MNGOP Caught Working Against Its People; Supporting Unendorsed Swamp Candidates

While factions of the Republican Party are uniting around the Trump presidential campaign, lurking behind the scenes are moves by Swamp dwellers that are actively working against the base of the Republican Party and some of its endorsed candidates.

Last week, a mailer went out to Republican voters in House District 28A (Isanti-Cambridge) that promoted current Rep Brian Johnson and encouraged recipients to vote for him in the August 13th Republican Primary. This mailer had the disclaimer that it was paid for by the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC) and the Republican Party of Minnesota.

But there’s a problem…Rep Brian Johnson is not the Republican endorsed candidate. He lost handily to newcomer, Jimmy Gordon. The Republican Party of Minnesota, by its own rules, is only supposed to support its endorsed candidates.

Here’s the mailer:

This is the disclaimer on the bottom:

Local party officials and activists quickly sounded the alarm and drew a response from MNGOP Executive Director, Anna Mathews. Truth Hurts News received an email from Matthews to members of the MNGOP that stated “I am sorry for the mistake, and can assure you that the Party will not send out any mail pieces supporting un-endorsed candidates pre-primary.”

However, we just learned that a similar mail piece showed up in House District 9A this week supporting another unendorsed candidate, Rep Ron Kresha. He’s currently facing a newcomer challenger name Diane Webb-Skillings.

The HRCC is legally registered as a political party unit under the MNGOP, which by law, allows only one political party unit per Party, per legislative chamber. They have a monopoly as a Republican party unit in the Minnesota House.

As such, they also should be following the rules of the MNGOP and only supporting endorsed candidates. But they’re actively working against the Party’s endorsed candidates with fundraisers, door knocking teams and mailers. Where’s the accountability by the MNGOP leadership?

Also, these mailers likely used the Party’s reduced postage rate, which would be considered an in-kind contribution to the HRCC or a shared independent expenditure against its endorsed candidate.

We’ve also received several reports from people in leadership with the Congressional District 2 GOP who are upset about the MNGOP supporting the unendorsed candidate for U.S. House, Joe Teirab. Tayler Rahm won the Party’s endorsement and will remain on the ballot for the August primary, despite suspending his campaign to work as a “senior advisor” to the Trump Minnesota campaign.

The MNGOP is also sending out regularly scheduled fundraising mailers to Republicans across the state saying that voters need to “re-elect” Michelle Fischbach, who is also not the endorsed candidate.