Author: News Desk

WASHINGTON – A rift over the best candidate to run for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat involving the national Republican Party and far-right political activist Laura Loomer was on display this week at Farmfest.

Adam Schwarze, a former Navy Seal, and Navy vet Tom Weiler, who are both running to replace Smith, were both advised by Farmfest organizers that they did not have sufficient support in recent public opinion polls to attend Wednesday’s U.S. Senate candidate forum.

So, on the GOP side only former sportscaster Michele Tafoya and former NBA player Royce White were on the dais, facing off against each other and the two Democrats in the race, Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

The candidates will run in Tuesday’s party primary elections.  

Schwarze, the Republican Party’s endorsed candidate, has always been a thorn in the national GOP’s side. The Republican National Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has been heavily promoting Tafoya and helping her campaign.

Related: GOP primary awaits after Schwarze tops Tafoya for party’s U.S. Senate endorsement

Just hours before Wednesday’s forum, the NRSC issued a release that bashed Craig and Flanagan, without evidence, for wanting “to raise farmers’ taxes to give health care to immigrants” while praising Tafoya, who it said “will fight to lower input costs and strengthen Minnesota’s rural communities.”

But the release really pummeled Schwarze.

“And don’t forget that transgender porn enthusiast Adam Schwarze was not invited to Farmfest, so he put out fake news claiming the event was canceled,” it said, with a link to a May post by Loomer that said Schwarze’s account on X followed a transgender porn account.

Schwarze denied the allegation.

“National Republicans have had their thumb on the scale in this race from the very beginning,” said Schwarze, who is no fan of transgender rights, in an emailed statement. “That’s why they are pushing this completely debunked story. Voters deserve a debate and an opportunity to see the candidates talk about the issues, but the Washington-picked candidate has been hiding … .”

While they were not invited to attend the Senate candidate forum, Schwarze and Weiler went to Farmfest anyway. Schwarze told a reporter at the event that he was “the actual Republican candidate supported by the grassroots.”

Some senators not high on hemp ban delay 

A U.S. Senate short-term spending bill aimed at preventing a government shutdown that would also delay a federal ban on drinks and other products made with hemp-derived THC is in limbo, even as President Donald Trump lobbied GOP senators this week to try to help the hemp industry.

The bill, called a continuing resolution, or CR, would delay an outlawing of  drinks, gummies and even some CBD products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

But that reprieve has been met with resistance from a growing group of senators led by Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., who want it stripped out of the bill.

The new restrictions on hemp were set to go into effect Nov. 12. But the short-term spending bill would give the industry another month, until Dec. 11, to try to persuade lawmakers to adopt strict regulations on intoxicating products made from hemp instead of banning them.

The hemp provision in the spending bill was also likely to be renewed, perhaps several times, as Congress has not been able to finish work on all 12 appropriations bills that would fund the federal government and is likely to have to continue to resort to stopgap measures.

The production of intoxicating products made of hemp was made possible by the decriminalization of hemp in the 2018 farm bill.

In 2022, Minnesota took advantage of what detractors call an unforeseen “loophole” in the legislation that allows the sale of low-dosage drinks and other edibles that contain THC derived from hemp.

That has created a booming industry in the state, with many Minnesota manufacturers selling their hemp-based products across the nation.

But the looming hemp ban threatens that market.

Trump, meanwhile, called Budd and some of his allies this week to lobby for the delay in the federal restrictions on hemp.

Trump has voiced concern over how the restrictions would impact a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pilot program that would allow the use of CBD to fight certain illnesses.

But lobbyists for the marijuana industry who want intoxicating hemp products to be regulated like pot say there’s another reason Trump has stepped into the dispute roiling the Senate.

They say he is influenced by his trusted chief of staff, Susie Wiles, whose son-in-law is chief executive of a company that sells  intoxicating hemp-derived gummies and vapes.

In any case, Budd is adamant he will not give up on his efforts to strip out the hemp language from the short-term spending bill, even as he told reporters: “I’ve been asked by a lot of people to stand down this amendment.”

“Let me be clear: I will not back down,” Budd said on X. “I will not waver. I will not stop until this life-threatening hemp loophole is closed permanently. We must strip this amendment from the CR & regulate these harmful substances for what they are — not what the industry wants to call them.

The impasse over the hemp provision in the short-term spending bill has blocked consideration of other items on the GOP agenda that Republican Senate leaders wanted to resolve before adjourning this week for its August recess. Those included confirming Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche, and efforts to consider a bill aimed at regulating college sports.

Vice President JD Vance was dispatched to the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to try to meet with GOP senators, clear the logjam and brief the lawmakers on the war in Iran and the need to provide the Pentagon with more money. But it’s not clear any progress was made.

Farm bill founders, again 

As Minnesota’s farmers networked and their votes were solicited by the state’s politicians this week at Farmfest, attempts to pass a long overdue farm bill failed in Congress.

While the House approved its version of the farm bill, the Senate farm bill floundered on Thursday when it was defeated on a party line vote in the Senate Agricultural Committee.

The reason? Democrats insisted on a two-year delay in a shift to the states for more of the cost to administer the food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The cost shift was established by Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

The last five-year farm bill was approved in 2018. The new one is now three years overdue, although a budget reconciliation bill approved last year provided funding for many farm programs.

Other farm programs and new policy proposals, including one that would outlaw bans imposed by California and other states on pork raised under  inhumane conditions and another that would allow year-round sales of E15, remain unresolved.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., however, said he is not defeated and will try to reconvene the committee in September.

In other news:

▪️ Matt Blake and Brian Arola took a look at legislative races in northeastern Minnesota’s sprawling 3^rd District, where Democrats hope to make gains in the House and the Republican mayor of Babbit hopes to unseat Sen. Grant Hauschild.

▪️ Brian Arola and freelancer Forrest Peterson covered political forums at Farmfest, with a huge assist from photojournalist Bridget Bennett. See what the congressional candidates had to say here and the U.S. Senate candidates here.

▪️ Meanwhile, our new water reporter, Claire Carlson, joined in the fun and filed this piece from Farmfest on free nitrate contamination testing being done on drinking water by the state Agriculture Department. The contamination is caused by fertilizer and manure runoff.

▪️ We also reported on the federal government finalizing its contract with the shuttered Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, which will be used starting this fall to detain undocumented immigrants.

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. I can be reached at aradelat@minnpost.com.

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The Trump administration announced on July 21, 2026, that it’s withholding US$867 million in federal healthcare funding for California and $200 million for Minnesota – a total of more than $1 billion in Medicaid funds.

Federal officials said the two states had failed to provide sufficient evidence that a number of disputed medical claims were legitimate. These include bills for in-home care and other services covered by the two states’ Medicaid programs for low-income residents.

Medicaid administrators say the funds can be recovered if the states supply the requested documentation. But the action is highly unusual: Typically, Medicaid officials partner with states to conduct an audit when they suspect fraud, a careful process that often takes years.

It’s the second time in 2026 that the Trump administration has withheld or deferred federal Medicaid funds for several states, including California and Minnesota, because of alleged fraud and abuse. The Democratic governors of those states have called the decision a politically motivated attack on their constituents.

Related: Trump administration says it’s deferring $199M in Medicaid payments to Minnesota

I’m a historian of social policy who led the first comprehensive historical overview of Medi-Cal, California’s statewide Medicaid system. I’ve found that U.S. leaders have long used the language of fraud and abuse to blur the line between correcting very real failures within Medicaid and – as I believe the Trump administration is currently doing – discrediting and defunding the program itself.

Slashing the safety net

The Medicaid restrictions are part of the Trump administration’s overall efforts to slash federal funding for the safety net.

The large tax-and-spending bill that Trump signed into law in July 2025 as the cornerstone of his second-term agenda pared eligibility for Medicaid by introducing work requirements for some adults. It is cutting close to $1 trillion in federal spending on the program over the next decade.

Researchers estimate that almost 12 million people, on top of the estimated 28 million without health insurance in 2025, could become uninsured by 2034 due to these changes. By mid-2026, more than 3 million people had already lost their insurance coverage due to Republican changes to the Affordable Care Act.

‘Padlocking’ the ‘cookie jar’

In February 2026, Vice President JD Vance, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, announced a new anti-fraud initiative called Comprehensive Regulations to Uncover Suspicious Healthcare.

Also known by its rather unsubtle acronym, CRUSH, this initiative is taking unprecedented steps to withhold and defer funds in response to suspected fraud. “CMS is done trying to catch fraudsters with their hands in the cookie jar,” Oz said in announcing CRUSH’s formation. “Instead, we’re padlocking the jar and letting them starve.”

Related: Minnesota Medicaid explained: Who’s on it, how much it costs, what could change

To be sure, Medicaid fraud, waste and abuse – such as providers billing Medicaid for services that are unnecessary or never rendered – are very real problems that cost taxpayers billions of dollars annually. They do divert funds from the low-income and disabled Americans enrolled in the program.

But the Trump administration’s latest moves are part of a much broader history of weaponizing Medicaid fraud and abuse – both real and imagined. I see them as a politicized attempt to prove that Medicaid itself is wasteful, that state governments cannot be trusted to administer federal money, and that public benefits inevitably invite dishonesty.

Providing little oversight at the start

Medicaid was established, along with Medicare for older adults, in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” reforms. Despite providing millions of Americans with health insurance coverage for the first time, these programs had few centralized mechanisms for the kind of federal oversight that could prevent and catch fraud and abuse.

And the sheer scale and complexity of the Medicaid system – joint federal-state funding, varying eligibility requirements, millions of enrollees and thousands of providers – created opportunities for questionable billing practices among providers.

The 1970s saw a number of highly publicized Medicaid scandals involving nursing homes, laboratories, pharmacies and so-called “Medicaid mills” – healthcare providers that sought to bill the government for large numbers of Medicaid patients for shoddy and often fraudulent care.

A series of high-profile congressional investigations spurred demand for stronger Medicaid oversight and enforcement. That led to the Medicare-Medicaid Anti-Fraud and Abuse Amendments of 1977, which established the national Medicaid Fraud Control Units program.

The state-run Medicaid Fraud Control Units received generous federal matching funds to investigate and prosecute fraud.

The most serious Medicaid fraud was generally committed by healthcare providers and contractors, not patients. Medicaid Fraud Control Units were principally responsible for investigating providers, while also prosecuting the abuse and neglect of patients whose care was billed to Medicaid.

Related: Why the Trump administration’s curveball on ‘medical frailty’ matters for Medicaid in Minnesota

At the same time, however, Medicaid was becoming entangled in a broader political debate over social spending, whether many Americans were becoming too dependent on government benefits, and the alleged use of benefits by people who should not have received them. In the 1980s and 1990s, widely circulated stories about Medicaid exposed fraud and malfeasance by providers.

But disproportionately, they also highlighted the comparatively few instances of fraud by people enrolled in the program, such as cases where they submitted false receipts for covered medically related travel or sold drugs they obtained through Medicaid for free or at low cost.

