‘The path to restoring Minnesota to the once great state that it was is [by] returning to the Constitution and the founding principles of our republic.’
A group of Minnesota Republican lawmakers is preparing to launch the state’s first-ever freedom caucus next week, The Federalist has learned. The revelation comes a week after a coalition of West Virginia Republicans created their own freedom caucus and makes Minnesota the 15th state to form such a body.
“The path to restoring Minnesota to the once great state that it was is [by] returning to the Constitution and the founding principles of our republic. That’s why this [freedom caucus] is needed,” Minnesota Freedom Caucus Chair (MNFC) and GOP Sen. Eric Lucero told The Federalist.
Set to officially launch on Monday, the seven-member MNFC is seeking to put a stop to the “continued growth of government, both in spending and in the encroachment into people’s lives,” according to Lucero. The Republican lawmaker said such trends have remained persistent problems across both parties throughout the 12 years he’s served in the state legislature. He also pointed to numerous scandals plaguing the North Star State in recent years that have gone unaccounted for.
“Before Covid, we had George Floyd. We had Gov. [Tim] Walz through Covid. We have had the billions and billions of dollars of fraud. All of these things have been occurring in Minnesota,” Lucero said. “These strain[s] and direct violations of the Constitution are why a Minnesota Freedom Caucus is needed.”
It’s no secret that Minnesota has had major money mismanagement issues. Massive fraud scandals involving welfare and other social services programs (particularly among Minnesota’s Somali population) have drawn nationwide attention to the state’s gross misuse of taxpayer dollars.
Tackling both parties’ “habitual abuse” of the omnibus spending process — in which “hundreds and hundreds of individual bills are packed into a handful of super omnibus bills” — will be among the chief priorities for the MNFC, according to Lucero. The MNFC chair noted that confronting election integrity issues will also be a top agenda item — specifically when it comes to Minnesota’s insecure voting practices.
“We are a sanctuary state. We issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. We g[a]ve taxpayer-subsidized health care to illegal aliens. We allow them to go to higher education on the taxpayer dollar and many, many additional benefits,” Lucero said. “Therefore, as a sanctuary state, many are gravitating to Minnesota to take advantage of the weak processes and generous handouts that Minnesota offers. Along with that, the mindset then becomes the impugning of our elections.”
The MNFC chair’s comments come as grassroots activists pressure congressional Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, a bill that would mandate voter ID in federal elections and require proof of citizenship when registering to vote. The measure is currently pending in the Senate and all but requires Republican senators to force Democrats into a talking filibuster to have any chance of getting it passed.
Lucero acknowledged that the Freedom Caucus possesses limited political power to pass key legislation into law given the state’s divided House and Democrat-controlled Senate and governor’s mansion. In the meantime, however, he noted that the group will do what it can to disrupt the status quo in the legislature and serve as a “beacon” that draws Americans’ attention to the corruption across the state.
“The shift of the Democrat Party, pushing Minnesota into Marxism and socialism, has resulted in the pain that Minnesotans are feeling. The purpose of the Minnesota Freedom Caucus is to be that beacon that proposes the solutions,” Lucero said. “We don’t need more government. We don’t need to spend more money. We simply need to get back to the basics.”
Speaking with The Federalist, State Freedom Caucus Network (SFCN) President Andy Roth revealed how his organization will collaborate with the MNFC to help advance its agenda in the state. He noted how conservative state lawmakers often lack the resources (“consultants, staffers, press team”) possessed by governors and legislative leadership (“the swamp”) and described how SFCN will step in to fill that void.
State director Paul Tuschy “will be on the ground in Minnesota, reading the bills, making vote recommendations, talking with the grassroots, and then — because of his employment with the network — he’ll have access to all of our other states and all of the things that are going on there, so that we can compare notes and … apply best practices to Minnesota,” Roth said. “Whether it’s national media support for when something blows up in Minnesota [or] legal support, [we’ll provide] all sorts of things to help level the playing field.”
The MNFC will officially kick off during a Monday morning press conference at the Minnesota State Capitol.
