Category: USA

WASHINGTON – A dream candidate for the national Republican Party, former sportscaster Michele Tafoya is finding support from Washington to be a double-edged sword as she seeks to win retiring Sen. Tina Smith’s seat.

Tafoya, 61, is a skilled and media-savvy communicator whose name recognition and political smarts prompted the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) to call her “the only candidate with the common-sense leadership Minnesotans are desperately craving.”

Related: From the NFL sidelines to a US Senate race: Michele Tafoya’s new play

The endorsement by NRSC Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., made just after Tafoya announced her candidacy in January, has rankled some Minnesota Republicans.

Why? Because there were other Republicans vying for Smith’s seat, including Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze, former NBA player Royce White and Navy veteran Tom Weiler.

Another GOP candidate, former Minnesota Republican Party candidate David Hann, was also in the race at that time but dropped out last month. And Mark York, a seven-generation farmer from Lake Wilson is also running.

Yet the national Republican Party, which is battling to prevent a Democratic takeover of the U.S. Senate in November’s midterm election, placed its bet on Tafoya.

That has disgruntled some of the 2,500 Republican delegates who will vote to endorse the GOP Senate candidates in Duluth at the end of the month.

“You have people who would see (support from the national party) as a plus, and there also are people who would see it as meddling from Washington,” said Frank Long, a delegate and longtime party activist from Watertown Township who supports Schwarze.

Long said the state’s Republicans “are not a monolithic organization.” He said some delegates are concerned about Tafoya’s support for abortion – which she says now is limited to procedures in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. 

Tafoya has also expressed support for “red flag” laws — which allow law enforcement to temporarily remove weapons to individuals a court has assessed might be a danger to themselves or others — that are opposed by many gun-rights delegates.

Remarks Tafoya made about President Donald Trump in 2022 are another turnoff for some GOP delegates. She wrote an open letter to Trump in a now deleted post on Substack that said she hoped he would not run again, and even as she praised his accomplishments called his politics “messy.”

While Tafoya may not be the first choice of some delegates, “she has the right to run,” Long said.

Tafoya has since aligned herself closely with Trump’s platform and embroiled herself in the culture wars with her fierce opposition to transgender women in female sports.

But if she makes it to the general election, running against either Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, or Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who are locked in battle for the Democratic nomination, Tafoya will likely revert to the more moderate candidate she once considered herself to be.

“I think Minnesota is starving for a moderate Republican who doesn’t tell them that they’re going to ban abortion who is the antithesis of the Tim Walz regime,” Tafoya told WDAY Radio when Smith announced her retirement early last year.

After the February 2022 Super Bowl, Tafoya quit her broadcasting career, launched a political podcast and spent several years weighing whether to run for political office. She met with the NRSC in December and declared her candidacy about a month later.

Weiler, who ran unsuccessfully for the 3^rd Congressional District seat in 2022, said he contacted the NRSC last fall seeking support. But he said the people he spoke with seemed uninterested in him because he was “not rich or famous.”

He said he was surprised and disappointed that the NRSC backed Tafoya.

“It was clearly a decision made in Washington, D.C., without any input from Minnesotans,” Weiler said.

Tafoya raised more than $2 million in the two months after she announced her candidacy, with the help of the national GOP. That’s more money than all of her GOP rivals combined.

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, the NRSC gave Tafoya’s campaign $62,000 and Senate Republican Leader John Thune’s leadership political action committee has held joint fundraisers with Tafoya’s campaign.

The national party’s endorsement also brings help in recruiting campaign staff and campaign consulting, a must-have for a candidate who has never before run for political office. 

‘A grass-roots state’ 

Tim Lindberg, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota-Morris, said the national Republican Party had to step into the race for Smith’s seat “to some extent because the state party has been in disarray.”

Shut out of holding a statewide seat for 20 years, the state party is low on cash and divided between the establishment Republicans, like Tafoya, and more conservative MAGA activists.  

So, while Tafoya’s campaign has had a boost from the NRSC and other GOP national organizations it is not guaranteed that she will win the votes of 60% of the GOP delegates needed to win an endorsement.

Tafoya’s campaign did not respond to requests for an interview and information. But the former sportscaster has said she will continue to run for the U.S. Senate and participate in the Aug. 11 primary even without an endorsement.

Historically, not all of Minnesota’s GOP candidates have abided by the endorsement. But the state’s political history also shows that Republican voters don’t reward non-endorsed candidates very often, especially in statewide elections, when the primary comes around.

Schwarze, another rival for the GOP endorsement, said Republicans “don’t reward people who take shortcuts.”

He called Tafoya a “D.C. out-of -the -box candidate” and is confident he will earn the endorsement, even if it takes several rounds of balloting.

“Minnesotans are not for sale,” Schwarze said. “This is a grass-roots state.”

The former Navy SEAL speaks in military terms about the U.S. Senate race.

“I’ve been preparing for this campaign run as if it were a ‘no-fail’ mission,” he said. After Tafoya, Schwarze, who reported raising more than $1 million as of March 31, has amassed the largest campaign chest among the GOP Senate candidates. Yet Democrats Craig and Flanagan have much larger war chests than Tafoya and Schwarze.

Both Schwarze and White — who won the GOP endorsement to run against Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2024 — have vowed to abide by the endorsement and support the delegates’ candidate of choice.  

“The mission is going to get a Republican U.S. Senator,” Schwarze said.

But Weiler has a different attitude. He said he would continue his campaign unless he’s convinced the delegates have chosen a candidate “who can win and be an effective senator for Minnesota.”

Lindberg said Tafoya is well liked for her high profile in the world of sports.

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

She spent three decades covering the NBA, NFL, Olympics and college football. A Californian by birth, many Minnesotans got to know Tafoya when she worked as a sportscaster and reporter for sports radio KFAN in Minneapolis — covering the Vikings — the Midwest Sports Channel and WCCO-TV.

Lindberg said the NRSC is “banking” on her popularity and name recognition. But he said that strategy could “backfire” in an endorsement process that is dominated by party activists in both the Democratic and Republican state conventions.

“It’s not clear that the people at these conventions really care about electability,” he said.

The post Michele Tafoya has the support of the national GOP, but winning over state activists is a challenge appeared first on MinnPost.

WASHINGTON — About eight months ago, state Sen. Eric Pratt predicted that Republicans would win a big prize, the flipping of Democratic Rep. Angie Craig’s congressional district to the GOP.

Pratt, 62, told conservative podcaster Jack Tomczak that the families living in the 2^nd Congressional District “are conservative families” who “don’t identify with one party or the other.”

“But they’ve been voting for Democrats,” Pratt said, because they “are voting because of a specific issue, or they are voting because they like somebody.”

He also said he believed he is the right GOP candidate to put the seat back in the Republican column.

Related: Klein, Little and Berg hunt for DFL delegates as they wrestle for 2nd District seat

Pratt’s confidence was not unreasonable. The 2^nd District was represented by Republicans in Congress for nearly 20 years before Craig, who is now running for U.S. Senate, was first elected to the U.S. House in 2018.

But, when Pratt made his comments on Tomczak’s podcast, President Donald Trump’s approval ratings had not dropped sharply to where they are now. Sixty-two percent of the respondents to a recent Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll said they disapproved of how Trump has handled his job as president.

And when Pratt made his assessment of the race, Operation Metro Surge had not yet occurred, causing severe economic and social disruption in the 2^nd District’s urban area and swath of suburbs.

Yet, after winning the endorsement of the district’s Republican Party last weekend, Pratt continued to be bullish about his chances of flipping the 2^nd District seat.

He believes voters in the district who have voted for Democrats have buyer’s remorse. 

He said many are unhappy with the “trifecta” the Democrats had in 2023, when DFL majorities in the state Legislature and Gov. Tim Walz enacted wide-ranging Democratic policies, including legalizing recreational marijuana, strengthening abortion rights and expanding background checks for firearms.

Pratt said voters in the district have told him, “I didn’t vote for this.”

As a senior member of the state Senate Finance Committee and a former vice president of U.S. Bank, Pratt said he has the skills to combat fraud in state-run programs that receive federal funding. And he would do that from the U.S. Capitol.

“Everyone is pointing fingers at Tim Walz, and I think that might be justified,” Pratt said. “But the question is, who is watching fraud from Washington?”

Pratt’s focus on tax and spending issues is reflective of traditional Republican policy. He seems to have stayed out of the culture wars and is proud that legislation he pushed through the Legislature had bipartisan support.

The chance to run for an open seat was appealing to Pratt.

But it also drew three seasoned Democrats into the race, all current or former colleagues of Pratt in the Legislature.

State Sen. Matt Klein, former state Sen. Matt Little and state Rep. Kaela Berg are all seeking the endorsement of district Democrats to run for Craig’s seat at a convention at Burnsville High School on Saturday.

And Pratt faces other challenges, including a historical trend that midterm elections tend to favor the party out of power in the White House.

“It could be a competitive district in a good Republican year,” said Carleton College political science professor Ryan Dawkins. “But it’s really a bad Republican year.”

‘A pretty moderate, reasonable guy’

Pratt’s Republican rival, Tyler Kistner, withdrew from the race last month.

But that did not unite 2^nd District Republicans.

A new GOP opponent entered the race just eight days before the 2^nd District held its GOP convention May 2.   

So, Pratt won 65% of the votes of delegates at the convention and newcomer Jeremy Westby won 35%.

Kistner is a Marine reservist who had tried to oust Craig twice and said he had to abort his third try because he was called to active duty. He did not endorse Pratt after he quit the race.

But Westby, who had been challenging Rep. Kelly Morrison in the 3^rd Congressional District and switched over to run in the 2nd District after Kistner’s withdrawal, said he would drop out of the race and has endorsed Pratt.

The district’s GOP Party is grateful.

“We’re excited that both candidates have signed a pledge to abide by the endorsement so that we can avoid a costly primary in CD2,” said district Republican Party chair Joseph Ditto in an emailed statement.

The delegates who snubbed Pratt tend to be grassroot activists who reject fellow Republicans they consider establishmentarian and not MAGA enough.

“They’re frustrated and I get that,” Pratt said.

When Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016, Pratt said, “I wish someone else was the head of my party.”

Pratt now says that opinion, which was held at the time by GOP luminaries that include Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, has changed.

“There were a lot of people who held that belief (back then,) he said. “I think Donald Trump’s policies have helped a lot of people.”

When asked for specifics, Pratt mentioned the president’s tax cuts – which polls show are popular – and what he called Trump’s “pro-growth” economic agenda.

“He strikes me as a pretty moderate, reasonable guy,” Dawkins said of Pratt. “Which is probably the problem. There is not a lot of love for Pratt among base (GOP) voters.”

That moderation, however, could benefit Pratt in the general election, when unaffiliated voters and centrists from both parties weigh in.

A personal connection

Pratt was first elected to cover his Senate district, which includes most of Scott County, in 2012.

He was re-elected in 2016, 2020 and 2022 and is well-known in that part of the 2^nd District, which 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.

Pratt said he is now knocking on doors in other parts of the district and holding “Chat with Pratt” meetings at local coffee shops to connect with possible supporters.

He lives with his wife in Prior Lake, his hometown since the mid-1970s, and has two grown children.

Pratt says his interest in public policy began in the ninth grade when he wrote a paper on inflation after hearing his parents talk about the issue at the dinner table.

While he identifies as a “finance guy” and “numbers nerd,” Pratt said the legislation that he is most proud of sponsoring is one that revamped the licensing system for the state’s teachers.

“It had a personal connection,” he said.

His mother had taught out-of-state for 13 years before the family moved to Minnesota. But she was not qualified to teach in Minnesota because she was missing a couple of credentials and his mother nearly gave up her career, Pratt said.

Related: The race for Angie Craig’s US House seat is heating up

His mother attended classes to secure the credentials she needed. But her struggle motivated Pratt to push a law through the Legislature that would make the teacher accreditation system more flexible.

He realizes he faces a tough job in winning the support he needs to win the district, which the Cook Political Report rates as “likely Democratic.” 

“Anything worth doing is hard work,” Pratt said.

Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola contributed to this story.

The post Eric Pratt shakes off GOP rivals but faces tough Democratic challengers in race for Angie Craig’s seat appeared first on MinnPost.

WASHINGTON — Operation Metro Surge ended about two months ago, but Minnesota’s response to the massive immigration crackdown has had a lasting effect on U.S. politics — turning an issue that President Donald Trump considered a political asset into a liability — and on the views Americans have of the nation’s newcomers.

And it may have reshaped the way the state’s immigrants view their community.

Humberto Flores, who owns a residential and commercial cleaning company in the Twin Cities and came to the United States from Mexico in 2005, said that after the outpouring of help from Minnesotans, many of his immigrant neighbors looked at their adopted communities with clear eyes for the first time.

Related: Gauging the cost of Operation Metro Surge is a work in progress, but some numbers are emerging

He said he laughed when one of them told him he had never really noticed a beautiful park in the neighborhood before. Flores said his neighbor hadn’t noticed the park because he had lacked a full sense of belonging.

“We came to fully appreciate Minnesota and the neighborhoods we live in,” Flores said. “It was beautiful. Perspectives really changed.”

Like many immigrants, Flores’ life was upended by Operation Metro Surge. His employees were afraid to come to work. His children feared going to school. And his office became a staging area for food donated by churches and others for immigrants in need.

“Everyone looked out for everyone,” he said.

Flores said he was furious that he could not provide something basic — the protection of his children. But he said he was also touched when his U.S.-born customers and neighbors checked in on his family’s wellbeing.

“They called to ask, ‘Do you need anything?’” he said.

Flores also said that outpouring of support has engendered gratitude in the immigrant community for Minnesotans who stubbornly demonstrated in glacial temperatures against the 3,000 federal agents who poured into the state, using their cell phones to document their activities.

“It was marvelous,” he said, as was the help offered by thousands of others who took immigrant children to school and watched over them at bus stops, brought food to immigrant households and offered rental assistance and other types of aid.

“Everything changed in our community in a split second,” said Liliana Letran-Garcia, president of Communidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio (CLUES), a nonprofit that provides immigrant aid.

Letran-Garcia, who emigrated from Guatemala to Minnesota 21 years ago, teared up when discussing the state’s response to the surge. “We showed the entire country and the world that Minnesota is a place of care, dignity and collective responsibility,” Letran-Garcia said.

The Minnesota effect

Even before the surge, Minnesota’s immigrants were under stress. Most immigrants have to learn a new language as well as reestablish themselves in a new land and learn about new cultural norms. Many immigrants start at the lower end of the socio-economic scale and work jobs where they are often exploited.

But now they were also vilified as criminals by Trump and his administration, which was stripping legal protections from asylum seekers and others who lived and worked in the country under the Temporary Protected Status program, and which was threatening mass deportations.

Why did Minnesotans reject the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants, so much so that it resulted in financial pain for many, the arrests of about 4,000 people and the deaths of two protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti?

Largely because of the videos of the deaths of Good and Pretti by Minnesotans who  had taken to the streets, the state’s response to the surge was noted around the globe. It also had an impact on American attitudes on immigration as polls showed plummeting support for mass deportations and Trump’s immigration policy, a cornerstone of the president’s domestic policy.

The change in American attitude appears long-lasting. An Emerson College survey released last week determined that 53% of the respondents approved of Trump’s immigration policies and 43% disapproved.

Related: Bill seeks $10 million for Minnesota cities to help with costs incurred during Operation Metro Surge

Those poll numbers shifted immigration policy. Tough-talking Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol official in charge of Operation Metro Surge who said protesters like Good and Pretti “had a choice” to put themselves in danger, was replaced by Tom Homan, who promptly wound down the operation.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was tossed, replaced with  Markwayne Mullin, who has said his goal is to keep DHS from being the lead story in the news every day.

During his confirmation hearing, Mullin expressed regret for calling Pretti “a deranged individual” and said he supports requiring immigration officers to obtain judicial warrants signed by a judge before entering a private home. DHS guidance had been that federal agents would enter a home with an administrative warrant approved by ICE officials.

Meanwhile, fearful of midterm election results, Republican congressional leaders advised GOP lawmakers to avoid the issue, and, in particular, not mention mass deportations.

Congressional Democrats seized on the impact the videos Minnesotans took of federal immigration officers had on public opinion, insisting on reforms of ICE and the Border Patrol and fighting to cut back money for immigration enforcement.

Christopher Uggen, a McKnight Professor in Sociology, Law and Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, said there were probably many reasons that converged to create that response.

One was the 2020 murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, which Uggen said created “muscle memory” that “left folks quite vigilant regarding law enforcement behavior.”

“But this sort of movement or response was not limited to the activists in the state,” Uggen added.

So other factors were also at play to create a unique “Minnesota effect” that forced the Trump administration to retreat somewhat when it comes to immigration enforcement and sparked congressional Democrats to successfully block new funding for ICE and the Border Patrol. 

The disruption to normal life by the mass deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents and other federal law enforcement officers angered Minnesotans of all political persuasions, Uggen said. And Minnesota’s unique civic culture also played a role.

“Minnesota is unusually high in some measures of civic life, like voting and volunteering,” he said.

Related: Latino-led nonprofit CLUES is ready to be part of the solution to post-Metro Surge housing crisis

Letran-Garcia, of CLUES, said the immigrant enforcement surge also created a surge in her organization, which has provided a behavioral health clinic, employment assistance and other resources to the immigrant community.

“Our needs grew over 150 percent,” she said.” We realized really quickly that  (Operation Metro Surge) was nothing that we had ever seen before.”

Letran-Garcia said a priority for CLUES was to provide what she said was accurate information about what was going on, “making sure it was based on facts” and informing immigrants about what documents they needed to have and “what to say and what not to say” to federal agents.

She said Minnesotans’ generosity during the surge, which included an influx of donations to CLUES that allowed the organization to provide $1.5 million in rental assistance to immigrants who had quit their jobs out of fear, “moved us to the core.”

Scaling up quickly

Lucy Olson, a psychologist who works as a consultant and lives in Minneapolis, is not an immigrant advocate or activist but became one of thousands of Minnesotans who helped create the Minnesota effect.

Olson said she met a woman named Nohemy from El Salvador about three years ago who had been trafficked and was homeless with two small children.

She offered Nohemy and her children lodging in her home for the weekend. But Nohemy and her children ended up living with Olson for about a year since establishing the Salvadoran family in a new life took a lot longer than Olson had estimated.

“I became very aware of the challenges that newcomers faced,” Olson said.

When the surge occurred last winter, Nohemy sought to help her neighbors. Learning of the need, Olson and a growing group of volunteers did, too, raising about $700,000, partly through a GoFundMe page, to help pay the rent and provide groceries for about 500 families who were sheltering in their homes.

After the first month, the volunteers realized they needed help and reached out to CLUES. 

“We were able to scale up very quickly,” Olson said. Eventually, Olson’s group of volunteers reached about 2,000 members.

Olson said the federal immigration enforcement surge forged new community ties. “Thousands and thousands of Minneapolis residents have gotten to know their Hispanic neighbors in a new way,” she said.

Uggen, as a sociologist, said it is perhaps too early to tell “how replicable or scalable” the pushback in Minnesota to aggressive immigration enforcement is and whether other cities or states would mobilize to protect immigrants in a similar way.

“Those questions are not yet answered,” he said.

The post MinnPost analysis: How Minnesota’s remarkable response to Operation Metro Surge changed politics — and the state appeared first on MinnPost.

This story about the upcoming midterm elections was originally published by ProPublica.

When President Donald Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election, the institutional guardrails of American democracy held — but just barely.

If faced with the same tests today, those guardrails and the people who held the line would largely be missing, a ProPublica examination found.

At least 75 career officials who once held roles at federal agencies related to election integrity and safety are gone. Two dozen appointees — including many who either actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote or are associates of such people — have been hired to replace them. And once-fringe actors now have access to vast powers.

As the midterms approach, current and former government officials and election security experts expressed concerns that Trump appointees who’ve espoused debunked conspiracy theories about balloting are now in positions to control the narrative around the vote’s soundness.

Related: Top elections official Steve Simon says SAVE America Act would create ‘chaos,’ disenfranchise voters in Minnesota

It’s hard to debunk false claims “coming with the seal of the federal government,” said Derek Tisler, counsel and manager with the Brennan Center for Justice’s elections and government program. “I certainly worry what damage that could do to voters’ confidence.”

Here are some of the key things you should know about the Trump administration’s efforts to, as the president said, “take over” the midterms. Read the full investigation here.

1. In 2020, institutional guardrails helped to prevent Trump from overturning the election.

Following his defeat in the 2020 election, Trump pushed for federal officials to uncover proof that he had, in fact, beaten Joe Biden at the polls. Election cybersecurity experts with the Department of Homeland Security relayed to Attorney General William Barr that the election fraud claims that they looked into were false. Barr then told the president what he didn’t want to hear: The election had not been hacked.

Barr was one of many federal officials — most of them Trump appointees — who refused to bend to the president’s demands, which only intensified in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021. Despite the violent uprising at the Capitol on that day, the election results held firm.

2. Less than 18 months into his second term, Trump has dismantled many of those same guardrails.

Since the start of his second term, Trump and his appointees have made significant changes at federal agencies tasked with helping to safeguard elections. In all, at least 75 career officials who’d played important roles in elections work at DHS, the Department of Justice and other agencies have left, been fired or been reassigned, ProPublica found.

In their place are roughly two dozen people Trump has installed in positions that could affect elections. Ten of them actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote, and the rest are associates of those people. In some cases, ProPublica found, officials have been hired from activist groups that are pillars of the election-denial movement.

3. Among the first agencies Trump gutted after returning to office was one that had repeatedly disproved his stolen-election claims.

Officials at DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had provided research to the first Trump White House that disproved many theories claiming that the 2020 election had been hacked. CISA also played a crucial part in publicly countering these claims by producing a “Rumor Control” website to rebut them.

Then, only weeks into Trump’s second term, DHS leadership put employees focused on countering disinformation and helping safeguard elections on leave. They also froze CISA’s other election security work, which included assessing local election offices for physical and cybersecurity risks. Eventually, all CISA employees specializing in elections were fired or transferred.

A DHS spokesperson told ProPublica that the changes at CISA were in response to “a ballooning budget concealing a dangerous departure from its statutory mission,” which included “electioneering instead of defending America’s critical infrastructure.”

4. Trump and his appointees have gutted election-related teams at federal law enforcement agencies.

FBI Director Kash Patel dismantled the agency’s public corruption team, which had previously been deployed to help monitor possible criminal activity on Election Day. The Foreign Influence Task Force, which aimed to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics, was also disbanded.

(An FBI spokesperson said the bureau “remains committed to detecting and countering foreign influence efforts by adversarial nations.”)

The voting section of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division had enforced federal laws that protect voting rights, particularly those that combat racial discrimination. But now, nearly all of the section’s roughly 30 career lawyers have resigned or been moved. Trump then filled the section with conservative lawyers, including at least four who participated in challenging the 2020 vote or have worked with people who helped Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.

5. Trump has replaced ousted career specialists with “Team America.”

In the summer of 2025, after the Trump administration had forced out most of the career specialists, a small group of political appointees — which once called itself “Team America,” according to sources familiar with the matter — began convening at DHS headquarters, looking for federal levers it could pull to realize a March 2025 executive order, in which Trump tried to exert greater federal control over aspects of voting.

Among the core members of the group was David Harvilicz, a DHS assistant secretary tasked with overseeing the security of election infrastructure, including voting machines, and three of his top staffers. As ProPublica has reported, Harvilicz co-founded an AI company with an architect of Trump’s claims about election hacking in Michigan.

Heather Honey, who serves under Harvilicz in a newly created position focused on elections, is a source of the false claim that more ballots were cast in Pennsylvania than there were voters in the 2020 presidential election — a claim Trump cited on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021.

At least 11 administration appointees, including Honey, have ties to the Election Integrity Network, a conservative grassroots organization led by Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who tried to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. Since moving into government, Honey has maintained close ties to Mitchell’s organization, and she and at least two other federal officials have given its members private briefings.

6. Team America members are using a powerful Homeland Security Investigations tool to try to identify noncitizen voters.

The DOJ has been demanding that states turn over confidential voter roll information, and it has sued around 30 states for this data.

Meanwhile, DHS has urged states to upload their voter rolls to its tool, called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system.

The goal in both efforts has been to find noncitizens on the voter rolls. But the SAVE tool has come up short, often identifying citizens as noncitizens, as ProPublica has reported, and officials have faced other roadblocks with its use.

More recently, according to two people familiar with the matter, Team America has worked to harness a more powerful tool used by another branch of DHS, Homeland Security Investigations, to increase its ability to search for noncitizen voters and bring criminal charges against them.

In response to questions sent to DHS, Harvilicz and Honey, a DHS spokesperson disputed that they were seeking to use the department’s powers to advantage Trump. In response to questions about their ties to the election denial movement, the spokesperson wrote, “To meet the diverse and evolving challenges the Department faces, we hire experts with diverse backgrounds who go through a rigorous vetting process.”

7. Trump’s head of elections security is behind the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election ballots in Georgia.

Attorney Kurt Olsen once worked to try to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in court and was later sanctioned by judges for making baseless allegations about Arizona elections. He is now Trump’s director of election security and integrity and is the driving force behind the January raid of the election center in Fulton County, Georgia.

Related: 2026 elections: ICE won’t be at polling places, Trump administration official says

Toward the end of 2025, Olsen flew to Georgia to meet with Paul Brown, the head of the FBI’s Atlanta field office, according to people familiar with the matter. Olsen wanted the FBI to seize ballots from the Democratic stronghold, and he gave Brown a report he claimed would justify the extraordinary action. Brown’s team submitted an affidavit to superiors at the DOJ that did not make a strong enough case to move forward with what Olsen wanted. Afterward, Brown was given a choice: retire or be moved to a new office. Brown retired. The raid went forward under his replacement, based on an affidavit that cited information from the report Olsen provided to Brown.

Olsen did not respond to requests for comment.

An FBI spokesperson said that Brown “elected to retire” and that its “work in the election security space is entirely consistent with the law.”

8. The DOJ’s Public Integrity Section could have tried to block the administration’s Georgia voting investigation.

In the months following Trump’s return to office, the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, which had been responsible for making sure the department’s inquiries weren’t improperly influenced by politics, was eviscerated. Resignations, firings and transfers reduced the 36-person section to two.

Multiple former lawyers for the section said they likely would have tried to block the Fulton County investigation because it lacked strong evidence, had a clear political slant and went against department directives that actions should not be taken “for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”

John Keller was principal deputy chief of the section from 2020 to 2025 and was acting chief when he resigned in early 2025. He worries that allegations of irregularities in the upcoming election will be handled on a partisan basis.

“Without that review and without apolitical, objective, honest brokers involved in the process, there is a much greater risk for intentional manipulation or inadvertent interference,” Keller said.

The post 8 Things You Should Know About Trump’s Effort to “Take Over” the Midterm Elections appeared first on MinnPost.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday notified Minnesota that it’s deferring an additional $91 million in Medicaid funding, due to fresh concerns about vulnerabilities to fraud in state-run but federally funded social service programs.

The announcement from Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, cited searches by federal agents on Tuesday at childcare and learning centers and other sites in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area that receive federal Medicaid funding.

“Minnesota state-run programs have raised serious red flags,” Oz said in a video statement on social media.

Gov. Tim Walz called the action part of the Trump administration’s retribution campaign against Minnesota.

Vice President JD Vance notified Walz in February that CMS was temporarily withholding $243 million because of fraud concerns that have dogged the Democratic governor’s administration. Minnesota sued in response, warning it may have to cut healthcare for low-income families. A judge declined to grant a restraining order.

The deferral of $91 million comes in addition to the funds Vance said were being withheld earlier this year.

Of the latest tranche, $76 million is tied to 14 service categories that are considered highly vulnerable to fraud, Oz said. Another $14 million involves program integrity concerns, such as payments for ineligible individuals, including those who might be in the country illegally, he said.

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

Right-wing influencer Nick Shirley posted a video in December that said members of Minnesota’s large Somali community were running fake childcare centers to collect federal subsidies. The video caught the eye of the administration and conservative activists, though state inspectors discounted the allegations. Oz cited the video Thursday.

Walz — the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024 — dropped out of the governor’s race in January, promising to devote his energy to fighting fraud rather than seeking a third term.

“While Minnesota is working to stop fraud, the Trump Administration is working to exploit it,” Walz said in a statement. “This is a transparent effort to cut funding for the same working people and rural Minnesota hospitals they’ve had in their crosshairs for months. Minnesota will not stand for this continued campaign of retribution.”

But Oz said the action was about protecting taxpayer money.

“This isn’t about punishment, it’s about partnership and accountability,” Oz said. “We’re offering Minnesota the support they need to fix these problems. But at the same time, we cannot and will not pay claims that don’t meet federal standards. So we’re asking for additional documentation to verify these charges.”

The Minnesota Department of Human Services, which administers Medicaid in the state, defended its record, saying it has been taking “aggressive action” for more than a year to stop fraud and recoup improper payments.

“We have been reporting to our federal partners and the public about those efforts,” Commissioner Shireen Gandhi said in a statement. “We are disappointed to learn that CMS will extend deferrals of needed funds for another quarter. Nonetheless, the department will continue to fight against the criminals who target Medicaid programs.”

CMS approved the state’s corrective action plan in March but has yet to free up any of the $243 million it withheld earlier.

The announcement comes a week after Oz said CMS would require all states to explain their plans to revalidate some of their Medicaid providers in an escalation of the Trump administration’s anti-fraud campaign.

___

Associated Press reporter Ali Swenson in Washington, D.C., contributed.

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WASHINGTON – The Democrats battling for Rep. Angie Craig’s congressional seat are locked in a last-minute scramble for delegates – but it’s not certain any of them will win the coveted DFL endorsement.

State Sen. Matt Klein, former state Sen. Matt Little and state Rep. Kaela Berg are all wooing the 186 DFLers who will gather in an auditorium in Burnsville High School on May 9 to determine their favored candidate.

Craig is vacating her House seat because she is running for U.S. Senate, and that set off a hot race among DFLers who have experience representing parts of that district in the state Legislature.

But since at least 60% of the votes are needed to win their party’s endorsement, all three Democrats may walk away empty handed.

And if there’s no endorsed candidate, it is probable that all three will continue to battle each other for a chance to win August’s DFL primary. That means a long summer of heated — and costly — campaigning is likely ahead.   

Related: Minnesota DFL bill aims to withstand legal challenge over whether people can sue federal agents

Little, however, is confident he’ll take home the prized endorsement. He says he has commitments from 56% of the delegates and party officials who will cast their ballots at the district convention and accuses rivals Klein and Berg of colluding to thwart his efforts to reach the threshold of 60% support.

“Matt Little has a loose relationship with the truth,” said Ava Wampold, Berg’s campaign spokeswoman.

Wampold also said Little’s delegate count “is unfounded and dishonest” and that Berg’s campaign is confident that she will win the endorsement.

Klein’s campaign also said it doubted Little’s delegate count.

Yet Little won the DFL’s 2^nd District precinct caucus straw poll in February and his time as Lakeville mayor and a term in the state Senate has given him name recognition in the state, said Dan Hofrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College.

Democrats likely, but not certain, to win

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.

Craig, who positioned herself as a moderate Democrat in the U.S. House, has represented that district since 2019. But, for nearly 20 years before that, the district was represented by Republican lawmakers.

Related: D.C. Memo: As the midterm races heat up, so does the campaign fundraising

Demographics, and Craig’s determination to keep the seat in her party’s column by crossing the line and supporting GOP initiatives from time to time, has turned a “purple district” into one that leans Democratic.

In midterm elections, the party out of power in the White House is usually favored, giving Democrats a likely historical lift in November.

President Donald Trump’s falling approval ratings, the unpopularity of the war with Iran and persistent inflation are also issues expected to help Democrats, who may wrest control of the U.S. House from the GOP in the midterms.

Yet a Democratic win in the 2^nd District, while likely, is not assured.

Hofrenning said the 2^nd District is a “bellwether” and the results of the race will show whether Democrats have a sweep election in November.

Republicans seeking the seat include state Sen. Eric Pratt of Prior Lake and, until recently, Tyler Kistner. Kistner — who has run against and lost to Craig — left the race after the Marine Reserves activated him earlier this month for deployment to the Middle East.

Kistner’s departure prompted another Republican candidate to enter the race, business owner Jeremy Westby, who was running in the neighboring 3^rd District and switched over to enter the 2^nd District race.

But the real contest right now is among the Democrats who want Craig’s seat.

Following Craig’s playbook  

Klein, 58, is a Mayo Clinic doctor who said he served his last shift at the hospital on Feb. 1 so he could campaign.

He is the most moderate of the Democratic candidates running for Craig’s seat and considers himself a “Blue Dog” in reference to a group of conservative and moderate Democrats whose numbers have rapidly shrunk in Congress.

Klein said he is running, like most other Democrats, on the issue of “affordability,” especially when it comes to health care.

He said his biggest accomplishments in the state Senate are pushing through legislation that “kicked payday lenders out of the state” and his efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable.

Related: DFL on the offensive as the Legislature returns

He said he would campaign for the 2^nd District seat, and represent it, like Craig, who sought bipartisanship when possible. “She wrote a playbook and I’m trying to follow it,” he said.

His campaign said Klein will keep running for Craig’s seat even if another Democrat wins the party’s endorsement. “We are going to the (August) primary,” said campaign spokesman Dominic Ciresi.  

Klein said his 35 years as a doctor is a “political asset.”

“Doctors are adept at building relationships of trust with people of all different backgrounds,” he said.

He also said his life in medicine has given him “a deep understanding of health care delivery.”

Recently, Klein was scrutinized for placing a $50 bet on the predictive market Kalshi that he would win his race.

Klein said his friends told him there were bets on the Democratic contest in the 2^nd District and he placed his wager out of curiosity. He said he was told in March that his bet was a violation of the platform’s rules, agreed to a 5-year suspension and paid a $540 fine.

Before learning of his violation, Klein had sponsored a bill to limit certain prediction market activity.

While he hopes the 2^nd District will remain in Democratic control in midterms that favor his party, he said he cautions people against becoming “overconfident.”

“November is an eternity away,” Klein said.

He lives with his wife Kris in Mendota Heights and has two adult sons.

In the clouds and the statehouse

Berg, 52, who considers herself a progressive Democrat, said experience as both a state legislator and a working flight attendant who has struggled financially gives her an edge in the race.

She said she lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Burnsville, had no health insurance during the pandemic, has had to buy groceries for her two sons from a dollar store and cut prescription medication in half to make it last longer.

An active union member, Berg has positioned herself as an alternative to the “multimillionaires” whom she says dominate Congress and can, because of her background, excel at promoting the Democratic proposals to bring down the cost of living.

“People are ready for a different type of candidate,” she said.  

After three first responders were fatally shot in Burnsville in early 2024, Berg sponsored legislation in the state House that would increase the penalties for  those who make “straw purchases,” or buy a gun for someone else who is not allowed under the law to own one. The gunman who killed the first responders obtained his weapon through a straw purchase.  

Berg also sponsored legislation that banned “binary triggers,” which fire one round when a trigger is pulled and another round when the trigger is released.

A delegate for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., during the 2016 presidential election, Berg said, “I’m definitely a progressive.”

Related: Explaining GOP and DFL points of view on fraud

But she also said the more moderate Craig was deft in the way she ran for re-election and cast votes in Congress. “She created a pathway for a more progressive candidate to take the seat,” Berg said.

She also said she would make a decision about continuing her campaign after the May 9 convention.

Berg has the backing of Emily’s List, a political action committee that helps elect Democratic female candidates who support abortion rights. That could help Berg’s campaign fundraising and provide experts in communications and in training and recruiting campaign staff.

While Little and Klein are both pro-abortion rights, Yari Aquino, who helps advise candidates for Emily’s list, said Berg “meets the moment that we are in.”

Fighting ICE on TikTok

Little, 41, an attorney who specializes in personal injury and malpractice cases, raised his profile during Operation Metro Surge.

He spent one or two days a week following federal immigration agents and posting some of those encounters on TikTok, including one of ICE agents converging at his home in New Market Township.

Another TikTok video featured Little’s wife, Coco, who said she had to carry her U.S. passport to the grocery store because the Trump administration “is targeting people like me.”

Confident that he will be favored at the DFL district convention, Little is asking his Democratic rivals to quit the race if he — or anyone else — wins the endorsement.

“I will abide by the DFL Party endorsement, and I call on all the candidates in the race to abide,” Little said. “We need a united party to win this seat and take control of the House in November.” 

Little said he differs from the other Democrats running for the 2^nd District seat by being “the strongest” on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the only candidate who has publicly called for an end of U.S. military help to Israel.

He also said that, during his single term in the state Senate, he represented “difficult” areas of the district for Democrats, including Lakeville and southern Dakota County, which would help him win a race against a Republican opponent.  

As for why he’s running for Congress? Little said he wants his young daughter to know he was fighting “when everything was going wrong.”

The post Klein, Little and Berg hunt for DFL delegates as they wrestle for 2nd District seat appeared first on MinnPost.

WASHINGTON — Ryan Kopperud, the vice president of a Duluth-based cider company that makes THC-infused drinks, said a federal ban on the popular beverages slated to go into effect in November is already taking its toll on what has become a booming industry in the state.

“We are starting to feel the pressure and contraction already, and it’s only going to get worse through the summer,” he said. “We are racing towards a cliff.”

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

But the industry pushed back, and its allies in Congress have sponsored a number of bills in an effort to keep what’s become a $30 billion-a-year industry alive.

Related: Going undercover, young customers went uncarded in 1 in 3 attempts to buy hemp-derived THC in Twin Cities

Next week, for instance, the U.S. House will consider an amendment to the farm bill sponsored by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., that would push the date of the new restrictions for  another year.

Another Kentucky Republican, Rep. Andy Barr, may also try to amend the farm bill with legislation that would allow the continued sale of THC-infused edibles but outlaw “artificial” or “synthetic” THC that does not exist in the hemp plant. Barr’s bill would also set a national cap on the potency of products.

In addition, the legislation would require producers of THC edibles to be licensed, set age restrictions and implement a ban on marketing strategies that could appeal to children.

To Kopperud, whose company, Wild State Cider, produces the Birdie and Odder brands of hemp-derived THC, Congress’ new restrictions were aimed at “bad actors” who sold products of dangerously high levels of THC — often with the use of “artificial” THC — and sometimes marketed those products to children.

But he said Minnesota assiduously regulates hemp-based THC products, setting limits on potency — for drinks it’s 10 milligrams of THC — and implements testing and age restrictions.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a bill this week that would protect the states that allow the sale of hemp-derived products, like their home states. The legislation would allow these states to “opt out” of the new federal hemp regulations and allow THC-infused products that are produced in one state to be sold in all other states that also allow THC edibles and drinks to be sold.

“I’ve heard loud and clear from brewers, farmers, and small businesses in Minnesota — a federal ban on hemp products will be devastating,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “Minnesota is a national leader in hemp products, and Congress should recognize that leadership and commitment to consumer safety.”

Jonathan Miller, general counsel at the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said the Klobuchar-Paul bill “comes at a critical moment.”

“This legislation would provide invaluable protection for farmers, small businesses, and consumers who rely on these products for their health and wellness,” Miller said.

Klobuchar is also a co-sponsor of a bill that would delay implementation of the hemp regulations for two years.

Other bills supportive of the hemp industry and the THC-infused edibles industry have also been introduced, but they have not had much traction and a lot of pushback.

The marijuana industry, whose products are legal to all adults in 24 states but not legal under federal law, seeks a “level playing field” with the hemp-made products that were made legal in the 2018 farm bill. (Just this week, the Justice Department took the unusual step of reclassifying medical marijuana from a highly restricted Schedule I drug to a much less restricted Schedule III drug.)

“Congress has already settled on the issue,” said Cory Harris, a marijuana industry lobbyist, referring to Paul’s unsuccessful attempt to strip out the hemp-language in November’s spending bill. 

Harris said hemp contains cannabinoids and he hoped Congress would not consider hemp “a less intoxicating cousin” to marijuana.

While producers of hemp-THC infused products like Kopperud hope to counter a looming threat to their businesses in the farm bill next week, Harris said there’s no chance of that happening.

“I don’t see any changes to hemp policy being made on the floor in the farm bill,” he said.

The nation’s alcoholic beverage makers, who have seen sales drop as young Americans drink less alcohol, also joined the marijuana lobby in trying to rein in THC-beverage and edible manufacturers.

If the reclassification of hemp goes into effect Nov. 13, Minnesota consumers will still be able to purchase THC-infused drinks and gummies. But big retailers like Target will no longer have them on their shelves.

And selection of these products will be limited.

For Kopperud, who now sells his beverages in 18 states, the new ban on interstate commerce would be devastating.

Related: Hemp industry fighting federal ban with bills to regulate, not outlaw, THC gummies and drinks

Manufacturers of THC-infused beverages and gummies in Minnesota would also face hurdles securing financing and access to capital since they would be manufacturing products that are illegal under federal law.

And the federal alcohol licenses of breweries that make many of the THC-infused drinks and distributors might also be at risk.

There’s talk of having a carveout from the new restrictions for THC-infused beverages. Harris said that “over time” that might happen, but not before the new restrictions are put in place in November.

Meanwhile, Kopperud and others in his industry are hoping consumers of their products are lobbying lawmakers. And they are preparing for the worst.

“People will go bankrupt,” Kopperud predicted. “This is an economic extinction and it is coming.”

In other news:

▪️ State government reporter Cleo Krejci has a story about the onslaught of lawsuits spawned by Operation Metro Surge and what happened to them. 

▪️ Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, a master campaign fundraiser, has benefited from donations collected for her by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as have many lawmakers. But a growing number of Democrats are distancing themselves from that pro-Israel lobby.

▪️ The Minneapolis City Council might not agree on much, but Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell found that they were united on one thing – they would like to approve the mayor’s appointments.  

▪️ Data reporter Shadi Bushra writes about a Lakeville-area programmer who has created an app that summarizes bills in the state Legislature into plain English and translates them into more than 30 languages to promote greater civic engagement. 

Please send any comments or questions. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.

The post Minnesota’s THC beverage makers hoping House will nix ban on their products in next week’s farm bill vote appeared first on MinnPost.

Over the past few years, Kentucky sheep farmer Daniel Bell has been expanding his flock. Eventually, that meant he needed to build a new barn. His land is far from the power lines he’d need to heat it, so he figured rooftop solar would be ideal.

To help pay for it, he wanted to apply for a renewable energy grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP — only to find that the Trump administration had effectively halted grants through the program. Bell said that made it impossible to proceed with the idea on his land.

“For me, it’s just been about freedom. Freedom to lower bills, freedom to control my own assets,” he said.

Many farmers work on the thinnest margins, fighting to stay profitable. Some, looking to cut costs on electricity, turn to the federal government for a little extra cash to help them install solar panels on top of barns, grain elevators, or offices. Others turn to commercial renewable energy leases as both an alternative income stream and a way to put fallow land to work.

Within the first year of President Trump’s second term, two federal programs critical to the growth of solar energy production — the REAP grant and loan program and the clean energy tax credit — have been rolled back. To document how those policy changes are affecting farmers, The Associated Press and Grist analyzed data on both commercial-scale solar projects and small-scale rural energy development across the country. They found that, so far this fiscal year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn’t awarded a dollar in rural energy grants or loan guarantees. Reporters contacted roughly a quarter of the nearly 300 developers that have proposed projects on agricultural land in the last two years, and found that they are either preparing their businesses to do future projects without federal support, or have already lost millions in investment because of the administration’s new tax credit policies.

Related: REAP grant program freeze hits Midwest, GOP district hardest

Bell, for his part, decided to go a different route: Instead of building on his own property, he asked to build two new temporary barns on land owned by a commercial solar operation where he’s paid to graze his sheep beneath solar panels to keep the grass down. If the business approves his request, the barns could draw cheaper power from their operation. But not every farmer has that opportunity.

The effects of these policy shifts are uneven. Some solar projects are stalled because of permitting hangups. Some are right on schedule. And some are moving faster than anticipated, as developers race to break ground before tax credits expire. But, taken together, the findings reveal how the collapse of federal support for solar has spread across American agriculture from major corporations to family farms. 

The abandoned solar projects

The Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by President George W. Bush, enacted a 30 percent investment tax credit for large-scale clean energy projects, boosting the solar industry. The tax credit was extended for eight years under President Obama and later extended under President Trump in 2020.

When President Joe Biden signed the 2022 landmark climate bill, the tax credit was extended again through 2032 or when specific emissions targets were reached. Last July, when Congress passed President Trump’s tax bill, the timeline for the clean energy tax credits was again reset — in reverse. Now, commercial solar projects must be under construction by July 2026 or placed in service by the end of 2027 to remain eligible for the credit. 

At least 126 solar projects proposed since the beginning of 2024 are awaiting regulatory approval, according to a Grist and Associated Press analysis of the latest information developers supplied to the Energy Information Administration. Each is located near or on agricultural land, with at least one-fifth of the surrounding area used for grazing fields or crops, and would together supply about 20 gigawatts of electricity if built. That’s enough renewable energy to power about 4.5 million homes, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The new timeline, though, has prompted some developers to abandon projects after concluding they couldn’t move fast enough to meet the new tax credit cutoff.

Bogdan Micu, CEO of the German solar developer Alpin Sun, said it had to abandon projects representing about $6 million in investments in about 1,000 megawatts in the U.S. Northeast. “Well. We lost our projects,” Micu said.

“There was no way for us to speed up that process” to meet deadlines, he said.

REAP grant and loan program gutted

Through the REAP grant and loan program, the USDA assists farmers, ranchers, and rural businesses interested in renewable energy — like installing solar to lower utility costs. According to Richa Patel, a policy specialist at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, REAP has funded more than 19,000 grants totaling more than $1.8 billion since its inception nearly two decades ago, and backed tens of thousands of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across the country in that time. The program was supercharged by funding from the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, and up until then, when some congressional Republicans began to question the REAP grant structure, was largely supported by both parties. But for many of the farmers whose awards or applications were affected as Trump took office again, the past year has made farm country’s already-dire economic landscape even more difficult to weather.

Elisa Lane, a flower and fruit farmer in Hampstead, Maryland, will never forget the anxiety she felt last February when she heard the Trump administration had frozen the $30,576 REAP grant she’d been awarded in 2024 to install solar panels — with no explanation. 

“Man, was that so stressful,” said Lane, who spent months worried she’d be “on the hook” for the amount that she’d already contracted a solar company to install. It was supposed to alleviate the stress of her energy bills, which she said ran around $500 a month before getting solar.

In March 2025, the agency announced it would release already-awarded REAP grants and loans — but there appeared to be some fine print. The USDA invited recipients to voluntarily revise their proposals to align with Trump’s executive order by “eliminating Biden-era DEIA and climate mandates embedded in previous proposals.” 

Although she was anxiously waiting on the funds, Lane decided not to revise her proposal after a local USDA representative advised her to proceed with her project without revising. (The representative assured her she would receive the payment, according to emails seen by Grist and the AP.) Later that spring, she heard from the USDA that the payment would be released and she could move forward with construction. So she did, putting up the full $70,000 it cost to install the panels. By August, they were up and running on her land. By September, she received her reimbursement check covering about half of the project fee from USDA — more than half a year after the funding was first frozen.

In the span of roughly seven months, the USDA froze the program’s grant funding, invited grantees to reapply without climate and DEI language, imposed sweeping new restrictions on solar on farmland, and closed future application cycles. 

“It was so disruptive,” she said. “I just want to have a farm and be able to focus on my business.” 

Now, she’s doing just that. The panels, to Lane, represent a long-term investment into bringing down her farm’s enormous energy bill. 

Although things eventually worked out for Lane and other recent REAP grantees, the Grist and Associated Press analysis of USDA Rural Development data found the program has not committed a single dollar in renewable energy development since September. Even though the agency said it anticipated it would do so last October, USDA never reopened the REAP grant application cycle. Its loan guarantee program — geared toward larger farm and rural business projects — has remained open, though the analysis found that the agency has awarded no new agreements this fiscal year. 

Then, on March 31, the USDA announced a suspension of all REAP grant awards so the agency may update regulations within the program to comply with an executive order issued by the president last July. The agency noted that it “will not be making further grant awards until the new regulations are in effect,” but added that REAP guaranteed loans “will continue to be awarded in this time.” 

In response to a request for comment, a USDA spokesperson said the “suspension of REAP grant awards is temporary,” but did not provide further details on how long grants will be paused. When asked why the USDA has not yet issued any loans this fiscal year through the program, the spokesperson said the agency “continues to administer REAP in accordance with current guidance” and is “prioritizing program integrity and alignment with Administration direction as it conducts its review.” 

Robert Bonnie, the former undersecretary for farm production and conservation at the USDA under the Biden administration, said any loss in the program’s funding is going to be felt throughout rural America. Part of the USDA’s role over the long term, he said, has been to channel investment into rural parts of the country while making rural prosperity part of the climate agenda. 

“In places like Iowa and Texas, renewables matter — not just for additional power and lower power bills and clean energy, but also matters for farmers’ pocketbooks,” said Bonnie. “Anything you do to pull back on that is hugely problematic.” 

Racing to beat the tax credit deadline

For RIC Energy North America, a renewable energy developer based in New York City, the changes to the solar tax credits triggered an all-out sprint to advance every project in the pipeline, said CEO Jon Rappe. But new projects after that will essentially stop, he said.

The company has about 150 solar projects in its North American portfolio, with the bulk of those developments on fallow land, hayfields, and former farmland. “Now, some companies are probably going to go out and continue to sign sites, and take some risks, in case there’s an extension of tax credits or something like that,” Rappe said. “But the next generation of projects is not going to happen unless there’s some change at the federal level.”

One of RIC Energy’s projects is to develop 15 acres of solar on Tim Covert’s land in the primarily agricultural town of Sheridan, New York. The community solar project, where small-scale arrays would allow low-income residents to subscribe to get monthly credits on their utility bill, offers a new source of steady revenue for Covert, a former dairy farmer who has been battling cancer over the last year and struggled to work as a result. 

“I’m 100 percent cancer-free, but with the treatments, there’s some side effects that take a little while to get rid of,” he said, which include brain fog, muscle soreness, and depleted energy. ”So it would be great if they did have it done by fall, and I started getting money.”

Under the agreement, the bigger payout, which Covert said equals roughly a quarter of his income as an electrical contractor, won’t start until the project is completed and online — and Covert isn’t sure when that will happen amid the shifting federal landscape. At the moment, he’s getting a small stipend simply for leasing his land. He’s been told that construction could start as soon as the end of May, though “it seems to be changing a lot.” RIC Energy, for its part, told Grist and the AP that the construction is slated to begin late summer to early fall. 

“I don’t think they’re going to stop now, because they have quite a bit of time and money invested in this thing already,” he said. “So I don’t see them pulling the plug.” 

Even amid the shifting policies, some clean energy developers say they are winning out. Solar energy is still one of the cheapest forms of energy out there, and energy is in higher demand than ever, partly due to AI data center construction. What’s more, tax equity sometimes made financing projects more complicated, so in some ways losing the tax credit also broke down a barrier to getting things done, said Nick Cohen, president and CEO of Doral LLC, a large-scale solar energy and battery storage developer with about 450 megawatts in operation and about 16,000 more planned or in construction.

It’s “a very exciting time if you’re a large enough developer that was in the right place at the right time doing large projects,” he said. 

“All the new rules really favor the big guys like us.” 

__________

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/american-farmers-bet-on-solar-then-trump-changed-the-rules/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

The post Some US farmers say federal rural energy grants cut by Trump were ‘about freedom’ appeared first on MinnPost.

WASHINGTON – This reporter took a small vacation and tried to return home on Sunday.

That turned out to be much more difficult than expected. Aware of reports of long lines at airports to clear Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, I arrived at New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport about four hours before my scheduled 5:30 p.m. flight to Washington D.C.

But that was not nearly enough time. The TSA line snaked all around the airport and all around the parking garage as hundreds of travelers were desperate to make their flights. Being New Orleans, a jazz ensemble played on a large dais in the middle of the airport, but it seemed incongruous considering the high anxiety and confusion within.  

Joining other airports across the country, there were few TSA agents on duty to handle the normal crunch of Sunday travelers and scores of other airline passengers, including me, missed their flights and desperately tried to book another with the help of harried airline counter agents, many of whom were working double shifts.

It was chaos. The breakdown of the nation’s air transportation system is reverberating in Congress, which is struggling with a solution even as the political stakes are high.

Related: TSA workers at MSP receive Trump resignation offer

Having missed paychecks because of the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which administers TSA and other vital government agencies besides those tasked with immigration enforcement, TSA agents are quitting or calling in sick.

That prompted President Donald Trump to order the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the nation’s airlines, despite their lack of training in the screening of airline passengers. But Trump’s aim was to show he is a man of action and he called his idea brilliant, like the invention of the paper clip.

After deploying ICE agents to airports did not shrink the lines, Trump late Thursday said he would use his emergency powers to find other monies to pay TSA agents.

That seemed to break a logjam in the U.S. Senate, which had not been able to approve a DHS funding bill because congressional Democrats demanded new rules for immigration enforcement agents after they fatally shot Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January.

Early Friday, the Senate approved a bill that would fund DHS and the rest of DHS except for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The bill was approved by voice vote by a few sleepy senators who were still on the floor.

But that bill must go back to the U.S. House, which had earlier approved a bill that would fund DHS without carving out the immigration enforcement agencies, which had received a bonus payment of $75 billion in last summer’s “big, beautiful bill.”

Conservatives in the House, however, are demanding that any new bill that funds DHS include the Save America Act, legislation that would require voters to have government IDs to register and cast a ballot.

During those hours in a TSA line on Sunday, and then again in the early hours of Monday, I participated in and overheard a lot of conversations about the DHS shutdown, which began on Valentine’s Day.

There was disbelief that a government agency that also funds the Coast Guard and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was shut down. There was also a lot of  sympathy for TSA workers and agreement that employees must be paid for the work they perform.

And there was total contempt for those who expected TSA agents to come to work, day after day, as bills pile up and grocery and gas money becomes scarce.  

As soon as TSA agents were spotted at their stations (in greater numbers) early Monday, there was huge clapping and cheering from my fellow queue mates, many of whom had slept at the airport – and even napping in line on floor.

There was much gratitude that those agents began their shifts about a half hour before their normal 3:30 a.m. starting time to try to move as many passengers through their checkpoints and to the gates.  

Stranded passengers did not blame congressional Democrats or Republicans. Or Trump. They blamed “the government.” A government that did not seem to care about their predicament, and by extension, the problems of everyday Americans.

If Congress doesn’t pass a final funding bill by Saturday night, the DHS funding lapse will become the longest shutdown of any federal agency in U.S. history — exceeding the 43-day government-wide shut down that ended in November.

More ethanol, please 

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday issued a waiver that allows the sales of fuels blended with 15% ethanol, or E15, to be sold for a while, an advantage for Minnesota’s corn growers whose crops are used to make the fuel.

The agency said the waiver would start on May 1 and last until May 20, noting that 20 days is the maximum they can authorize the use of gas blended with more ethanol under the Clean Air Act.

But the nation’s farmers want more.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall called for Congress to pass a bill that would make a year-round availability of E15 permanent.

“Biofuels play an important role in meeting America’s energy needs and are a win-win for farmers and drivers,” Duvall said in a statement. “E15 gasoline saves consumers 10 to 30 cents per gallon at the pump and creates markets for American-grown crops. Permanent sales of E15 blends would increase demand for corn by roughly 2.4 billion bushels a year.”

Nonetheless, Duvall thanks the EPA for making E15 available for a short period of time this  summer. He also tipped his hat to Sen. Amy Klobuchar for her “call for quick action to enable year-round E15 sales. “

In a release, Klobuchar, who is running for governor and is the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she had asked the Trump administration “to allow for year-round sales of E15 in order to bring down prices at the pump and support our farmers.”

Related: How a food shelf helped MSP TSA officers during last fall’s shutdown

Rep. Angie Craig, D-2^nd District, who is running for Senate and is the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, also weighed in. She’s introduced legislation in the U.S. House that would allow for year-long sales of E15.

“While a temporary waiver for the summer sale of E15 is welcome news and will bolster domestic markets for corn and sorghum farmers and hopefully provide some relief at the pump, it falls far short of the promise of permanent year-round E15,” Craig said in a release. “House Democrats have urged the Republican majority to make year-round E15 the law of the land. What are Republicans waiting for?”

In case you missed it:

The Minnesota Legislature, like Congress, has become enamored of huge “omnibus” funding bills. But Matthew Blake reports that the legality of a 2024 omnibus bill that ushered in a host of new programs is under review by a court of appeals that is weighing a challenge by the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.

Metro reporter Trevor Mitchell had a story about how the Minneapolis City Council is struggling to find funding sources for rental assistance for residents affected by Operation Metro Surge.

There was also a story this week about the intense lobbying to delay a Senate vote on a bill that would lift a Biden-era moratorium on sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters watershed. 

And Greater Minnesota reporter Brian Arola had a story about a coalition that is lobbying state lawmakers to curb data center development in the state.

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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Farmers in the market for fertilizer and motorists filling up at the pumps are experiencing a similar feeling this spring. 

Sticker shock. 

“With the war in the Middle East, fertilizer, particularly nitrogen, has jumped just like gasoline and diesel fuel has,” said Wesley Beck, a corn and soybean farmer in St. James.

Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a response to the U.S. and Israel’s war with the Middle Eastern power, is cutting off shipping lanes for fertilizer and other key commodities. This is happening just as Minnesota farmers ready their fields for spring planting, and the war is expected to result in less farm production and higher food prices.  

Iran is using its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow passageway in the Persian Gulf — as an economic weapon to upend world markets. The strait’s shipping lanes are now under threat by Iranian firepower. 

That has led ship operators to stop using those shipping lanes, resulting in a backlog of about 3,000 vessels, according to S & P Global Market Intelligence. Spikes in gas and diesel prices, and fertilizer, have followed.

The roiling of the global market in fertilizer has prompted the White House and Congress to seek new help for farm country. That includes expanding the use of biofuels and even adding $15 billion for impacted farmers to a $200 billion spending bill aimed at funding the Iran war.

Related: How far can $12 billion for farmers go? Not far enough to offset high fertilizer prices, disrupted markets

Fertilizers are the single biggest expenditure for many farmers each year. Leading fertilizers include phosphate, nitrogen and potassium, or potash. 

Nitrogen is the fertilizer most impacted by the Iran war, although phosphate prices have also surged because of tariffs the Trump administration has placed on Morocco, which holds more than 70% of the world’s known phosphate rock.

But it’s the price of nitrogen-based fertilizer that concerns Minnesota farmers now, especially those like Beck who grow corn.

“Corn is the most nitrogen-dependent crop,” said Gretchen Kuck, an economist with National Corn Growers Association.

And nitrogen is the fertilizer corn growers use now, before the summer growing season. Phosphorus and potash are usually spread in the fall.

Although many Minnesota farmers purchased their nitrogen fertilizer already, locking in prices ahead of time, there are often some in-season needs for nitrogen. And the war means it’s a bad time to be a buyer. 

“If you look at the cost of fertilizer versus the price of corn, we’re at historic margins,” Beck said. “That’s putting the squeeze on Minnesota farmers.”

A domino effect for fertilizer prices

The war’s roiling of fertilizer and diesel prices has perhaps been an unintended consequence for the Trump administration, which has already had to provide U.S. farmers with $12 billion in additional farm aid because of the impact of its tariff policy on overseas markets. 

But disruptions in one part of the world can create a domino effect on the other side of the world. Along similar lines, hits to the corn industry have far reaching ramifications as the crop is used in thousands of consumer products and is a massive source of livestock feed. 

Sizable percentages of phosphates and urea, a dry pellet form of nitrogen, travel through the Middle East to get to the United States. About 12% of urea and 17% of phosphates used in American farmland is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, according to a report published in the North Dakota State University Agricultural Trade Monitor.

“The bottom line: the Strait of Hormuz accounts for a meaningful share of both U.S. urea and phosphate consumption, and the greater risk is price transmission from global markets, where the disruption is far more severe,” the report concluded. 

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The United States isn’t the most exposed country when it comes to fertilizers shipped through Hormuz. India, Brazil and Australia all rely on it more, demonstrating how much global economic interest there is in the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran.

Kuck said many U.S. farmers have already purchased nitrogen fertilizer, but the war’s impact on global fertilizer markets will increase in severity as the conflict with Iran continues.

About 50 major farm groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the American Soybean Association, recently wrote to President Trump asking for help.

Their letter said the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz and the subsequent increase in the cost of fuel and fertilizer are “further straining a farm economy that already had its back against the wall due to record inflation, trade uncertainty, rapidly declining crop prices and catastrophic natural disasters.”

George Goblish, a farmer in Redwood County, said the pressure will ramp up on farmers if the conflict stretches into late this year or early next year. As of now, the Minnesota farmers most hurt by the fertilizer price spikes are those needing nitrogen this spring. If sky high prices persist into the fall, however, everyone applying potash and phosphates would feel the pain. 

“If the prices stay high there will be cutbacks in fertilizer, cutbacks in yield, and then other crops may need to be grown,” Goblish said. 

How easily can farmers pivot to other crops? 

Corn covers more acreage in Minnesota than any other crop. It’s quite common, though, for farmers to plant other crops, and those could be less impacted by turmoil in the Persian Gulf. 

Soybeans are a prime example. Since it’s a legume, soybeans don’t usually need nitrogen fertilizer. A symbiotic relationship with bacteria enables them to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert it into useful ammonia. 

Goblish expects some farmers to consider switching from corn to soybeans, wheat or other options if issues persist.

“Some waited until spring for fertilizer hoping that spring prices will be lower than fall prices,” he said. “That’s not happening this year. Odds are those acres will be switched to beans.” 

Kuck said the decision to switch crops will be made by individual farmers based on their circumstances, including whether soybean farmers, who’ve seen a key export market in China evaporate because of Trump administration tariffs, have enough capacity to store excess beans.

But she said an insoluble problem is the sharp rise in the cost of diesel, which spiked along with gasoline after Iran shut down shipments in the Persian Gulf.  

“With fertilizer you can switch crops,” Kuck said. “But there’s nothing you can do with diesel.”

The price of No. 2 diesel, the indicator for fuel used by farmers, rose from $3.50 to $5.38 per gallon from the end of 2025 to last week.

“Fuel is going to be a major issue,” Goblish said. “People complain about the fuel price at the pump; well, filling up for spring work is about 6,000 to 8,000 gallons of fuel.”

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Meanwhile, Beck would consider converting some of his 700-800 acres of corn to soybeans if he hadn’t planned so far ahead. In actuality, decisions on what to plant this year were made last year.

“You tweak it a bit each year, but our family has been here for 150 years doing this and we try to take a long-term view of things in crop rotation,” he said. 

Farmers to the White House 

Hundreds of farmers and representatives of farm groups gathered Friday on the South Lawn of the White House for an event Trump organized to announce new relief efforts aimed at blunting the impact of the Iran war.

Trump announced an ​update ⁠to renewable fuel standards and said he would seek additional relief for ⁠farmers ​from Congress. 

He also rolled out other initiatives, including enhanced loan guarantees for farmers and eased production monitoring requirements the administration says will help farmers by allowing the manufacturers of diesel vehicles to switch to a different diesel exhaust fluid sensor.

Meanwhile, farm organizations, in their letter to the president last week, appealed to the Trump administration to include new relief for farmers as part of a defense spending bill when it is sent to Congress.

Minnesota Reps. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, and Brad Finstad, D-1st District, are behind a bipartisan effort to advance a new bill called the Fertilizer Transparency Act, which would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to publish fertilizer prices weekly on its website, giving farmers access to timely and accurate market data.

Related: D.C. Memo: Scotus upends Trump tariffs that have impacted exports in addition to hiking fertilizer prices and other inputs

“By shining a light on price trends and improving access to reliable information, we’re putting more control back in the hands of the men and women who feed and fuel the world,” Finstad said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Craig, the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, said “President Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran have increased fertilizer costs even as farmers lose markets and commodity prices remain low, putting farmers in an impossible position.”

Craig has also been pushing Congress to allow year-round sales of E15, a fuel blend that contains 15% ethanol, which is produced from corn and sorghum. 

Kuck said the nation’s corn growers are “open to temporary solutions “ to the distress in farm country. “But we want a permanent solution and permanent market” for farm products, she said.

“The outlook for all crops is pretty dire,” she said. “We’re looking at minimizing losses rather than maximizing profits.”

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