MN Governor's Race: House Speaker Demuth on upcoming primary

[00:00:00]Welcome back. Campaign season in full swing for the four candidates still in the running to be Minnesota's a next governor. Senator Amy Klobuchar securing the Democratic endorsement. On the Minnesota GOP side, endorsed by Kendall Qualls for governor, but following issues with electronic voting machines at the Republican convention, House Speaker Lisa Daemuth is moving into the primary as is MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

[00:00:23]House Speaker Lisa Daemuth joins us now.

[00:00:26]Welcome. Thank you for joining us.

[00:00:28]>> morning. Thank you.

[00:00:29]>> I I know this all this that unfolded at the convention, not ideal situation. Do you think it's time for something completely different or how do we how does the party move forward and not have that situation repeated?

[00:00:42]>> There were some questions, but that is why right after the convention the state party chair did release anyone that had committed to the endorsement to be able to just go ahead and run in the primary.

[00:00:51]That's what our team decided to do and so I am running in the primary, really looking forward to that. That's coming up August 11th. It's important for your viewers to know that early voting for the primary starts next Friday, June 26th already. So we have that long time of early voting that people can get out and vote in that primary and then of course I'm looking forward to defeating Senator Klobuchar in November.

[00:01:14]>> Yeah, how do you move forward? I mean, working to turn the governor's seat red, which you're obviously doing, but also having other Republicans in the race, how do you navigate that?

[00:01:24]>> You know, I've always led in the way that it's important for Minnesotans to know that I can bring people together.

[00:01:29]My time as Speaker of the House over these last two years, we're the most closely divided legislature in the country, the House being an exact tie, and I've proven that I can bring people together and empower chairs and others to do their work and it has resulted in an excellent ability for Minnesota to move forward. That's what I'm bringing into my race for governor. That is why I am a standout candidate when looking at defeating Senator Klobuchar and we're ready for November.

[00:01:57]>> And focusing on Senator Klobuchar, you referred to her as Walls 2.0. And a lot of your campaigning has been focused on fraud. How do you attach Senator Klobuchar to fraud when she was has been in Washington since 2007? How do you make that connection?

[00:02:11]>> Minnesotans are really tired of fraud here in the state of Minnesota. It means that all of our tax dollars have not been respected by the leaders in our state nor by Senator Klobuchar when it comes to defending that our federal tax dollars. So when you think about feeding our future and some of those other programs that have been wrought with fraud, those are federal tax dollars.

[00:02:32]Senator Klobuchar has never defended those at all. She's actually defended fraud in the fact that she hasn't spoken up against it in any way, shape or form.

[00:02:41]And so when you look at a change that is needed for Minnesota, my time as Speaker of the House I established the fraud prevention and agency oversight committee. We passed the OIG Office of Inspector General bill. We put in a bill that is fraud isn't free. Here in Minnesota, there's a 100% tax on fraud now if people actually tried to commit fraud continuing continuing to go forward. And so when you look at that, she hasn't done anything to protect our taxpayer dollars federal or state, hasn't said anything against it. I have been the one that has been fighting along with my Republican colleagues in the House and so we need to move forward on this. Protect Minnesota tax dollars, make sure our state is affordable and then when it comes to education, really improving our education here in the state.

[00:03:26]>> On the flip side of that, there are things that have happened in Washington that that Republicans here have not spoken up about that people do not like that's happening in Washington. I mean you've have been open about wanting an endorsement of President Trump. Are there things that you don't agree with that he has done?

[00:03:42]>> You know, when I think of what has been done at a federal level, the end of this legislative session, we just conformed to some of those requirements for SNAP and other benefits. And so there are things that have been done and put into place in the federal government that, because we have conformed with, we're actually saving Minnesota taxpayers $3.5 billion by conforming to the good changes that are needed. Those requirements are, if you can work, you need to work. You can't can't just depend on the government to provide everything for you. And so, I'm proud of the work that we did at a state level in conforming with the federal government.

[00:04:17]>> In regards to navigating all of this and the other candidates, you mentioned, you know, there the right now there's not a debate on the calendar.

[00:04:25]>> There's Will there be one?

[00:04:26]>> You know, I'm not sure. I look forward to debating Senator Klobuchar. I definitely look forward to that. As far as Republican candidates, we've had 16 forums, and those aren't exactly debates, but they're candidate forums where people have been able to see and to hear um some of them have been publicly um available through other news stations, but people have been able to see where we stand and the difference between candidates. And I'm just excited to go forward. Um this is our opportunity for Minnesota's comeback, to make us stronger and better, and I'm ready to lead that charge.

[00:04:57]>> All right, House Speaker Lisa David and Republican candidate for governor, thank you. We appreciate your And yes, early voting coming up very quick, so thank you for reminding us of that. Appreciate it.