Abortion rights, economy, election integrity themes of 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS’ Debate Night in Minnesota

Candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, and governor debated just a few weeks from the November 8 election – two of which, according to KSTP’s SurveyUSA polls, are very close races.

Up first Sunday night were candidates for attorney general – DFL incumbent Keith Ellison and challenger republican Jim Schultz.

Attorney General Ellison leaned on his experiences as a litigator, and according to him Schultz’s lack of experience, as a focus throughout his arguments.

Schultz, telling voters it’s time for a change in leadership in the attorney general’s office – calling out Ellison many times for not doing enough to curb the state’s spike in violent crime.

The two also addressed the Feeding Our Future fraud investigation – Ellison standing by the state’s response, while Schultz argues the AG’s office could have done more.

“[Ellison] acknowledged the state did nothing wrong, while $250 million dollars were stolen,” Schultz argued, adding: “The fact is there were extraordinary failures on the part of Attorney General Ellison’s office during this period.”

In response, AG Ellison said the investigation was handled to ensure the integrity of the case.

“It was a complicated fraud investigation, that we wanted to get to the bottom of,” Attorney General Ellison said.

“Yes, some payments were made knowing that these folks were fraudulent or suspecting it at least, but it was done to get to the bottom of a fraud, to find out how far it was going, [and] who was involved,” he added.

Next on the debate stage was the top candidates for Minnesota’s secretary of state – DFL incumbent Steve Simon and republican challenger Kim Crockett.

Simon spoke to his high voter turnout and record on a lack of fraud in elections.

“We have 3.3 million voters in Minnesota, number one in the country, [and] since 2020 there have been exactly 17 cases of misconduct of any kind across any system of our election system,” Simon said about data his team recently gathered.

In response, Crockett eluded to a lack of investigation into voter fraud.

“When our county attorneys are not looking for that fraud, or when they find it they don’t prosecute it, that’s why we end up with small numbers,” Crockett said.

The Republican candidate said if elected she could get more people to vote by increasing confidence in the elections – one way Crockett said is by working to require a photo identification card when voting. Something not needed in Minnesota right now.

“It’s required for everything, I don’t go through the day without pulling my photo ID for something,” Crockett said. “Maybe it’s not a driver’s licenses, maybe it’s something other ID.”

Secretary Simon opposes this – telling voters the elections are secure with the current measures in place.

“The real danger here is shutting out tens of thousands of voters, that’s not what we want to do. So, we have to go real slow surrounding anything with that possibility,” Simon said.

Lastly, voters heard from Dr. Scott Jensen, the republican candidate for governor. Multiple times, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS invited Governor Walz to Debate Night in Minnesota but he declined to join.

During Dr. Jensen’s question and answer, he was asked about his stance on abortion.

“We need to realize, without question, abortion [is] not on the ballot in November because in Minnesota Doe v. Gomez, in 1995, indicates it’s a clearly constitutionally protected right for all women,” Dr. Jensen said.

“Let’s have birth control pills over the counter, with a maximum price of $10 dollars per month. Let’s have paid maternity leave in place, let’s streamline adoption and provide tax credits with it [and] let’s have stiffer penalties for crimes that target women such as rape and carjacking – we can do all those things,” Dr. Jensen added.

You can watch the full debates in the video player below: