Category: USA

 WASHINGTON – Rep. Kelly Morrison is likely the wealthiest member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation, Rep. Betty McCollum is burdened with two mortgages, and Rep. Angie Craig sold her condo on a Mexican beach.

Those are just some of the findings in the financial disclosure reports filed by Minnesota’s members of Congress.

The reports, covering lawmakers’ finances in 2025 and filed with the House Ethics Committee, also show that several Minnesota lawmakers have more modest assets and income.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-5^th District, has a debt of  between $15,000 and $50,000 for her student loans. Her husband, Tim Mynett, holds credit card debt valued at between $15,000 and $50,000.

Related: There’s a chasm in wealth between GOP Senate contenders, according to new financial disclosure filing

While members of Congress are required to report certain income, assets, liabilities and transactions, they do so in wide dollar ranges so only a broad view of their financial disclosures are made public.

And several types of assets do not have to be reported, including the value of a main residence and any money invested in the Thrift Savings Plan, a retirement plan for federal workers that is similar to an IRA or 401k. Nor are the lawmaker’s salaries listed, which for most members of Congress is $174,000 this year. 

Still, the disclosures offer a glimpse into the finances of individual members – and can divulge possible conflicts of interest.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump attacked Omar over a sharp increase in the valuations of two companies owned by her husband. That increase prompted a congressional probe by one of the president’s staunchest GOP allies and Trump’s suggestion to the Justice Department to investigate the lawmaker and her husband for fraud.

Omar’s original 2024 finance report said those companies were worth between $6 million and $30 million. That was a sharp increase from their stated value in the lawmaker’s 2023 disclosure.

Omar subsequently amended her 2024 disclosure report, saying the valuations of Mynett’s companies – a winery in California and a venture capital firm called Rose Lake Capital – were made in error because they did not include the companies’ liabilities and debts.

Omar’s most recent report listed the valuation of the companies – in which her husband is partial owner – as “none.”

Vast stock holdings 

Morrison, D-3^rd District, received an extension from the Ethics Committee that allows her to file her report as late as Aug. 13.

But her last report, filed July 20, 2025, showed that the lawmaker had between $503,000 and more than $1 million in personal bank accounts, and that she and her husband owned between $22.9 million and $77 million in mutual funds, individual stock holdings and other assets.

The couple also reported a rental property worth between $500,000 and about $1 million.

Morrison’s vast stock holdings came under scrutiny in April when it was discovered that she filed reports on trades months after they were due, and in one case more than a year late. The eight trades in question together were worth between $1.41 million and $2.91 million.

Besides filing annual financial disclosure reports, members of Congress must also publicly disclose any individual stock, bond, or commodity trade over $1,000 within 30 to 45 days of the transaction.

A spokeswoman for Morrison said the lawmaker was unaware of the trades, which were made by her financial advisor. And Morrison said she would divest herself of all individual stocks and holdings in private companies.

“I take my role as a public servant very seriously,” Morrison said in a statement. “Trust in government is critically important and even the appearance of a conflict of interest can erode that trust. I don’t want there to ever be a question of what I am fighting for and who I serve. That is why I am divesting from all public and private companies and will no longer own individual stocks.” 

Craig, D-2^nd District, meanwhile, listed a personal bank account holding $250,000 to $500,000 and mutual funds and other investments – some held jointly with her wife – worth between nearly $4.3 million and $8.6 million.

The Senate candidate also reported selling a condominium she and her spouse owned in Playa del Carmen, a beach resort town on the Mexican Caribbean. That property was valued at between $100,000 and $250,000.

Farmland, rental properties help enrich lawmakers 

On the other end of the financial spectrum, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6^th District, filed a very simple report. It only listed one asset, an IRA worth  between $15,000 and $50,000.

Emmer’s report also listed only one liability, a mortgage valued at between $100,000 and $250,000.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-4^th District, also filed an uncomplicated financial report. She listed income from an annuity in the amount of $1,000 to $2,500 and a mortgage on her home in St. Paul worth between $100,000 and $250,000.

McCollum also listed a second mortgage – on her home in Washington D.C. – worth between $250,000 and $500,000.

Meanwhile, Rep. Brad Finstad, R-1^st District, reported owning a stake worth between $1 million and $5 million in a family farm, and ownership of a building in Brown, Minn., worth $5 million.

Finstad also reported ownership of a New Ulm agricultural and environmental testing company called Frontier Labs valued at $1 million, and other assets worth between $582,000 and $1.43 million.

Another Republican, Rep. Michelle Fischbach who represents the 7th congressional district, reported ownership of three rental properties in Paynesville worth a total of between $200,000 and $450,000 and rental income from those properties in the range of $10,000 to $30,000.

Fischbach also reported assets that included stocks, mutual funds and farmland whose total worth was between $218,000 and $670,000.

Related: Omar responds to Trump, GOP charges of financial malfeasance and fraud with new financial disclosure filing

Fischbach’s liabilities include mortgages on rental property, residences and a vacation home worth $280,000 to $760,000, and student loans in the amount of $60,000 to $115,000.

Like Morrison, Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8^th District, requested an extension until Aug. 13 to file his 2025 financial reporting form.

The lawmaker’s 2024 report showed he owned a rental property in Hermantown valued at between $100,000 and $250,000, another in Proctor worth between $50,000 and $100,000 and a commercial building in Duluth valued at between $100,000 and $250,000.

Stauber also listed interest in two real estate companies worth between $65,000 and $150,000.

But the lawmaker also had liabilities. They included mortgages on rental properties worth between $100,000 and $250,000 and a mortgage on his home worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

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At first glance, a recent Democratic primary in California’s Central Valley was just another skirmish between the party’s progressive wing and its more moderate establishment.

This time, the contest was won by populist insurgent Randy Villegas. But what sets the outcome apart from similar primary battles is the stakes.

This wasn’t a fight over a safe Democratic seat. Villegas will be the standard bearer against Republican Rep. David Valadao, one of the most promising targets for Democrats desperate to retake the U.S. House majority and slow down President Donald Trump.

The November race will test the theory, popular on the left, that voters will flock to progressive, anti-establishment candidates even in places that have traditionally favored Republicans.

Related: Postal service seeks voter lists from states — or else

“A populist message isn’t just for blue districts or certain parts of the country,” said Ravi Mangla, a spokesperson for the Working Families Party, one of the progressive groups that backed Villegas. “It can win anywhere people feel like politics is not working for them.”

“More than ever, voters across the political spectrum want candidates who are willing to stand up to power,” Mangla said.

The National Republican Congressional Committee dismissed Villegas’ chances, even though the state’s Democratic leaders recently redrew the district to make it easier to flip this year.

“Democrats know Villegas can’t beat Congressman David Valadao, as he embraces the same failed policies that have made California more expensive, less safe, and harder for working families in the Central Valley,” said spokesperson Christian Martinez.

Progressives want a shot in key races

The Villegas victory comes during an election season in which substantial parts of the Democratic base are rejecting the candidates that party bosses see as their best shot at winning power in Congress.

Graham Platner overwhelmingly won the Democratic Senate primary in Maine this week after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s preferred nominee, Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out with lackluster support weeks before the election.

A combat veteran and oyster farmer, Platner has never held elected office before, and he’s endured controversies over past relationships with women, inflammatory online posts and a since-covered tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol.

In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens is entangled in a three-way contest for the Democratic Senate nomination against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed. The primary is Aug. 4, and El-Sayed recently scored a major endorsement from the United Auto Workers union, a political powerhouse in the state that is home to the U.S. auto industry.

And in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is in a fierce battle with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who is backed by labor unions, LGBTQ groups and moderate Democrats ahead of the primary on Aug. 11.

Related: Rural progressives want the DNC to bring working class voters back into the fold

Another test will come on June 30 in Colorado, where progressive Manny Rutinel faces establishment-backed Shannon Bird in the Democratic primary to take on Republican Rep. Gabe Evans. Like Valadao, Evans is a top target for Democrats. And like the California race, the Colorado contest hinges on questions about who is most electable in November.

Democrats try to unite around their nominee

Valadao finished first and Villegas second in California’s primary, in which the top two candidates move on to the general election.

When early voting began about a month before the primary, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the unusual step of publicly signaling support for Jasmeet Bains, a doctor and state Assembly member who had lined up support from a bevy of elected officials, unions and health care groups.

“Dr. Jasmeet Bains has fought on the frontlines of health crises and built a track record of delivering for the Central Valley,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement at the time. She did not criticize Villegas, but the public support for his rival was a powerful signal to Democratic donors and activists that the party believed Bains was a stronger candidate. Congressional leaders and the party apparatus they control rarely wade overtly into contested primaries for open seats.

The decision to back Bains infuriated many on the left, who saw it as another example of Washington insiders being out of touch with both the Democratic base and disaffected voters who helped power Trump’s victories.

“I think the moderates are wrong. People don’t want status quo, pro-corporate candidates,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a progressive group that grew out of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. “They want people who are going to shake things up.”

Now that Villegas won, Democrats in Washington now insist he’s a strong candidate who is well-positioned to defeat Valadao. They point to the grassroots support that propelled him through the primary and the combined 59% that the Democrats got in the primary, significantly more than the 41% who voted for Valadao, though many more voters will turn out for the general election.

If the snub created tension between Villegas and his party, both sides buried it by Wednesday and presented a united front. California members of Congress, including some who had backed Bains, issued effusive statements, and he was magnanimous in return.

“We’re all in to elect Randy and flip this seat,” said Anna Elsasser, a spokesperson for the DCCC, the arm of the Democratic Party focused on winning House races. The district is “a must-win seat for the House majority, and we are confident in winning with Randy as the Democratic nominee,” she added.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service has issued a new rule that could impact Minnesota’s mail-in and absentee ballots ahead of this year’s midterm election.

It offers states a dire choice: give the USPS lists of all voters who would receive mail ballots or risk losing the ability to mail those ballots.

More than 1.3 million Minnesotans voted by mail or absentee ballot in the 2024 election, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office. 

The proposed rule by the independent government agency also lays out other new conditions that states would have to meet to send ballots through the mail and gives the USPS unprecedented authority over federal elections.

The postal service issued the rule in response to a directive President Donald Trump issued March 31 because of what the president insists — without proof — is widespread fraud in American elections.

Related: Postal workers rally to raise alarm about Trump plans to privatize postal service

“To enhance election integrity via the United States Mail, additional measures are necessary,” Trump’s executive order said.

It said the Department of Homeland Security would provide states with a “Citizenship List” of “individuals confirmed to be United States citizens who will be above the age of 18 at the time of an upcoming Federal election and who maintain a residence in the subject State.”

But the USPS rule would seem to give states more leeway, leaving states in charge of deciding which voters end up on the lists submitted to the agency through “State-Specific Participation Lists.”

“Under this proposal, states would retain full control over who would (or would not) be able to vote by mail in federal elections within each state,” the proposed rule says.

Trump’s executive order also calls for “secure ballot envelope identifiers,” such as bar codes, on ballots and envelopes.

The USPS rule would require the identifying bar codes.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, who has resisted Trump administration requests for information about state voters, said the president does not have the authority to make unilateral changes to election laws. 

“The U.S. Constitution gives states and Congress the responsibility to make laws on elections,” he said in a statement. “Our office has helped stop his actions before and we are now exploring our legal options to stop this new order from taking effect.

Simon also said that voting by mail is secure and trustworthy and that millions of Minnesotans have used this service for decades.

Minnesota is also among 23 Democratic states that are suing Trump and his administration to block any new rule by the postal service regarding mail in ballots. Like Simon, the states say the president has no authority to do what he has told the USPS to do.

“The Constitution assigns primary responsibility for federal elections to the States, subject only to preemption by Congress,” their lawsuit said.

The new mail-in voting rules would not apply to primary elections, which Trump’s executive order concedes are the responsibility of state parties. They would, however, apply to all other federal elections.

GOP lawmakers call for Walz, Ellison to resign 

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6^th District; Pete Stauber, R-8^th District; Michelle Fischbach, R-7^th District; and Brad Finstad, R-1^st District, were again united this week in backing a Trump initiative when they called for the resignation of Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison.

The lawmakers sent a letter this week to the Democratic officials that said “Minnesotans have endured your failures for far too long.”

“As members of the Minnesota Republican delegation, we believe the confidence necessary to effectively govern has been irreparably damaged,” the letter said. “We therefore urge you to resign from office immediately. Minnesota deserves leadership that will restore accountability, rebuild public trust, and ensure that taxpayer dollars are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse.”

The calls for the resignation of these top Democratic state officials came after the release of a report by the GOP-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on fraud in Minnesota’s social service programs that accused Walz and Ellison of looking the other way.

Armed with the report, which a Walz spokesman called a “joke” and Ellison a “partisan” stunt, Vice President JD Vance referred it to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.

But don’t expect Walz or Ellison to abandon their offices.

“Vice President Vance’s referral is a partisan stunt from an administration that uses the machinery of government to target its perceived opponents while extending leniency to those aligned with its interests,” Ellison said.

Minnesota, and especially its Democratic officials and federal lawmakers, have become a punching bag for Trump and his MAGA followers.

Related: Minnesota’s elections should be run in Minnesota

Finstad, who is facing a tougher-than-expected challenge from Democrat Jake Johnson and who needs to motivate the GOP base, was the lead on the letter demanding the resignations of Walz and Ellison.

If the Justice Department decides to file criminal charges against Walz, it would be the second case federal law enforcement officials have opened on the governor.

The DOJ has already opened criminal probes into the state’s Democratic leadership — including Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — accusing them of impeding federal immigration actions. 

In other news:

▪️Reporter Shadi Bushra wrote about a “lottery” known as the “Refugee Roulette” in which the state’s Russian immigrants are winners even as those from other countries now have little chance of a successful application for asylum.

▪️State Government reporter Matthew Blake has a story about how the state is scrambling to recertify more than 3,400 Medicaid providers who were disenrolled because they serve in programs that are at high risk of fraud. 

▪️Vice President JD Vance asked the Justice Department to investigate Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison following the release of a scathing report by the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee. That panel is  led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., one of Trump’s fiercest attack dogs on Capitol Hill.

▪️Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola wrote that while the Hennepin County Medical Center emerged from the legislative session as an obvious winner, Greater Minnesota hospitals have not been as lucky as Medicaid dollars shrink and they face other financial pain.  

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

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WASHINGTON – A Republican-led House panel completed its probe into allegations of fraud in Minnesota’s social service programs and urged Vice President JD Vance to dive deeper into a matter it said was ignored by Gov. Tim Walz for political reasons.

The House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, led by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., has been investigating allegations that Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison ignored rampant fraud in the state’s social service programs, which are funded wholly or in part by federal dollars.

The 205-page document alleged that little was done to stop fraudulent activity – including false vendors and kickbacks.

Related: Nonprofit fraud: Amid high‑profile prosecutions, an accountant explains what’s really going on

The report released Monday, titled “The Cost of Doing Nothing: How Tim Walz and Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota’s Fraud Explosion,” appears to contain little new from a preliminary report released in March.

Walz and Ellison, both of whom have appeared before Comer’s committee, have denied the allegations.

“Republicans in Congress issued a report riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations in an effort to politicize the issue of fraud, instead of actually helping Minnesota protect tax dollars and go after fraudsters,” said Ellison spokesman Brian Evans.

Testifying before lawmakers in March, Walz admitted that fraud happened on his watch but said some of the problems may have predated his administration. He also said he was taking steps to prevent it from occurring again.

Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann called Comer’s panel “nothing more than a joke” and said its allegations were meant to “distract from endless wars, gas prices, ICE and the president’s insider trading.”

“Gov. Walz is glad to see fraudsters are going to prison,” he said. “If the committee is concerned about corruption, they should investigate why President Trump continues to let fraudsters out of prison.” 

Related: Walz, Ellison defend efforts to fight fraud and decry Operation Metro Surge at contentious U.S. House hearing

The wrap-up of  the congressional investigation does not mean an end to the probes. 

Comer, in a letter to Vance, who is heading a new anti-fraud panel, urged him “to conduct a thorough review of all of Minnesota’s social services program integrity measures, oversight processes, reimbursements, and enrollment from 2019 to the present.”

But there is a question of how much more scrutiny can be applied to Minnesota’s social service programs, which are already under investigation by the Trump administration with millions of federal dollars withheld as a result of those probes and billions more under threat.

‘A Smoking Gun’ 

The report drew on congressional testimony and private interviews of former and current Minnesota agency officials and emails from anonymous “whistleblowers” who said they faced retaliation when they sought to report fraud.

Among those questioned behind closed doors was former DHS Commissioner Tony Lourey, who testified that he communicated with Chris Schmitter, Walz’s former chief of staff, in 2019 about concerns involving the Child Care Assistance Program, non-emergency medical transportation and other state programs.

Former DHS Commissioner Jodi Harpstead also told the panel’s investigators that she reported fraud concerns to the governor’s office and the attorney general’s office, according to a transcript of her interview.

The report also rehashed the Feeding our Future scandal, a pandemic-era scheme to steal money that was meant to feed children.

It also said Walz and Ellison were “aware of credible and systemic fraud in Minnesota’s social services programs as early as 2019 but failed to take action to protect taxpayer funds.”

And it said the governor and attorney general took no action to protect Minnesota’s Somali community and protect them from losing its political support. Many of the defendants in the Feeding our Future scandal are Somali.  

Evans said Ellison “fought fraud wherever possible and as soon as he was able to.”

With authority over Medicaid fraud, Ellison has convicted more than 340 Medicaid fraudsters, Evans said.

“In fact, Attorney General Ellison’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit regularly ranks as one of the most effective Medicaid fraud-fighting units in the nation,” Evans said.

Evans also said that in areas where Ellison has not had criminal jurisdiction, he has defended the state from frivolous litigation filed by fraudsters to hide their schemes, assisted federal authorities in their investigations and used his authority to regulate charities to investigate and shut down charities used to perpetrate fraud.

Last month federal officials announced criminal charges against 15 people in connection with Medicaid fraud schemes in Minnesota that involved more than $90 million.

Medicaid providers appeal

Facing the threat of losing $2 billion in federal money for its Medicaid program, known in Minnesota as Medical Assistance, DHS has disenrolled about two-thirds of more than 5,400 providers in 14 categories of Medicaid services that were considered “high-risk” for fraud.

Related: Woman at center of sprawling Minnesota fraud case gets nearly 42-year prison sentence 

On Monday, DHS said nearly 2,000 disenrolled providers have appeals in progress already, “with more coming in daily.”

Minnesota’s food stamp program is under investigation, as are other social service programs, including school meals and daycare services. The Trump administration has already withheld about $185 million in childcare funds.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-6^th District, whose son Jack Emmer is a prosecutor on the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee, praised the panel’s work in a statement.

“Fraudsters may be holding the smoking gun, but Tim Walz and Keith Ellison handed it to them, locked and loaded,” Emmer said.

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Appleton’s private prison posted job openings for warden and security positions this week as the federal government continues to eye the facility for immigration detention.

Although prison owner CoreCivic hasn’t finalized a contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the company was named by the agency Thursday in a post seeking a contractor to take detainees from Fort Snelling.

“ICE intends to procure these detention services,” the posting stated. “Core Civic is the sole owner and operator of the Prairie detention facility that meets ICE requirements in the timeframe.”

Related: For some in this western Minnesota city, an ICE detention center would bring economic promise — and moral compromise

Closed since 2010, the 1,600-bed Prairie Correctional Facility has long been a candidate to support the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement goals. Job postings and the contract solicitation mark the most concrete steps toward it becoming reality. 

CoreCivic posted positions for assistant warden, chief of security and chief of unit management. A spokesperson for the company confirmed that the company is looking to “build a potential applicant pool, should the facility become operational at some point in the future.”

On Friday afternoon, the job postings had been removed from CoreCivic’s website.

“CoreCivic continues to market our Prairie Correctional Facility (PCF) and explore opportunities with our government partners for which this site could be a viable solution,” stated Ryan Gustin in an email. “We have continued to take steps to ensure the facility is properly maintained. There are no other updates or announcements to provide at this time.”

He added that “out of respect for government officials who may have visited or expressed interest in the facility, we suggest that you contact those agencies directly.”

The point person identified on the government posting didn’t immediately respond to an email. MinnPost also reached out to a DHS spokesperson and hasn’t received a response. 

Appleton’s prison was once the largest employer in the Swift County city. The city’s population swelled when it was open and dropped precipitously when it closed. 

Outside of seeing occasional activity at the prison, Appleton’s city administrator, John Olinger, didn’t know of firming up plans for the site. As a private prison, the city doesn’t control its usage other than ensuring it is appropriately zoned.

“The last I heard was things had slowed down because at the federal level there was a lot of change up in the leadership,” he said.

Related: ICE eyes shuttered Appleton prison as it plans massive expansion of immigrant detention centers

The Trump administration ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in March. She had overseen Operation Metro Surge, a targeted enforcement push against the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota. 

As the Trump administration scaled up arrests and deportations, CoreCivic positioned itself to be ready to reopen the prison in Appleton. The company has 30 contracts related to immigration detention across the country, including a Dilley, Tex., prison where Minnesotans have been transported after arrest.

CURE, a Montevideo-based nonprofit, released a statement expressing disappointment and alarm at plans to reopen the prison as an ICE detention center. It called on ICE to halt plans, or for local and state officials to intervene against it.

“We saw this winter how ICE and its detention network are being used to systematically deprive people of their rights, often without regard to legal status,” the statement read. “The Trump administration’s push for a vast private prison network erodes our democracy. We do not want the Appleton prison to become part of the ICE machine.”

The facility would strain local housing, health care, public safety and other city and county resources, according to CURE.

“Rural communities should not be left to manage the fallout of federal detention expansion while private prison corporations garner all the benefits for their investors,” it stated.

Washington correspondent Ana Radelat contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON – There are many differences between the two leading Republicans running for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat who are grappling for their party’s endorsement at the GOP state party convention on Friday.

A look at their personal finances shows vast differences between former sportscaster Michele Tafoya and former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze.

Tafoya, who is married to Mark Vandersall, a private wealth advisor, reported that she and her husband’s assets were valued at between about $17 million and a little more than $33 million.

The couple’s assets, which do not include the value of a personal residence, included mutual funds — many of them invested in aggressive growth stocks — exchange traded funds (ETFs), cryptocurrency and individual stocks that favored the tech sector, including Nvidia, Alphabet (Google), Apple and Tesla.

Related: Michele Tafoya has the support of the national party to become GOP Senate nominee, but winning over state activists could be a challenge

Tafoya’s financial disclosure report also shows that her husband invested between $5,000 and $50,000 in the U.S. Oil Fund, a mutual fund based on West Texas crude futures that has boomed since the start of the war in Iran and the subsequent disruption of global petroleum shipments.

Candidates for the U.S. Senate are required to report income, assets and liabilities, but they do so in wide ranges so only a broad view of their financial disclosures are made public.

Tafoya’s report only listed one liability: a 4% interest loan from RiverSource Life Insurance Company valued at between $250,000 and $500,000.

