GOP-endorsed attorney general candidate faces 2 contests

The Republican-endorsed candidate for Minnesota attorney general is a political newcomer but he could face a double dose of political baptism by fire. That’s because he’ll need to win a primary against 2018 Republican candidate Doug Wardlow before facing DFL incumbent Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Jim Schultz predicts primary voters will reject Wardlow for breaking a promise to not run in a primary if he didn’t get the endorsement.

“He did make a commitment, not to me but to the voters, that he was not going to move forward to a primary should he lose the endorsement, and we ultimately won the endorsement decisively and people expect that people in public office keep their word,” Schultz said in an appearance on “At Issue with Tom Hauser.”

If Schultz prevails in his primary race, he’s ready to square off against Ellison in the general election with a focus on Ellison’s support of a “defund the police” charter amendment in Minneapolis that failed last year.

“An attorney general, the chief law enforcement officer of our state, who backs defunding the police while there are 100 murders in Minneapolis, 650 carjackings, crime and violence bleeding out to the suburbs and greater Minnesota,” Schultz said in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in Rochester earlier this month. “That was an outrage and a mistake and we will hold Keith Ellison accountable for it.”

On “At Issue,” Schultz said the public safety issue is what spurred him to run for attorney general.

“Fundamentally, for me, it came down to the incredible public safety issues we’ve been having in our state. Over the past couple years, we’ve seen just an extraordinary increase in crime.”

In a statement after his endorsement, the Minnesota DFL Party painted a completely different picture of Schultz.

“Jim Schultz is a hedge-fund lawyer with no experience in a Minnesota courtroom, and the last thing we want is someone like that taking a sledgehammer to the Attorney General’s office” the DFL statement said. “Instead of focusing on the issues important to the people of Minnesota, Schultz has pledged to use the office of Attorney General to criminalize abortion and jail women who seek one, and waste the office’s time and resources by targeting transgender youth and chasing election conspiracy theories.”

You can see the entire interview with Schultz, which includes his views on election integrity and police accountability, Sunday morning at 10 a.m. on “At Issue with Tom Hauser.”