Rice County Republicans Faribault Caucus Sees Light Turnout
Both Rice County Republican State lawmakers called the turnout at Faribault High School for the GOP Caucus a "great turnout."
67 ballots were cast in the Straw Poll for Governor which is about the number of people I counted in attendance. The results were announced about midway through the caucus event.
Results were:
- Mayor Mike Murphy of Lexington 21 votes
- Former Senator Scott Jensen 15 votes
- Senator Paul Gazelka former Senate Majority Leader 9 votes
- Undecided 9 votes
- Kendall Qualls Businessman and Army veteran 5 votes
- Senator Michelle Benson of Ham Lake 4 votes
- Neil Shah of St. Anthony. Dermatologist 3 votes
- Rich Stanek, former Hennepin County Sheriff received one write-in vote
A check of the Minnesota GOP website before publishing this found no statewide results reported.
Senator John Jasinski (24) and Representative Brian Daniels (24B) spoke to those in attendance and several letters from candidates for Governor, Attorney General and Secretary of State were read.
Faribault Public School Board member Richard Olsen asked fellow conservatives to help him get more like-minded people on the board saying he needs help.
After the speakers the floor was opened to questions.
A number of people stated the Faribault lawmakers need to point out the "truth about election fraud."
Senator Jasinski responded, "Believe me we are talking about this in St. Paul but we can't get any election reforms passed with the Democrats running the House and occupying the Governor's office."
Jasinski stated, "There's no way Governor Walz will sign any reform legislation. We will pass another bill this session in the Senate dealing with more secure elections but I tell you it won't get passed."
Daniels added, "The thing is you know there is fraud there but can you prove it? That's the hard part. One thing we've spent a lot of time on is trying to prove it. Until we get Secretary of State Steve Simon out of there. We need to do that first. He changed the voting laws on his own. When he came to the legislature he asked for three days time after the election to count ballots."
Daniels commented, "On his own he changed that to five days and then on his own he started mailing out ballots. That is just totally wrong. So until we get our state turned at least red for the AG (Attorney General), Secretary of State and hopefully the Governor, the thing is I don't want you to think that your vote doesn't count."
"We have to focus on what's coming up. We can't change the past. We've tried. You can't prove it. We've got to move on. We all know there was election fraud but to prove it, take it to court and win that's another story."
Both Faribault state lawmakers said they were optimistic about gaining a majority in the house and electing a Republican Governor in the fall.
I always try to get to the DFL and GOP Caucuses but Rice County's DFL decided to go virtual this year so the Middle School (traditionally the site in Faribault) was desolate tonight.
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