Meanwhile, Schwarze’s financial disclosure report listed absolutely no income, assets or liabilities.

Having served in the Navy for 21 years, the candidate’s campaign said Schwarze’s sole income is a military pension, which was not disclosed. The campaign also said Schwarze does not own a home but rather as a much-deployed military member has rented his residences. 

Other Republicans running for the U.S. Senate, including former Navy submariner Tom Weiler and former NBA player Royce White, did not file personal financial disclosure reports.

White did not return calls seeking information about his filing. Weiler said he had spoken with the Senate Committee on Ethics about his filing last week and informed the committee he is in the process of completing the document.

“They were comfortable with that,” Weiler said.

Federal law requires candidates to file financial disclosure reports no later than 30 days after becoming a candidate for nomination or election to the U.S. House or U.S. Senate or by May 15 of that calendar year, whichever is latest.

Incumbents must also file annual financial disclosure reports by May 15 every year. But those reports are held for a month before being made public.

Americans have soured on both GOP, Dems 

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released this week confirmed what many people already knew – Americans don’t like either political party.

In answers to open-ended questions, Americans offered wide-ranging complaints about the Democratic Party. The two most common criticized the party as too liberal in general or on a range of issues (12%) or said Democrats were weak and don’t stand up enough to President Donald Trump (10%).

Other respondents said the Democratic Party was corrupt and favored corporations or was too lax on immigration, among other complaints.

Related: GOP is underdog in Minn. senate race, but here’s who’s trying to flip seat

The GOP did not fare any better. Twelve percent of the respondents specifically cited Trump or loyalty to Trump when asked what they dislike most about the Republican Party, though 4% criticized the party for not supporting Trump enough.

Others cited “dishonesty, hypocrisy and immorality,” including a lack of transparency over information about disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, for their dislike of the GOP. Lack of concern for ordinary people and “cruelty” was also at the top of the list.

“The scattered criticisms of both parties in the poll suggests there’s no silver bullet to rebuilding their popularity,” the pollsters concluded.

The poll was conducted online April 24-28 among 1,267 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. The sample was weighed to match population demographics, 2024 turnout/vote choice and political partisanship.

In other news:

▪️ Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola wrote about a new initiative that will be placed on the ballot this year. It would allow voters to decide if more money can be tapped for local schools from a fund established by a land grant from the federal government in 1858.
▪️ State government reporter Matthew Blake had a story about legal challenges to the Legislature’s massive 2024 omnibus bill. The ruling? The legislation can stand, but not its ban on binary triggers.
▪️ Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell writes that Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s resignation under an ethical cloud is yet another setback for a city where challenges with law enforcement have been many and progress has come in fits and starts.
▪️ Rep. Angie Craig broke DFL rules in deciding to skip the party’s convention this weekend, ceding the endorsement to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in the race for U.S. Senate. Craig is putting her failure to win support from party activists behind her, hoping to appeal to a broader audience of voters who may be more open to the lawmaker’s moderate stance. 

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

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WASHINGTON – Last weekend’s tumultuous DFL and GOP state party conventions have prompted some Democrats and Republicans to again consider scrapping the way Minnesota chooses political candidates and replacing it with something else.

The state’s modern system of caucuses was established more than a century ago in 1922 and is imbued with tradition and woven into the state’s political culture. But it is also an outlier in American politics.

Only eight other states, including California and Michigan, endorse or nominate candidates at state party conventions.

Minnesota’s nominating conventions have caused problems before and once again there is talk of abolishing endorsing conventions and moving up the date of Minnesota’s primary election, now scheduled for Aug. 11, to an earlier date, perhaps in June.

Related: An educational, patience-testing weekend at the DFL convention

Making those changes would need the approval of the state parties and the Legislature. But pressure for that change is building, especially after last weekend’s conventions. There are several reasons why.  

“(Party) endorsements do not produce the most electable candidates,” said Blois Olson, a political analyst and publisher of dailyagenda.com

That’s because the selection of delegates gives activists on the far right and far left the opportunity to have outsized influence, said Jessica Shaten, a delegate to the DFL convention from south Minneapolis.

“What the endorsement process has become is a way for extremist candidates to take control of their parties,” she said.

Like many seeking change, Shaten believes the delegates who vote to endorse candidates at statewide conventions (1,200 attended the DFL convention and 2,000 attended the GOP’s event this year) do not represent the millions of Minnesota voters.  

The delegates to the statewide conventions are chosen in sub-caucuses at the local and congressional district levels that many more attend, but those caucus-goers still represent a fraction of the state’s more than 3.8 million registered voters.  

Shaten said the choice of favored candidate should be left up to voters who cast ballots in a primary election. “Let all the voters choose, then the parties could endorse those nominees at a (post-primary) convention,” Shaten said.

A defeat for moderation

The Republican Party convention that was held in Duluth was roiled by distrust of some delegates after GOP officials announced there were “anomalies” in a round of balloting.

In that round to endorse a gubernatorial candidate, businessman Kendall Qualls leaped ahead of state House Speaker Lisa Demuth. Qualls, who is running to the right of Demuth, eventually won the endorsement.

Also at the GOP convention, former sportscaster Michele Tafoya, a candidate for the U.S. Senate who is supported by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), was rejected by delegates who gave more than 60% of their votes to former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze.

Like Qualls, Schwarze is considered more conservative and MAGA-aligned than his GOP rival.  

Tafoya had already said she would not abide by the endorsement and continue to the primary. Because of the snafu with the balloting, the Minnesota Republican Party decided Monday night to release all candidates from the endorsement process, allowing Demuth, who had said she would abide, to continue to the primary, too.

Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, is also staying in the race.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, who was losing a battle for the support of delegates to Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, decided she would skip the DFL convention in Rochester and move on to the primary in the race to win retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat. Once again, Craig is considered the more moderate candidate in that race.

So, the delegates’ picks were devalued this weekend in one way or another and there will be hard-fought primary battles for Smith’s seat in both parties and for governor in the Republican Party.