Using Medicare fraud to justify spending cuts

The distinction between Medicaid and cash assistance programs, such as the Aid to Families with Dependent Children “welfare” program, frequently disappeared in political rhetoric. False or exaggerated stories that portrayed African American single mothers living extravagantly while fraudulently claiming welfare benefits became potent symbols of supposed government failure.

While campaigning as a presidential candidate, Ronald Reagan seized on this trope of the “welfare queen” in his attacks on social spending.

By the mid-1990s, opposition to welfare programs had become increasingly bipartisan. Politicians in both parties often used tales of Medicaid fraud on the part of providers and recipients to justify tighter eligibility rules and spending cuts.

Federal oversight expanded further with the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which created the Medicaid Integrity Program and strengthened federal oversight of state programs. The Affordable Care Act, the landmark healthcare legislation Congress passed in 2010, added new measures to screen providers and verify billing.

Related: Minnesota’s Office of Inspector General needs Trump’s approval to probe Medicaid

Concerns about Medicaid’s “integrity” became highly politicized in the debates surrounding the ACA. Critics of Medicaid expansion argued that increasing the number of people who could get health insurance through the program would increase fraud and improper enrollment. Supporters of expanding Medicaid to help more Americans gain health insurance maintained that anti-fraud rhetoric often disguised ideological opposition to the program’s expansion.

Blurring distinctions then and now

For the six decades that this program has helped millions of low-income Americans get healthcare, politicians have blurred the distinction between protecting Medicaid from abuse and using abuse to discredit Medicaid itself.

In my view, the Trump administration’s campaigns against California and Minnesota continue that pattern. It is using real weaknesses within Medicaid to advance much broader political arguments: that Democratic states cannot be trusted, that public benefits naturally invite abuse, and that withholding funds is itself a form of reform.

The result will no doubt be that fewer low-income Americans will be able to get the healthcare they need.

Ben Zdencanovic, Assistant Professor of U.S. History, University of Cambridge

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Editor’s note: This story will be updated

Prison industry giant CoreCivic announced Tuesday that it has finalized a five-year federal contract to reopen a long-shuttered prison in Appleton that will now hold immigrant detainees.

The company estimated its new contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would bring in $75 million a year.

CoreCivic’s contract with ICE comes as little surprise. The company, which owns the facility in Appleton, has for many months been refurbishing the prison, called the Prairie Correctional Facility.

Related: Appleton prison seeks job applicants amid renewed federal interest in facility for immigrant detentions

The city of Appleton built the prison, but CoreCivic purchased it in 1997 to hold state prisoners, then shut it down in 2010 because of decreased demand.

Now it will hold up to 1,600 immigrant detainees.

CoreCivic said it expects to begin receiving detainees at the end of this year “with the full ramp estimated to be complete in the second quarter of 2027.”

The reopening of the Prairie Correctional Facility is a part of the Trump administration’s quest to find more detention space as it continually presses to increase deportations.

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Editor’s note: This story will be updated

WASHINGTON – Prison industry giant CoreCivic announced Monday that it has finalized a five-year federal contract to reopen a long-shuttered prison in Appleton that will now hold immigrant detainees.

The company estimated its new contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would bring in $75 million a year.

CoreCivic’s contract with ICE comes as little surprise. The company, which owns the facility in Appleton, has for many months been refurbishing the prison, called the Prairie Correctional Facility.

Related: Appleton prison seeks job applicants amid renewed federal interest in facility for immigrant detentions

The city of Appleton built the prison, but CoreCivic purchased it in 1997 to hold state prisoners, then shut it down in 2010 because of decreased demand.

Now it will hold up to 1,600 immigrant detainees.

CoreCivic said it expects to begin receiving detainees at the end of this year “with the full ramp estimated to be complete in the second quarter of 2027.”

The reopening of the Prairie Correctional Facility is a part of the Trump administration’s quest to find more detention space as it continually presses to increase deportations.

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WASHINGTON – Minnesota’s robust industry of intoxicating drinks and edibles made from THC in hemp got a reprieve late Monday from a looming federal ban on those products.

The reprieve was included in a bill the U.S. Senate passed on a procedural vote. It allows consideration of a short-term bill that would fund the federal government until Dec. 11 and would also delay the implementation of new federal regulation on intoxicating hemp products.

The new regulations would cripple Minnesota manufacturers of intoxicating gummies, drinks and even many products containing Cannabidiol (CBD) that are marketed as having health benefits.

The new regulations were to go into effect Nov. 11. While the Senate bill, which is expected to win final approval later this week, would only provide a month’s worth of respite, the intoxicating hemp industry and its allies in Congress hailed the reprieve.

“Adults should be allowed to have a THC beverage if they so choose. Minnesota has created one of the strongest, most carefully regulated systems in the country to allow the sale of hemp products,” Sen. Tina Smith said in a statement. “The initial ban set to take place was ill-advised and would have hurt both hemp farmers and Minnesota breweries alike.”

Since Minnesota legalized low-potency hemp-derived THC edibles and beverages in 2022 for adults 21 and older, the state has been a pioneer in this industry.  

Advocates for the hemp industry said it would give them more time to lobby for support of legislation that would blunt the impact of the intoxicating hemp ban. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, have introduced bills that would regulate intoxicating hemp products instead of eliminating them.

“The new government funding bill in the Senate includes a key provision based on my bipartisan bill to delay the federal hemp ban … so other states can put more sensible safety rules in place like we have in Minnesota,” Klobuchar said. “This delay was immediately necessary to give Minnesota hemp producers and customers certainty, while giving Congress more time to get to a long-term fix.”

Another boon to the hemp industry is that the Senate bill, called a continuing resolution, or CR, has placed the issue in a federal spending bill, which is likely to be renewed since Congress has been unable to win final approval for any of the appropriations bills that would fund the federal government.

