emmer could be the only person from the state to land a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention. While Emmer has put his full support behind the GOP nominee and is chairing his 2024 effort in Minnesota, Trump hasn’t always reciprocated that backing.
Trump succeeded in toppling Emmer’s bid for House speaker last fall by questioning whether he was conservative enough. That came despite Emmer’s generally positive relationship with the former president and similar campaign messages that helped land them in office.
Emmer, is the third-ranking Republican and also helped deliver the GOP’s House majority in 2022 as head of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. Those alone should have been enough, said Norm Ornstein, a political scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
“I think a number of Republicans in the House were just too weary out of a belief that maybe he would be a little too establishment and mainstream,” Ornstein said. “That’s certainly not what anybody would have said about Tom Emmer, a couple of years ago.”
Trump and members of the Congressional Freedom Caucus were critical of Emmer’s vote to certify the results of the 2020 election. Emmer also drew scorn from Trump allies for lashing out at “shameful” behavior by those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump reportedly took credit for sinking Emmer’s climb up the ranks.
Long before he arrived in Congress, Emmer was known in St. Paul as a sort of insurgent who made his mark with brash rhetoric. Emmer charged his way to the 2010 governor nomination and came within a whisker of winning that fall.
He had secured the Republican nomination with a pitch to shake up state government, which at the time was led by a Republican.
“Now is the time more than ever to leave behind politics as usual. And politicians as usual,” Emmer told the Minnesota Republican Party Convention in 2010. “We must no longer tolerate political games. We need leaders who have a lifetime of experience outside of government leaders with the strength of character and commitment to stand up to politics as usual.”
After his loss, Emmer had a liberating run as a talk radio host before he decided to run for Congress in 2014 after former Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann stepped down. He’s represented central Minnesota ever since.
He’s tempered some of the rhetoric a bit as he’s spent more time in Washington and climbed the ranks. Now, Emmer is seen by some in his party as part of a party establishment that they’re often at odds with.
Despite the dust-ups, Emmer has stood in Trump’s corner. He was one of Trump’s earliest and most notable Minnesota backers in his first presidential run in 2016, despite divisions within the GOP.
“I think the reason Donald Trump is where he is today on the Republican side, and I believe across the country, is that Americans are looking for something different,” Emmer told MPR News during the 2016 Republican National Convention during which he even spent time with the Trump family in their VIP box in Cleveland.
For the most part, Emmer has been publicly supportive of Trump since. As chair of Trump’s Minnesota reelection campaign, Emmer will be tasked with helping deliver a state that Democrats have locked down since 1976. One of Emmer’s past advisers was named the Trump campaign's state director over the weekend.
Minnesota DFL party chair Ken Martin told MPR News that Democrats have been building up campaign infrastructure and meeting with voters for months. And he didn’t think that Republicans could make up the difference in time to hand Trump a win.
“The ramp for these guys to actually stand up an organization and then start having the number of conversations that we’ve already had with voters is growing smaller and smaller by the day,” Martin said. “So while they talk a big game, it doesn’t seem that they’re actually serious about trying to put Minnesota into play at this point.”
Minnesota Republican party chair David Hann told MPR News’ Morning Edition that while Trump and Emmer haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, he expects they can resolve their differences.
“He’s certainly been friends with Donald Trump and I know they had a little bit of a falling out but that’s not unusual in politics,” Hann said. “People have differences and oftentimes they find ways to mend those differences.”
MPR News correspondent Mark Zdechlik and host Cathy Wurzer contributed to this report.
