More on MN GOP convention voting drama

Good morning, Reformers.

Here’s a few more tidbits from my coverage of the Republican state convention in Duluth — marinated over a week of observing the fallout — and a chart. 

Malfunctioning voting devices interrupted the delegates’ decision on who to endorse for governor and set the stage for House Speaker Lisa Demuth’s re-entrance into the gubernatorial race despite losing her party’s endorsement. 

It was something of a real-time lesson for me on how to amplify doubt in an election once you’ve started losing. 

Full disclosure: The vote totals for ballots 1-7 were recorded by me at the convention; the rest, taken after photographer Glen Stubbe and I began driving home, come from a combination of Luke Sprinkel at Alpha News, a right-leaning media outlet, and Dustin Grage, a right-wing influencer who supports Demuth.

The chart, contrary to its summarized appearance, comes from votes taken over the span of eight hours. For the first four ballots, Demuth was slightly ahead of Kendall Qualls, perennial candidate and retired healthcare executive who positions himself as a “political outsider.” 

Over 2,000 delegates attended the convention, but not every delegate voted in every round — for example, some might leave after a round if their favored candidate was dropped for not receiving enough votes. 

Bear with me now: On the fifth ballot — the one where Demuth started losing to Qualls by a small margin — only 1,556 delegate votes were counted, compared to the 1,900±100 counted in the first four rounds. The sixth ballot was similar: 1,564 total votes. At this point, according to convention chair Rep. Danny Nadeau, people began questioning why ballot counts were so low. Only 156 voting clickers — the handheld devices used by delegates to submit their votes — were confirmed to not be in use at the time. 

Then, the convention rebooted the voting system, Nadeau said, after which the sixth round total ballot count jumped back up to 1,959, with Demuth still behind Qualls. 

The now-losing Demuth and now-winning Qualls emerged to make speeches about their thoughts on the voting devices. One cast doubt on the clickers, while the other expressed “complete confidence” and said they should just move on with the endorsement. Can you guess who? 

The dip in voting totals then set off heated debate among activists in the self-described “party of election integrity.” 

Many advocated leaving the convention without endorsing anyone, voiding the past five hours of voting. Rep. Dawn Gillman summarized that side of the argument: “I'm standing here for no endorsement, because we cannot know the truth about this clicker.” 

Others advocated for continuing with the endorsement, such as one delegate who compared the reboot to restarting a personal device: “If you're having a problem with your phone or your computer, how do you fix it? You reboot it, we've all done that. I'm a programmer, I do this stuff all day long. The numbers went right back up to where they're supposed to be. I say we just get on with it.” 

On the 10th ballot, Qualls finally passed the required 60% of votes to win, with 1,066 votes. Demuth lost with 658 votes. 

Yes, it’s hard to know 100% for sure, from the outside of the process, if there were underlying issues with the clickers, or how many delegates didn’t have their vote counted. (If you were a GOP delegate, reach out: [email protected].) 

But Demuth has certainly wielded that uncertainty to her advantage — along with the waffling position of Minnesota GOP Chairman Alex Plechash, who sort of gave candidates permission to primary without the party’s endorsement, and then did a take-backsy of his take-backsy. Read my colleague Michelle Griffith’s report on Demuth’s re-entrance into the race here.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services cut off funding to more than 3,000 care providers across 13 Medicaid services in its four-month screening of roughly 5,500 providers, in response to heightened federal scrutiny over fraud, I reported. It appears (screenshots included in story) that DHS had failed to reach a federal May 31 deadline, terminating providers in cases where it ran out of time.

Andrea Pedro-Francisco, a 23-year-old asylum seeker who has been pleading for medical treatment for a large ovarian cyst since being arrested by immigration agents in Minnesota in February, was unexpectedly released from a Texas detention center and will be able to receive surgery, Max Nesterak reported. Pedro-Francisco’s immigration case will be transferred to Minnesota, where she’ll have to convince an increasingly hostile bench of immigration judges that she deserves asylum. 

Sen. Amy Klobuchar was livid about being challenged at the DFL convention by a progressive activist, and in a moment of frustration threatened to leave the convention, Michelle reported. It was apparently loud enough for people to hear it backstage, according to two DFL activists granted anonymity because they fear reprisals from the Klobuchar camp. 

A new study estimated that Operation Metro Surge cost Minnesota’s leisure and hospitality sector 4,600 jobs and $71 million in wages, Max reported, adding to a growing body of research showing the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda is hurting the labor market. 

At the GOP convention, delegates held a moment of “silent prayer” for Derek Chauvin, the convicted murderer of George Floyd (Chauvin is alive and in prison). I published my iPhone audio recording of it — nobody seems to have it on video — and also interviewed Christopher Rocco, the passionate delegate who called for the moment of silence. 

St. Paul Public Schools has officially opened what the district calls a sandbox classroom — part of the district’s new program that trains high school seniors to operate heavy equipment on the path to high-paying jobs in construction, Melissa Whitler reported. 

Cole Hanson, an occasional Reformer commentary contributor, reported on how some communities in rural Minnesota are rethinking their grocery models, illustrated by a Detroit Lakes co-op, and the open question of whether younger generations will take up the mantle to operate local grocery stores after current owners retire.

Kirian Crabtree, a grocery worker and writer, implored Klobuchar to help Minnesota operators who have invested in higher agricultural standards by keeping “Save Our Bacon” language out of a Farm Bill being considered by Congress. 

Read another account of the Minnesota GOP Convention from Cally Proctor, a first-time attendee, who wrote that the convention will likely be her last, citing confusion and a prioritization of spectacle over substance.

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