“This industry lobbied for its life — and moved the line,” said a release from MC Nutraceuticals, a maker of hemp-based products in Colorado.

Last November, Congress outlawed hemp-infused edibles — including drinks, gummies and even some CBD products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

That ban was contained in a massive spending bill to fund the federal government, and gave the industry a year to adjust to the restrictions.

However, President Donald Trump has voiced concerns over how the restrictions would impact a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pilot program that would allow the use of CBD to fight certain illnesses. If the pilot program succeeds, these products could eventually be covered under Medicare.

The marijuana lobby, which has sought to put intoxicating hemp products on the same playing field as pot, which continues to be illegal on the federal level, decried the Senate’s action on Monday.

“Now, we face the scenario where every time we’re going to have a fight over which cannabis derived products are illegal,” said Cory Harris, a lobbyist for the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp (ATACH.)

Harris also said that under the legislation proposed by Klobuchar, who is running for governor, and Craig, who is running for the Senate, states that don’t allow hemp-derived THC products would not be able to keep them out because customers in those states would continue to be able to purchase them online.

Craig, however, said regulation of the hemp industry has worked well in Minnesota.

“Minnesota led the charge on regulating legal hemp in a thoughtful and safe way, and now the federal government wants to pull the rug out from under them, putting thousands of Minnesotans out of work,” she said. “That is unacceptable, and it is also bad policy.”

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NEW ULM, Minn. – Years ago, a teacher who had never run for political office tried to unseat a Republican who seemingly had a lock on Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District.

The Democrat, who is now Gov. Tim Walz, succeeded in 2006 in unseating the Republican, former Rep. Gil Gutknecht, in that largely rural southern district that leans strongly towards the GOP.

Now, like Walz did 20 years ago, another teacher new to politics is running as a Democrat to try to unseat another Republican incumbent.

He’s Jake Johnson, whose campaigning prowess and ability to raise campaign cash has caught the attention of the national Democratic Party. Johnson, 42, hopes to unseat Rep. Brad Finstad, the Republican who now holds the 1st District seat. 

Related: In a tough election year for House Republicans, Brad Finstad faces a serious challenge from Jake Johnson

But unlike the last time a Democrat unseated a Republican in the district, it has changed and so has American politics.

And while Walz and Johnson share similarities, each man is different. 

Both leveraged their years as longtime teachers in the district to broaden their support, among former students and the politically powerful teachers’ unions.

Walz, a history teacher and football coach in Mankato, ran as a moderate Democrat, even as some 1st District voters complain that he became more liberal after winning the governor’s office. Johnson is also running in the district as a centrist.

He is trying to position himself as a fiscal conservative, promising to vote against any legislation that would allow the federal government to borrow more money until Congress balances its budget.

“Members of both parties are not taking this seriously,” he said of the nearly $40 trillion national debt.

But, like most mainstream Democrats, Johnson has also promised to shore up the federal social safety net.

As governor, Walz also focused on expanding social welfare programs, spending his political capital on providing universal school breakfasts and lunches and a generous paid family leave program.

Both men were raised in families that needed the help of social welfare programs.

Johnson, a high school math teacher, grew up in Stewartville with 10 siblings. He says his father collected garbage and his mom went door-to-door reading meters.

The family often needed the help of their church and neighbors and the support of government programs. “I was a SNAP (food stamp) kid,” he said. “We were a Medicaid family.”

Walz also experienced hardship as a youth. After his father died, his mother and younger brother depended on Social Security survivor benefits for support.

‘Red to Blue’ 

Pat Booker, a voter in the district, watched Walz’s rise and is closely following Johnson’s. She said each of them brought skills from their classrooms to the campaign trail.

“(Johnson) doesn’t hesitate to answer questions and doesn’t hesitate to meet with constituents, and that was the same way with Tim,” she said. “That’s something that Brad absolutely refuses to do.”

She would know, having tried and failed to get facetime with Finstad over the course of eight months. Concerned about SNAP and Medicaid cuts, the New Ulm resident went to Finstad’s local congressional office multiple times per week seeking answers.

“I got one pat letter saying thank you for your concerns,” said Booker, a military veteran and retired probation officer. 

There may be a reason Finstad is confident in winning reelection, besides the clear advantages of the makeup of his district and incumbency, which includes heightened name recognition and, usually, greater ability over a challenger to fundraise.

“He’s certainly acting like internal (campaign) polls are telling him he has a wide lead,” said Kevin Parsneau, a political science professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato.

Finstad, 50, lives in New Ulm, a city that holds tight to its German heritage. A statue of the ancient Germanic hero Hermann towers over the city, a glockenspiel chimes every day downtown and August Schell’s brewery holds popular Oktoberfest and Bock Fest events. The German language is conspicuous, adding flavor to the names of bakeries, restaurants and other businesses.

Some locals still trace their lineage to the city’s founding in 1854. There’s even a group known as the Junior Pioneers of New Ulm and Vicinity that celebrates the direct descendants of pioneers who settled in the area by 1870. 

In a city steeped so much in history and heritage, though, locals say newcomers can find it hard to shed an “auslander” label, the German word for “outsider.” Booker, who has lived in New Ulm for decades, said the community has become more open minded and welcoming over time. 

Yet New Ulm definitely remains a conservative, Republican-majority city. It is the county seat of Brown County, which President Donald Trump handily won over former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

Even so, Johnson has been taking the race to Finstad’s home turf. He walked in New Ulm’s Bavarian Blast festival parade in July and will hold a town hall in the city in August.

An underdog in Trump territory 

There’s no doubt Johnson is the underdog in the race.

