BRAINERD, Minn. (KFGO) – A KSTP TV Minnesota governor debate focused on business.
Republican Minnesota Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth wants to fix delays in permitting and regulatory reform and reduce taxes and what she calls burdensome mandates.
“Governor Walz came in and said ‘one Minnesota.’ We’ve seen everything but that,” Demuth said. “We’ve seen more division in our state, a harder business environment. It is time to pull together, pull us forward and return Minnesota to the business leader in both our state and our country that we know it can be.”
Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar wants to bring the state into a new era of growth amid headwinds with tariffs, the cost of gas and what she calls the chaos from the Trump administration.
“Top to bottom audit, make sure we’re cutting that red tape and moving that government faster and smarter,” Klobuchar said. “Number 2: innovation. Expanding domestic and international markets. And then, of course, is bringing down costs. That means healthcare, that means workforce and that means housing and childcare.”
Governor Tim Walz was brought up unprovoked by Demuth.
“Senator Klobuchar has never once distanced herself from Governor Walz and every single policy he has put in place that have increased the prices and made it harder to do business and to be able to live our lives here in Minnesota,” Demuth explained.
“I would’ve caught that fraud. I would’ve done something about it. We have very different backgrounds. Secondly, when they had that surplus, I would’ve used it to pay for things that aren’t as sexy like infrastructure, get this technology done and do things like that. I clearly wouldn’t have pardoned a sex offender,” Klobuchar said.
Klobuchar leads Demuth by 7% with 48 percent in a KSTP/Survey USA poll published last week.