The only statewide candidate that will avoid a tough primary battle is Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is running for governor. But even that popular politician was considered too moderate for about 30% of the delegates at the DFL convention who cast their votes for 26-year-old progressive Kobey Layne.

‘Parties could still have influence’

Jason Franzen, who since the 1990s has often been a GOP delegate to his party’s convention, said the idea of scrapping the endorsement process was discussed in Duluth.

“Admittedly, the endorsement process is archaic, but it’s very ‘small d’ democratic,” he said.

Yet Franzen, a supporter of Qualls who is running for mayor in Delano, predicted that calls to end that process “would continue to persist, and perhaps gather strength.”

“And if that’s what people in Minnesota want, well, that’s fine,” he said.

Frank Long, a delegate and longtime party activist from Watertown Township who supports Schwarze, also said there was talk at the GOP convention about changing the process, especially from delegates who are Demuth’s colleagues at the Legislature.

“I hear that talk all the time, but I heard it more this time,” Long said.

Long, however, said delegates who come up through the caucuses have a better sense of what voters want in a candidate than those who determine who would run in a primary.

“They are a small group of people who are recruiting and funding candidates,” he said.

However, Hamline University political science professor David Schultz said Republicans, especially, should be eager to change the system and there’s a reason for this.

DFL candidates are more likely to continue their campaigns to the primary, even if they are not endorsed. Gov. Tim Walz and former Gov. Mark Dayton are among those who flouted the endorsement process to win their party’s primary and then a general election.

But GOP candidates who don’t abide by the endorsement are usually punished by Republican voters in a primary.

Schultz said this often hurts the better candidate.

“Since they haven’t won a statewide election in 20 years, there are probably enough people in the Republican Party who are saying, ‘If we keep doing this and we keep losing, maybe we should do something else,” Schultz said.

Yet change brings risk.

Olson, the political analyst, said attempts to eliminate the endorsement process would result in “blowback” from certain organizations that field delegates, including unions and hardline ideological groups.

And it would weaken the power of state parties, but in a limited way. “Parties could still have influence,” he said. “They just wouldn’t endorse a political candidate.”

And Minnesota’s political parties could still hold statewide conventions to draft new bylaws and platforms and develop strategies.

Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Alex Plechash and Democratic Party Chairman Richard Carlbom declined requests to comment for this story.

Summertime blues

Thirty-one states hold their primaries before the end of June.

Minnesota’s August primary puts it in a minority of states who pick their nominees later in the year.

Changing that, allowing a longer general election period and curbing the influence of state parties, would be a political lift.

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

The Legislature would have to pass a new law to establish a new election calendar, something that has been tried before in Minnesota and not succeeded.

One obstacle, Schultz said, is that members of the Legislature, who are still in session in mid-May on an election year and could be subject to a special session if their work is not done, would have a short time to campaign for reelection if the primary is in June.

About a dozen other election deadlines would have to be moved up to accommodate the change.

Yet June primaries bring benefits, too. Many voters are on vacation in August and otherwise not paying attention to politics. Schultz said there’s evidence that August primaries have depressed voter turnout when compared to those held earlier in the year. Secretary of State Steve Simon, then a member of the state House, testified in 2017 that a June date would find more Minnesotans available to vote and leave more time for voters to consider their general election options.

The post Chaos at Minnesota conventions reignites calls for a new way of choosing candidates appeared first on MinnPost.

DULUTH, Minn. – Michele Tafoya, who broke with GOP tradition in vowing to continue her quest for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat, may be an exception to an unofficial rule: a candidate who fails to get the Republican Party’s endorsement nearly always loses the nomination.

After six rounds of balloting that eliminated other candidates, including former NBA player Royce White, the endorsement went to former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze, who received the support of nearly 63% of the GOP delegates.

In speeches on the convention floor Friday in Duluth, Schwarze urged delegates to reject Tafoya’s pitch that she was the most “electable” candidate and said Republicans could win the Senate race “without compromising our values.” 

In a victory speech, Schwarze thanked delegates and said, “I will not compromise.”

“I will fight in D.C. and we will fight to take back our state together,” he said. 

Despite her loss at the convention, Tafoya, who had already said she would buck the state party by not abiding by the convention’s choice, said her campaign will continue moving full speed toward the August primary election.

But that carries some risk. 

A non-endorsed GOP candidate has not won a Republican primary since 1994, when Arne Carlson, who was considered too moderate for the delegates at that year’s Republican Party convention, went on to be his party’s nominee and win reelection to the governor’s office.

“Unlike the Democrats, the Republican track record in Minnesota of bucking the convention in recent history has not worked out well,” said Hamline University political science professor David Schultz.

Tafoya, a former sports broadcaster, does not have the advantage of being an incumbent like Carlson. But she does have the full support of the National Republican Senatorial Convention (NRSC), plenty of name recognition, the ability to raise a lot of campaign cash and is media savvy.

She touted those strengths in appeals to delegates Friday, but couldn’t earn above 37% of the votes. 

Losing the endorsement has cost Tafoya the support of the state Republican Party, but Schultz said that’s a very small loss, especially since she’s backed by the NRSC, which would pour millions of dollars in the race if Tafoya wins the Aug. 11 primary and is considered competitive in a general election.

“The Republican Party in Minnesota is still in the most part broke,” Schultz said.

In the November general election, Tafoya would likely face either Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan or U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, who shares something with Tafoya – she also rebelled against the party convention process.

Tafoya was a victim of an increasingly strong trend in national politics. To win party endorsements – and to a large extent party primaries – candidates have to appeal to their party’s base voters, which are strongly conservative when it comes to the GOP and progressive for Democrats.

Chisago County delegate Tony Kaufman, who supported Schwarze, said the party activists who cast ballots at the GOP state convention are the most knowledgeable when it comes to picking a political candidate.

“When you support the endorsement process, you’re supporting an informed base, an informed constituent, and that’s why we’re excited about it, and that’s why we choose to abide by the endorsement,” Kaufman said. “Because it’s not only the Republican Party, we want the citizens of Minnesota to be able to have the same opportunity to be able to get behind a candidate.”

But party-endorsed candidates who appeal to the extremes of both parties have to win the support of independents and the more moderate voters in their parties to win the general election.

So, it was her moderation that prevented Tafoya from winning the nomination.

She previously called herself a “pro-choice Republican” (though more recently has said states should outlaw abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy) and once wrote an “open letter” to President Donald Trump asking him not to run for reelection.

Tafoya has also said Extreme Risk Protection Orders, or “red flag” laws, which allow courts to temporarily remove weapons from individuals who are a danger to themselves or others, are the “most sensible” ways to combat mass shootings, raising the hackles of 2nd Amendment enthusiasts.

She attempted to distance herself from her past statements at the convention. 

“I will never compromise my conservative values,” she said.

Tafoya’s previous remarks gave Curtis Rethwisch, a Lincoln County delegate who supported Schwarze, pause. 

“If it was just word of mouth and campaign smears I wouldn’t give it any credibility, but I watched the videos,” he said. “The words came right out of her mouth.”

Schwarze, in contrast, checked all the boxes for him. 

“I don’t have to give up anything on my principles and my morals with him,” he said. “He’s pro life, he’s pro build a wall, he backs Trump.” 

When Kendall Qualls first ran for governor in 2022, he rejected Tafoya, who was then his campaign co-chairman, as his choice for lieutenant governor because he said Tafoya was pro-choice and not in line with GOP values. 

Yet, in a state that has not had a Republican in state-wide office for 20 years, Tafoya has already done well in polls that have put her head-to-head with both Flanagan and Craig.

John Kline, a former Minnesota Republican congressman who introduced Tafoya at Friday’s convention, called her the “only candidate here who can and will win in November.” 

An Emerson College poll conducted in February, about a month after Tafoya entered the race, showed Flanagan receiving 47% of the support of the respondents and Tafoya 41%. The same poll showed Craig beating Tafoya 47% to 40%.

“That doesn’t put her in the winning category, but at this point that’s not bad,” Schultz said.

In a general election, Schultz said Tafoya is “where she should be on the issues.”

“At that point, she has a shot at attracting independents,” he said. “She picks up a different group of Republicans. People at the conventions are the most extreme.”

He also said Tafoya’s gender would be a boost when it came to the crucial votes of suburban women and her diverse background – her father was Hispanic – may also help in a general election. 

But to face either Craig or Flanagan, Tafoya must win over the Aug. 11 primary. 

Schultz said Tafoya “has a chance to squeak through” the primary, where GOP conservatives will be overrepresented. By that time, Tafoya’s campaign is likely to start an advertising blitz, both on television and the internet.

There will also be more scrutiny of Schwarze, who has made controversial remarks about birth control.

Still, the convention results show he has the firm support of the conservative wing of the GOP and of those most supportive of Trump.

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal immigration officer wanted in the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Trump administration’s Minnesota crackdown was arrested Friday in Texas, authorities said.

Christian Castro, of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, was taken into custody 11 days after Minneapolis prosecutors charged him with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.

Hennepin County, Minnesota, prosecutors said the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension located Castro, 52, in Texas and worked with the Texas Rangers and agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General to arrest him.

Related: Hennepin County charges an ICE officer in a nonfatal shooting during Trump’s immigration crackdown

The Office of Inspector General later denied any involvement, after which the county attorney’s office changed its statement to say that Inspector General’s office staff were “present at the scene” of the arrest and not that they conducted it.

Messages seeking comment were also left with ICE and the Texas Rangers.

Online court records do not list an attorney for Castro, and it wasn’t immediately clear if he has one.

In a statement, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty heralded the arrest as “a critical step forward in our prosecution of Mr. Castro.”

Castro is the second federal agent to be charged over their conduct during the Minnesota crackdown, which was known as Operation Metro Surge. He is one of two agents that ICE Director Todd Lyons said lied about the circumstances of the incident.

According to prosecutors, Castro fired through a home’s front door and shot Sosa-Celis in the thigh after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S., Moriarty said.

Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel. A federal judge later dismissed the charges, and ICE and the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether the officers lied about what happened.

In a statement after the charges were announced, ICE said the U.S. attorney’s office was investigating statements made by the officers, who could face disciplinary action including being fired and prosecuted. ICE called the Hennepin County attorney’s action “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt.” DHS’s Inspector General’s Office, which Moriarty credited with assisting in the arrest, is separate from ICE and is meant to serve as a watchdog for DHS agencies, including ICE.

Minneapolis last month released video showing the moments before Sosa-Celis’s shooting, captured from a distance by a city-owned security camera.

The video appears to show a person standing with a snow shovel outside the house, near the street, then retreating toward the house and tossing the shovel into the yard. This happens as a person being chased by another person runs up from the street, falls on the sidewalk, gets up, and keeps heading toward the house.

The three appear to scuffle near the front steps for about 10 seconds. The exact moment when Sosa-Celis is shot isn’t clear. A car with flashing lights pulls up, and another person walks up.

The Trump administration sent thousands of officers to the Minneapolis and St. Paul area as part of President Donald Trump’s national deportation campaign and considered Operation Metro Surge a success.

Related: Hennepin County charges Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent with assault for pointing gun at drivers on Minneapolis highway

But tensions mounted during the weekslong campaign, and the shooting deaths of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal officers sparked mass unrest and raised questions about officers’ conduct.

Minnesota leaders and the Trump administration have clashed over who has the authority to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct.

Moriarty’s office last month charged immigration agent Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr. with assault for allegedly pointing his gun at people in a car on a highway. He turned himself in last week, and his lawyer disputes the charges.

The county is also investigating Good’s and Pretti’s killings and sued the Trump administration in March to gain access to evidence in those cases and the Sosa-Celis shooting.

The post ICE officer wanted in the shooting of a man during the Minneapolis crackdown is arrested in Texas appeared first on MinnPost.

WASHINGTON – Rep. Angie Craig may be a little down, but she’s certainly not out.

The congresswoman, who is running for retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat, bowed out of the state’s Democratic convention Wednesday as it was painfully clear that thousands of delegates who will meet in Rochester on Saturday will show their preference for Democratic rival Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

Instead, Craig has made the calculus that aggressively shifting her efforts to a different, much larger pool of Democratic voters who may be more open to her pragmatic type of politics – those who will cast ballots in August’s primary – will reinvigorate her campaign.

“I’m a proud DFLer. Every letter has meaning to me,” Craig said in announcing she would skip the convention. “But the DFL endorsement process just doesn’t reflect the full scope of the party that we are. And the purple state that we have become.”

Related: As Democrats debate their relationship with Israel, AIPAC donations to Angie Craig complicate her campaign

Craig said most Minnesotans “don’t have the luxury” of time or money to attend a “sub-caucus” and Democrats who don’t attend Saturday’s convention are the voters who matter.

Besides winning the support of a majority of convention delegates, Flanagan has also racked up endorsements from a growing list of fellow progressives – including Smith herself and a slate of other key Democratic senators – and Craig’s campaign looked to be stumbling.

And without the DFL Party endorsement, which will now default to Flanagan, Craig will not have access to state party money and other help, including access to the DFL’s voter rolls.

No matter. Jacob Rubashkin of Inside Elections is among the analysts who are not counting Craig out.

“She has formidable fundraising chops and significant financial resources, and Election Day isn’t until August so she’s got time to deploy them,” Rubashkin said.

Craig has steadily outraised Flanagan when it comes to political money, reporting $4.8 million in cash on hand as of March 31, much more than the $1.1 million Flanagan had in the bank.

“The endorsement isn’t the be-all, end-all of the process, as Gov. (Tim) Walz knows well, and was always going to be an uphill battle for Craig,” Rubashkin said. 

Walz, with running mate Flanagan, lost the party’s endorsement but advanced to win a primary and the governor’s office.

Craig was wounded in her run for the U.S. Senate by some of the votes she took to burnish her bipartisan credentials as she fought for reelection to represent the 2^nd Congressional District, a seat that had been held by Republicans for nearly 20 years before Craig won it in 2018.

Flanagan successfully seized on one of those, a vote for the Laken Riley Act, a GOP bill that allows undocumented immigrants arrested for certain nonviolent crimes to be detained and deported.  That vote, taken in January of 2025, a little more than a month before Smith announced her retirement, changed Craig’s political trajectory and rankled many Minnesota Democrats who were subjected in the wake of Operation Metro Surge.

Craig has since said she regretted that vote and has championed immigrant rights. But the political damage was done.

“Craig has made her political career on winning tough general election fights in a swing district. She’s actually never had to run in a Democratic primary before,” said Rubashkin. “So, she’s in unfamiliar waters and the positions she took on things like the Laken Riley Act, which might have helped her in a tough MN-02 re-election campaign are hindering her now.”

Rubashkin also said that another “headwind” Craig is facing is the strong national environment for Democrats and the strength of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s gubernatorial candidacy.

Related: Peggy Flanagan, Angie Craig take fight to precinct caucuses roiled by ICE operation while Tafoya makes her political debut

Craig must promote her “electability” against a GOP opponent – former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya and several other Republicans are vying for Smith’s seat — and argue that keeping that seat in the Democratic column is not guaranteed, Rubashkin said.

“If Democrats aren’t as focused on electability because they see the general election as a safer bet, Flanagan might begin to look more attractive,” he said.

A ‘remarkable achievement’

Craig has argued that she is “battle tested” and adept at appealing to increasingly Democratic-leaning suburban voters as well as picking up some support in the Republican-leaning rural areas of her district.

The 2^nd Congressional District includes the south Twin Cities metro area and runs south nearly to Mankato, encompassing all of Scott, Dakota and Le Sueur counties as well as parts of Rice and Washington counties.

Dan Hofrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College, said Craig’s ability to keep the seat “blue” and even make it safer for other Democratic candidates to run in is a “remarkable achievement.”

“Of all of Minnesota’s eight congressional districts, hers is the most geographically diverse,” he said.

Flanagan, however, has less experience on the campaign trail. She ran unopposed in a special election for a state House seat and ran for lieutenant governor as Walz’s partner.

“Flanagan still has to establish herself as a campaigner,” Hofrenning said, while Craig has won four congressional elections on her own in a district President Donald Trump has carried.

“Experience does matter at this moment in time,” Craig said.

Meanwhile, Flanagan’s campaign says that by skipping the convention, Craig has insulted the DFL base and that this year’s delegates are more reflective of the broader Democratic primary electorate than at any point in recent history, with 57% of delegates attending the DFL State Convention involved in the process for the first time.

“I’m disappointed Rep. Craig chose to leave the process before delegates had the opportunity to cast their votes and have their voices heard,” Flanagan said in a statement.

She was harsher in a post on X.

“If you can’t face your own party, you’re not ready to face a Republican,” Flanagan said.  

Hofrenning said it’s likely progressives will be overrepresented when it comes to the balloting in August’s primary, but the pool of voters will be larger and more diverse. He also said former Gov. Mark Dayton skipped the DFL State Convention and still won his race.

Related: Eric Pratt shakes off GOP rivals but faces tough Democratic challengers in race for Angie Craig’s seat

Rubashkin said it may still be too early to determine whether Craig made the right move and whether the lawmaker can best Flanagan in the primary, especially since the political advertising wars have not yet begun.

“Paid media is just beginning,” he said. “There’s a dark money group that’s started to spend a little money on Angie Craig but otherwise the airwaves have been relatively quiet. Let’s see what happens when Craig begins to dip into her 4-1 cash-on-hand advantage.”

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