The district gave Trump 55% of the vote in 2024 and GOP incumbent Finstad has deftly defeated his Democratic challengers since he won a special election for the 1st District seat in 2022.

But Johnson has recently received some vital help from the national Democratic Party. 

Mindful of his campaigning skills — which include holding town halls in each of the  district’s 21 counties — and especially of his fundraising skills, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has recently placed Johnson on its “Red to Blue” list.

Those on the list are the Democratic candidates who are trying to flip a Republican-held seat and are considered worthy enough of the national Democratic Party’s help.

The “Red to Blue” designation gives candidates access to fundraising support, strategic guidance and training.

Johnson has already proven himself a strong fundraiser, having amassed nearly $1.9 million in campaign funds as of June 30, the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show.

Finstad, meanwhile, has raised nearly $2 million.

Democrats hope Trump’s low approval ratings, an energized Democratic base and the historic advantage the party out of power in the White House holds in midterm elections will allow them to wrest control of the U.S. House from the GOP.

To do that, Democrats need to win in swing districts. They also hope to increase their numbers in the U.S. House by toppling Republican incumbents in places like the 1st District, which the Cook Political Report rates as “likely Republican.” 

When Walz flipped the seat, it had been held by Gutknecht, a moderate Republican. Finstad, meanwhile, has closely aligned himself with Trump.   

And redistricting, the GOP’s sharp turn to the right and the influence Trump has on local elections has made the 1st District much more difficult territory for Democrats since Walz ran to represent it.

“It’s gotten a lot more conservative,” said Kate Knutson, a political science professor at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Redistricting has a little to do with that. After Census-mandated changes, the district grew even more rural when it picked up new territory in the south of the state along the Mississippi River.

The area has also been impacted by a national trend: rural areas of the United States becoming more Republican as their residents grow concerned that their cultural values – church, family and freedom from government interference – are threatened by a rapidly changing nation. 

Social scientists also say that many rural residents also believe that the Democratic Party is composed of urban elites who look down on rural lifestyles and prioritize city or immigrant populations over rural working-class struggles. 

Knudson said the “farmer” part of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has “peeled off.”

But she said Johnson might succeed in depressing – at least a little bit – the enthusiasm among farmers for the GOP by continuing to hammer Finstad for embracing Trump policies that have hurt farmers.

“Farmers are frustrated by tariff and immigration sweeps that are hurting the meat packing industry in southern Minnesota,” Knutson said.

Iran’s shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, which has stalled significant deliveries of oil and fertilizer, raising the cost of farm inputs, has also taken a toll in farm country.

Related: Minnesota progressives campaign on ‘Medicare for All’ as ranks of uninsured grow. Moderates – including Jake Johnson – embrace less ambitious reforms.

Finstad has brushed off criticisms of Trump’s policies on agriculture and has blamed former President Biden for the distress.

“We’re heading in the right direction,” he told MinnPost after a roundtable on veterans’ issues in Mankato in July. “We have come out of some tough times where the inputs have been really crippling for the last six years, and then on top of that we’ve had that stale market because of that lack of trade.”

Speaking to his base 

Although Johnson is proving to be a growing threat, Finstad avoids acknowledging his challenger, preferring instead to hold events in the district that can be classified as official business, including meeting with police officers, farm groups and local companies.

“He’s speaking to his base,” Parsneau said. “He does not want to be in an unscripted situation.”

Yet Finstad told MinnPost that “he travels all over southern Minnesota.”

“I’m always listening and communicating with constituents who agree and don’t agree with me,” Finstad said. “I’m having those conversations and I would say reach out to me, reach out to our office. I’m more than willing to have a conversation and answer questions.”

Finstad also said it is “an honor of a lifetime” to serve the 1st District’s 750,000 residents, “but my goal is heaven, not Congress.”

“When November comes, the voters of southern Minnesota will decide, but no one is going to outwork me,” Finstad said.

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WASHINGTON – The grilling of Anthony Fauci consumed Washingtonians this week as Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security Committee accused the infectious disease expert of causing the COVID-19 pandemic and even of enriching himself from American deaths.

The three-hour hearing Wednesday showed the width of the partisan divide over Fauci, who spent decades as the nation’s top infectious disease expert at the National Institutes of Health, advising both Democratic and Republican presidents alike.

That bipartisanship ended with President Donald Trump who, in his first term as the pandemic raged, downplayed the danger facing the nation, often contradicting Fauci and even threatening to have him fired.

Perhaps in part because Fauci has become a pariah among MAGA voters, Republicans on the panel attacked him as a narcissist who benefited from COVID-19.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called Fauci “a megalomaniac and a liar” and accused him of secretly profiting from his public service by applying for “cash prizes totaling over a million dollars.”

In 2021, the Israel-based Dan David Foundation awarded Dr. Fauci $1 million for “defending science,” an award that was widely reported at the time.

Fauci invoked his 5^th Amendment rights more than 100 times, which infuriated many Republicans on the panel.

Some argued that Fauci was not entitled to that protection since former President Joe Biden had granted him a preemptive pardon, fearing the Trump administration and congressional Republicans would launch “an unjustified and politically motivated prosecution.”

And it wasn’t only Senate Republicans who took aim at Fauci this week.

“QUICK REMINDER: Fauci got paid just under 5 million dollars for his book selling his lies about COVID. Today, he pleaded the fifth, REFUSING to give Americans the truth,” Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6^th District, said in a post on X. “He got rich while American schools, businesses and lives got shut down. What a joke!”

Meanwhile, Democrats on the panel defended and praised Fauci.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said government scientists like Fauci save lives. “Today, we are demeaning and degrading their lifesaving service,” Blumenthal added.

