Writer: Joshua Andino
2 min read August 2022 — With the dust having settled from the August primary race, the stage is set for the Minnesota governor’s race between incumbent Tim Walz and challenger Scott Jensen, with mudslinging and shifting positions making for a competitive election.
While Minnesota has often prided itself on its cool bipartisanship and the ability to get things done despite having one of the few divided legislatures in the country, it nevertheless remains an election year, with Republicans and Democrats alike looking to make their case to the voters on Nov. 8. The highest-profile race impacting the state directly is for the governor’s residence, with incumbent Democratic Farmer-Labor Gov. Tim Walz looking to beat back Republican challenger Scott Jensen.
Both managed to secure their nomination with the backing of their respective parties fairly easily. Yet in what may remain a close race, both have gone on the offense. Walz has argued that Jensen will weaken abortion protections, holds fringe views on COVID-19 that occupied most of Walz’s first term, and has burnished his own credentials as a bipartisan governor who worked with a divided legislature to get things done. Under his tenure, Minnesota holds the lowest unemployment rate in the country and finds itself with a nearly $10 billion budget surplus, although both Democrats, including Walz, and Republicans have been unable to agree to a special session on how best to spend the money – leaving about $7.2 billion on the table.
Jensen, for his part, has argued Walz overreached in his handling of the pandemic and decried the apparent lawlessness that has transpired under Walz’s watch. In June, Jensen announced his public safety plan, strengthening penalties for carjackings, deploying state patrols in high-crime areas and asking Minnesotans if they felt safer than they did four years ago.
Both candidates seem to have made the effort to shore up potential vulnerabilities in their campaigns in response to the other. A few days after the nomination, Walz held a press conference on public safety efforts, stumping for a special session to discuss the state’s budget surplus and a potential $450 million public safety plan that for the time being remains only a plan. Jensen has also clarified his position that abortions in the case of rape, incest or the endangerment of the mother are acceptable, while still aiming to provide adoption tax credits and funding for crisis pregnancy centers, reported The Star Tribune in July.
As it stands, the race can go either way. Polls indicate a slight lead for Walz, with RealClearPolitics polling average giving the governor a 3.5 point lead over Jensen. Similarly, polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight has Walz leading 50 to Jensen’s 46, a four point difference. The most favorable results to Jensen come from MinnPost’s survey, which shows Walz ahead by only 2 points and falls within the margin-of-error.
While 2022 had pundits expecting a potential red-wave, with Republican voters and disaffected independants turning out in droves to punish languishing Democrats, Minnesota for its part has had a Democrat-tilt for decades now, and recent legislative wins in D.C. have dampened Republicans enthusiasm for what they hoped would be a clean sweep of Congress.
For more information, visit:
