by Kyle Hooten
“We are at an inflection point in Minnesota,” said Jim Schultz, the Republican-endorsed candidate for attorney general.
“I stepped forward because I felt like we’re losing the state I grew up in,” he told Alpha News, discussing his ongoing bid to become the state’s chief lawyer. He said that the current AG, Keith Ellison, is part of the reason for Minnesota’s current crime explosion. People are leaving Minnesota, Schultz said, “because of the man-caused disaster that has been these past few years, this leadership of Keith Ellison and others.”
Schultz, a Harvard Law grad, said he wants to increase the office’s ability to fight crime by hiring more prosecutors.
“Right now there’s only one criminal attorney that’s left in the office,” he said. “That’s a travesty, we’ve got to dramatically upsize that.”
He also wants to crack down on nonprofit fraud — a key role of the office. “We’ve seen serious nonprofit fraud in the past few years,” he recalled, referencing the Feeding our Future scandal.
Before facing off with Ellison, Schultz must defeat Republican primary challenger Doug Wardlow, who lost against Ellison in 2018. Wardlow promised to discontinue his bid if he failed to attain the Minnesota GOP endorsement. However, his campaign continues even though the party has embraced Schultz, earning sharp condemnation from the party chair.
“Doug Wardlow has an infamous track record of failed election bids. With this futile primary challenge, he will add one more loss to his record,” Minnesota GOP Chair David Hann said in a statement.
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Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
Photo “Jim Schultz” by Alpha News.