The end of the contentious hearing will not end the attacks on Fauci.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said his panel would vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress, saying the scientist was not entitled to Fifth Amendment protection.

Minnesota Dems react to cyberattacks on water systems

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is running for governor, is demanding more information about allegations that Iran was behind the hacking of about 30 water systems in Minnesota on Sunday and Monday.

“I’ve requested a briefing from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on the ongoing investigation and the potential involvement of foreign actors,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “I’m also in communication with state officials to help make sure they have the resources they need. Protecting our critical infrastructure and the safety of Minnesotans remains a top priority.”

Minnesota IT Services said state officials had yet to identify who was behind the attacks. There were no reports that residents had been impacted by the attacks, though one city asked residents to conserve water for a couple hours while they tried to determine what was wrong.

The FBI is investigating and has not publicly identified a suspect, according to the Associated Press. But the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls other critical infrastructure sectors.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4th District, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, said the state needs more resources to stop cyberattacks from hostile powers.

“This incident demonstrates that Minnesota’s municipalities, businesses, and residents must be prepared not only to ward off cybersecurity threats from cybercriminals, but also from terrorist organizations and nation-states,” McCollum said in a statement.

She also said the attacks “show the urgent need for the federal government to advance critical cybersecurity measures to protect small businesses, large enterprises, and local governments by providing state-of-the-art defensive measures to defend against malicious attacks by bad actors who intend to sow chaos and extract ransom.”

McCollum said she would “continue to aggressively pursue funding and resources to support defensive measures for Minnesota’s businesses and municipalities.”

Trump may cut Blanche loose, for now  

Not all Senate Republicans were in lockstep with Trump this week.

The president said he might pull the nomination of Todd Blanche, his former personal lawyer who is now serving as acting attorney general, because at least two GOP senators have conditioned their support for the candidate to become the nation’s top lawyer.

Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, are demanding that Blanche put in writing a promise to scuttle a deal Trump reached with the IRS in a $10 billion lawsuit against the agency filed after a contractor leaked the president’s tax information to The New York Times in 2020.

That agreement gave Trump and his family’s businesses immunity from tax audits and created a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that could reimburse the president because he says he was targeted by the Justice Department.

Cornyn and Tillis want the Justice Department to give them written guarantees that the “anti-weaponization” fund is completely dismantled and the tax immunity is narrowed so it would not protect Trump from future investigations into his tax filings.

Apparently unwilling to make those concessions, Trump in a post on Truth Social on Thursday indicated he’s considering pulling Blanche’s nomination until next year when both Tillis and Cornyn will be out of office. Tillis decided last year against running for reelection after a series of attacks by Trump and threats from the president to back a primary challenger.

Cornyn lost a primary this year after Trump backed his primary challenger.

Trump’s threat to pull Blanche’s nomination is problematic. There is no guarantee that Republicans will control the U.S. Senate after the midterms.

And pulling the nomination would not be a good look. It would represent Trump’s willingness to protect a deal that enriches himself over having a Senate-confirmed nominee to head the Justice Department.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also said she is concerned about that agreement between Trump and the IRS.

In other news:

▪️Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell wrote that local officials, propped up by $2 million in federal grants, are working to improve a railroad crossing in Minneapolis’ Camden neighborhood where the trains are so slow that kids are late to school and emergency vehicles are dangerously delayed.
▪️In the hot race to replace U.S. Rep. Angie Craig in the 2nd District, three Democrats are grappling with aligning themselves with Craig, a moderate who has kept that swing district “blue,” or with newly energized progressives in the state.
▪️Before the New York Times reported that Iran might be the culprit, reporter Claire Carlson discovered there have been recent cyberattacks on control valves and pumps on more than 30 community drinking water systems in the state, even as water quality was not affected. 
▪️Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola, in his work covering data centers, found that while opponents of these developments are trying to turn the court of public opinion against them, it’s lawsuits that are increasingly affecting their trajectory.
▪️State government reporter Matt Blake reported on the Democrats’ cash advantage in legislative races, including in five of six hotly contested races that could determine control of the Legislature.

This and that

A reader posed an interesting question this week:

“Angie Craig was just endorsed by Ms. Walz, the governor’s wife. How will this impact the race between Flanagan and Craig?” the reader asked. “I have not seen anything on electronic media nor print media yet.”

Well, my first reaction is that Congresswoman Craig probably sought the endorsement because it could help her with female voters, especially those in the suburbs who increasingly make a difference in close elections. But the question certainly merits a deeper dive.

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond.

The post D.C. Memo: Fauci pleads the Fifth appeared first on MinnPost.

Authorities were working Thursday to find the source of cyberattacks that targeted over 30 water systems in Minnesota and came amid warnings that Iranian hackers have been focused on such systems.

Minnesota IT Services said state officials had yet to identify who was behind the attacks that took place Sunday and Monday. There were no reports that residents had been impacted by the attacks, though one city asked residents to conserve water for a couple hours while they tried to determine what was wrong.

The FBI, which is investigating, has not publicly identified a culprit and a spokesperson declined to say Thursday who the bureau thought might be responsible. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other agencies warned in an advisory last week that Iranian hackers have been targeting water and wastewater systems and the operational controls other critical infrastructure sectors.

Related: Cyberattacks highlight risks to Minnesota drinking water from aging IT systems

Digital warfare has become ingrained in military conflict, and local water plants or healthcare facilities often lack the funds and know-how to install the latest software patches or take other security steps. That has made them a favorite target, both because of the relative ease of penetrating them and because of the panic such disruptions can cause.

Iran has the “geopolitical motivations” and a recent history of targeting water systems, said Cynthia Kaiser, the former deputy assistant director of the FBI’s cyber division who has been closely monitoring threats to critical infrastructure from hackers linked to the country.

“I think most credible researchers and responders would be right to treat it like it’s Iran until proven otherwise,” added Kaiser, who is now the senior vice president of Halcyon’s Ransomware Research Center. “When it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s really important to call it out.”

Iran’s interest in the operations of water systems inside the U.S. dates back years. In 2016, the Justice Department charged a group of Iranian hackers in connection with a cyberattack targeting a small dam near New York City.

Minnesota IT Services said that as of Thursday, there were no active requests from Minnesota communities for residents to modify usage of their drinking water. The state agency said most of the confirmed attacks involved technology that water systems use to remotely monitor and control equipment. It said that being impacted meant investigators confirmed there was malicious activity involving the system’s technology and didn’t mean every impacted community had their water service disrupted.

Related: Iran war hurts Minnesota farmers as fertilizer, fuel prices soar ahead of planting season 

The state agency said there are similarities among the incidents, including timing and the types of technology used, but investigators haven’t determined if the same culprit was behind each one.

For a few hours on Monday, the city of Braham asked residents to minimize water use as they tried to determine why the water plant was offline. The city of about 1,700 people, located about 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, said in a news release that the water plant outage was due to a cyberattack, but it didn’t cause any issue with water quality.

The city said the attackers shut down the operating controls that shut down the well and water treatment plant. That left the city for a time only able to provide residents with the water held in the water tower.

In Plymouth, a city of about 80,000 located outside of Minneapolis, officials said on social media that their water infrastructure communications had been restored by Tuesday afternoon following a cyberattack. The city said crews were able to continue operating the system during the outage and it didn’t have any impact on water levels or quality.

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WASHINGTON – Rep. Angie Craig says she won’t pick a favorite among three Democrats vying to replace her in Congress, but at a time when voters are calling for change the lawmaker is casting a long shadow on the race.

Craig has been able to wrest control of the 2^nd Congressional District from the GOP and keep it in Democratic hands with a moderate stance that broadened her appeal among voters.

It won her four terms, but having her backing is complicated for the three running in the Aug. 11 primary: Matt Little, a former state House member who was once the mayor of Lakeville, state Sen. Matt Klein and state Rep. Kaela Berg.

Klein, like Craig a moderate, says he’d be happy to have it while Little, the most progressive of the three who has the DFL Party’s endorsement, and Berg, a working class candidate also running as a progressive, say they aren’t seeking it.

Craig, who has represented the district since 2019 and is now running for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat, said she is staying out of the highly competitive race for the Democratic nomination. She says that choice belongs to 2^nd District voters.

That’s fine with Little, who won the DFL Party endorsement in the district.

“It’s not something we’ve sought because she’s made it very clear she will not endorse,” he said.

While Little is running as a progressive, Craig has been able to wrest control of the 2^nd District from the GOP and keep it in Democratic hands with a moderate stance that broadened her appeal among voters.

The district covers Twin Cities southern suburbs and rural farm areas, making it the most “purple” district in the state.

But Craig’s moderation has run headlong into the activism of progressive Democrats this year, and Craig, who is running against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, has come under attack for sometimes voting for GOP-sponsored legislation, mainly bills that supported police and, before Operation Metro Surge created chaos in the state, stronger border security.

But what really became a problem for Craig was her support of the Laken Riley Act.

Craig has since said she regrets her vote for the bill, which allows the Department of Homeland Security to detain and deport noncitizens who are charged with — not just arrested for or convicted of — offenses like burglary, shoplifting or assault on a law enforcement officer.

Related: Craig skips the DFL convention

“Little is trying to run as the candidate furthest to the left,” Hamline University political science professor David Schultz said. “And he’s concerned that because of (Craig’s) support for the Laken Riley Act, progressives may not support him if has her endorsement.”

Instead, those newly energized DFLers may prefer Berg, the other candidate in the race who is running as a progressive, he said.

Endorsing a candidate is also risky for Craig, Schultz said, because backing the wrong candidate could cost her votes in her primary against Flanagan.

Yet University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs said it’s not unusual for an incumbent to avoid endorsing a possible successor. “I think there’s a sense of ‘letting the voters decide,’” he said.

Unlike Little, Klein, a physician who works at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, said he’s asked for Craig’s endorsement. “I would be honored to have it,” he said.

Klein considers himself a moderate Democrat in Craig’s mold.

“This is the last swing district in Minnesota,” he said of CD-2. “To hold it, you have to bridge a (partisan) divide.”

A woman’s seat?

Berg, who represents Burnsville in the Legislature and works as a flight attendant, said she has not asked for Craig’s endorsement.

But Berg is eager to speak of her close relationship with the congresswoman and the work they’ve done together, which includes procuring funding to rebuild a dangerous intersection.

She also said sharing the same gender with Craig is a boost to her campaign.

Berg is a member of the Blue Collar Brigade, a group of five House candidates with ties to organized labor who have launched a joint fundraising effort to help bankroll their campaigns.

The other working-class candidates are Bob Brooks, a firefighter union chief running in Pennsylvania; Randy Villegas, a teacher’s union member in California; Ohio ironworker Brian Poindexter, and Montana union leader Sam Forstag.

“I’m the only woman in the Blue Collar Brigade, and the only woman in the race,” Berg said. “That matters right now. I love an ally and a great dude, but women’s voices are needed right now.”

Schultz said that because of Craig, many voters in the 2^nd District “view it now as a female seat.”

