Minnesota
It’s time Minnesota Republicans learn from their mistakes
For White, it’s a completely different story. White underperformed both Trump and his fellow down-ballot Republicans by a significant margin. In 86 counties, Trump overperformed White by an average of 8.7 points. White’s support among Republicans drags even further compared to his congressional counterparts, with White trailing those Republican candidates by an average of 11.6 points per county. White’s biggest losses of Republican voters weren’t found in heavily populated counties, but in rural areas like Houston County where White trailed Congressman Brad Finstad by 20 points and Trump by 16.5 points.
While detractors will claim these are merely anecdotal, the Trump/Klobuchar counties also highlight our failings as a party. Scott and Carver counties, where Action for Liberty’s presence is growing and wildly supported White’s candidacy pre-primary, saw White lose to Klobuchar in reliant GOP areas Trump won. Meanwhile, Republicans, with the exception of White, were able to find success in counties like Anoka, Blue Earth, Nicollet, Beltrami and Winona. Furthermore, while White may claim this is the closest any Republican has come to defeating Klobuchar, we must remember that this is the first time Republicans have run against Klobuchar in a presidential year where the winds were in the GOP’s favor. In 2006, Klobuchar’s first win came at the height of the antiwar movement that saw George W. Bush’s approval numbers tank. In 2012, Klobuchar ran with a popular Barack Obama in office and a campaign that invested in states around the country. And 2018 marked a blue wave during Donald Trump’s first midterm — historically a huge loss for the party in power.
Ultimately, these trends — which only existed in the U.S. Senate race this year — occurred without negative advertising against White and minimal funds spent by Klobuchar on running a campaign against Republicans.
The reality is simple: When given the choice between White and Klobuchar, Minnesotans chose to skip the question altogether or to hold their nose and vote Democrat.
As White continues to scheme with a post-election announcement that could cost Minnesota Republicans a potential victory in 2026, we must do better. In 2024, Republicans chose an un-electable candidate in Royce White. Then Republicans rejected the un-electable candidate while giving President Trump and other down-ballot Republican candidates their vote. As we look ahead to 2026 — when Tim Walz, Tina Smith, Keith Ellison and others are on the ballot — we owe it to Minnesotans and to ourselves not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Preya Samsundar is a GOP communications consultant with K2 & Company. She has worked for Nikki Haley’s presidential super PAC, the Republican National Committee, President Donald Trump, and other Republican candidates around the country. She lives in Burnsville.
Minnesota
Minnesota investigators say child care centers captured in viral video were operating as expected
Minnesota
Game Recap: Kings 5, Wild 4 (S/O) | Minnesota Wild
Matt Boldy scored late in the third to tie it and ultimately send the game to overtime, helping the Wild (25-10-8) extend their point streak to six games (3-0-3). Brock Faber had a goal and an assist, Jake Middleton and Joel Eriksson Ek also scored, and Jesper Wallstedt made 34 saves.
It was the second game of a back-to-back for Minnesota, which is coming off a 5-2 win at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. The Wild and Kings will play again in Los Angeles on Monday.
“It was far from perfect of a game from us,” Faber said. “I thought we could have played better. With that quick turnaround, we’ll take the point. Now we need two in the next.”
Kempe put the Kings up 1-0 at 6:08 of the first period, scoring on a wrist shot from close range off Anze Kopitar’s cross-slot pass from below the goal line.
Middleton tied it up 1-1 at 8:28, getting his first goal of the season in 36 games on a snap shot from the left circle set up by Mats Zuccarello.
“I think he thought I was Kirill (Kaprizov) in the slot there, so it was nice to get one,” Middleton joked. “I normally have a few goals before I take 35 games off from scoring, so this one was getting a little stressful but we got it out of the way.”
Perry gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead at 16:57 of the second period when Byfield’s shot struck him in the wrist and redirected in for the power-play goal.
Eriksson Ek tied it 2-2 at 18:23 on the power play, taking Quinn Hughes’ stretch pass at the offensive blue line for a short breakaway, fending off defenseman Joel Edmundson and scoring on a wrist shot from the left circle.
Byfield put Los Angeles back in front 3-2 at 4:54 of the third period. He shot the puck caroming off the boards back into the crease, where Wallstedt lost it in his skates and it was eventually knocked in by a Wild stick during the ensuing scramble in front.
“Shouldn’t be, that was terrible,” Byfield joked when asked if he knew it was his goal. “No, it’s good. I think it’s two now that were liked that, so I’ll take them how they come.”
Minnesota
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on the defensive as fraud allegations mount after viral video uncovered Somali aid scheme
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back against the ever-growing fraud allegations levied against him in the disastrous aftermath of a viral video where an independent journalist cracked open a crucial part of the alleged Somali aid scheme.
A spokesperson for Walz, a Democrat who frequently provokes President Trump’s ire, addressed a bombshell video posted by conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley.
“The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has strengthened oversight — including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed,” the spokesperson told Fox News.
The spokesperson added that Walz has “hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.”
In the 43-minute video published on Friday, Shirley and a Minnesotan named David travel around Minneapolis and visit multiple childcare and learning centers allegedly owned by Somali immigrants.
Many were either shuttered entirely, despite signage indicating they were open, or helmed by staff who refused to participate in the video.
One of the buildings they visited displayed a misspelled sign reading “Quality Learing Center.” The ‘learning’ center is supposed to account for at least 99 children and funneled roughly $4 million in state funds, according to the video.
Shirley appeared on Fox News’ “The Big Weekend Show” on Sunday evening and boasted about his findings. He joked that the alleged scheme was “so obvious” that a “kindergartener could figure out there is fraud going on.”
“Fraud is fraud, and we work too hard simply just to be paying taxes and enabling fraud to be happening,” Shirley said.
“There better be change. People are demanding it. The investigation have been launched just from that video alone. So there better be change, like I said we work way too hard to be paying taxes and not knowing where our money’s going,” he added.
Many officials have echoed Shirley’s calls for change, with FBI Director Kash Patel even announcing that the agency surged extra personnel to investigate the resources doled out to Minnesota. He said this is one of the first steps in a wide-reaching effort to “dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.”
Federal investigators say half of the $18 billion granted to Minnesota since 2018 could have been stolen by fraudulent schemes — amounting to up to $9 billion in theft.
As of Saturday evening, 86 people have been charged in relation to these fraud scams, with 59 convicted so far.
Most of those accused of fraud come from Minnesota’s Somali community.
Shirley’s mega-viral video cracked 100 million views Sunday night.
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