Related: Can 2nd District candidates keep it blue?

Schultz also said that while Berg stands to benefit from Craig’s efforts in the 2^nd District, an endorsement “may alienate the progressive voters she needs now.”

“But saying, ‘Let’s keep this seat in a woman’s hand’ won’t hurt her,” Schultz said.

Berg’s gender has also helped her win the backing of Emily’s List, a group that supports female candidates who support abortion rights.

Besides funneling money to Berg’s campaign and giving her campaign advice, political action committees tied to Emily’s List have produced ads promoting the candidate.  

Meanwhile, Klein said he’s hoping that having two progressives on the ballot will split the vote among those leaning left in the district in the Aug. 11 primary.

Jacobs agrees that’s a possible scenario that would “open a path for Klein” to win the nomination.

Representing a suburban district in the state Senate, Klein, who lives in Mendota Heights, has appealed to unaffiliated voters and even some moderate Republicans as well as Democrats, Jacobs said. That’s the  formula that worked for Craig, but there’s been a surge of progressive activists in the district, and in the state post-Operation Metro Surge.

Klein likes to remind voters that the winner of the Democratic primary will have to pivot to the center to run against the Republican candidate in the race, state Sen. Eric Pratt, who lives in Prior Lake and whose senate district includes most of Scott County.

“And we can’t just say, ‘We’ll see what the progressive (voters) are up to this year,’” Klein said. “We need a Democrat who can win every cycle.”

Democrats now have an advantage in the district, which analysts say leans Democratic. But it’s not clear how far it leans Democratic.

“The question is, ‘Can a progressive candidate win in parts of the district that are not progressive?’” he asked.  

‘A hard worker’

Whoever wins Craig’s seat will also wrestle with a defining characteristic of the lawmaker’s legacy.

“She’s a hard worker,” Jacobs said. “And she has extensive relationships with people in the district.”

Craig was also able to keep winning reelection by raising massive amounts of campaign cash, making the race for the 2^nd District seat one of the most expensive in the nation. She raised about $8.3 million in her last bid for reelection in 2024, which Craig won by nearly 14 percentage points over Republican Joe Teirab.

Related: Campaign fundraising heating up

That kind of fundraising is not happening now.

According to the latest filings by the Federal Election Committee, as of June 30 Little had raised nearly $900,000, which includes a $155,000 personal loan to his campaign.

Klein, meanwhile, had raised more than $1 million and Berg had raised just $355,000.

Pratt, the Republican in the race, has raised about $462,000.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has acknowledged in court documents that it canceled $7.6 billion in grants for hundreds of clean energy projects “based solely on the political identity of the grant recipient’s state” — in this case, 16 states that voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. The canceled projects include $464 million to connect power sources in Minnesota and other states and $50 million to upgrade a North Dakota-Minnesota electrical transmission line.

The statement contradicts repeated assertions by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other officials that the projects were canceled because they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or had other problems that made them a poor investment of taxpayer dollars.

Democrats and environmental groups seized on the court filing Friday, saying the administration had “weaponized” the federal government to kill good jobs and punish working families because of their political views.

Democrats say what was ‘obvious’ has now been acknowledged

“This administration has now admitted in court what has long been obvious: it terminated nearly 300 cost-cutting energy projects for no reason other than the fact that the states they were in did not vote for the president in the 2024 election,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state. Both are high-ranking Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations committees, respectively.

“Weaponizing the federal government like this is outright un-American, and it’s hardworking families already struggling with sky-high costs who are suffering the consequences of this corrupt abuse of power,” Kaptur and Murray said.

They called on congressional Republicans to join them in holding the Trump administration “accountable for the President’s failure to look out for all Americans.”

Related: Green Zone grant awardees announced

The Energy Department announced last October that 321 funding awards across 223 projects were terminated, saying that after review, they “did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable.”

The cuts, part of broader attacks from President Donald Trump on climate programs and clean energy funding, slashed federal support for projects to build battery plants, develop hydrogen technology, upgrade the electric grid and capture carbon dioxide emissions.

Russell Vought, the White House budget director, highlighted the cutbacks in a social media post, saying money “to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”

The Energy Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Projects from many states were cut

Projects that were cut were located in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state. All 16 targeted states supported Harris, but Wright said the cuts were “business decisions” based on whether the projects were a good use of taxpayer money or not.

The cuts were immediately challenged in court, and more than two dozen Democratic members of Congress, led by California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, wrote a letter to the Energy Department’s acting inspector general requesting a formal investigation. The department’s internal watchdog launched an investigation in December.

Government lawyers had previously confirmed in a court filing late last year that the selection of grants in fact “was influenced by whether a grantee’s address was located in a State that tends to elect … Democratic candidates in state and national elections (so-called “Blue States”).”

Related: Growing pains for clean energy today, payoff tomorrow?

That filing came in a separate suit filed by clean energy groups and the city of St. Paul, Minnesota, over the canceled funding. The most recent admission came in a case called Thakur v. Trump that’s been ongoing since last spring. Federal lawyers acknowledged that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 to screen for projects that ran afoul of the Trump administration’s priorities.

Holly Bender, chief program officer for the Sierra Club, said the latest court filing shows “the Trump administration is brazenly admitting to a vindictive approach to cancelling much-needed energy infrastructure that ignores the job losses, air pollution and increasing bills that people are experiencing everywhere.”

Instead of “building the energy projects we desperately need,” billions of American taxpayer dollars are “going to line the pockets of a small handful of fossil fuel company CEOs,” Bender said, citing nearly $3 billion pledged by the Trump administration to cancel offshore wind projects in favor of fossil fuel projects such as natural gas and coal.

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