Kendall Qualls announces run for MN Governor to packed house

The back room of the Rojo Mexican Grill in St. Louis Park was so packed last night that they had to stop letting people in due to fire codes. The doors to the oppressively hot room were opened to the sidewalk where the overflow crowd stood talking, waiting. I expected people to leave before Qualls began speaking, but they stayed. The last time I was in a room that hot with a packed crowd was when my son's band headlined at Station 4 in St. Paul. Both times people stayed because they were excited to be there to see the headliner take the stage and to listen.  

Last night's headliner was business leader Kendall Qualls, who took the stage to announce he is running to be Minnesota's next governor.

Despite the heat, there were smiles on the faces of the strikingly age- and racially-diverse crowd as Qualls delivered a message of hope for the people of Minnesota.

Qualls, who ran for the Republican nomination for governor in 2022, lost the nomination to Scott Jensen, who lost to Governor Tim Walz.

I remember Qualls from his 2020 run for the congressional seat eventually occupied by Dean Phillips. I was so impressed by him then that just last week while pondering a hopeless third term under Tim Walz I thought, "I wish Kendall Qualls would throw in his hat again." 

Last night, he did just that.

Yes, Qualls has run unsuccessfully for office before, but Qualls has demonstrated that he doesn't let anything keep him down. His is a quintessentially American story of a boy growing up in an impoverished broken home, working his way through college, serving his country, earning advanced degrees, and becoming a very successful business leader. As detailed on his website, KQforMN.com, Qualls shows he has the backbone to keep fighting to be Minnesota's governor and working hard to help Minnesota be a place where people want to live.

He talked of crime, of the fall of Minneapolis, of the out-of-control spending that led Tim Walz to oversee a financial landslide from an $18 billion surplus to a projected $6 billion deficit, even after inflicting $10 billion in tax hikes on the people of Minnesota. State spending under Walz "...gives drunken sailors a bad name," said Qualls.

He spoke of Minnesotans who have fled to states that have lower taxes and of restoring the broken state so people will "stay in Minnesota and raise families in Minnesota for generations." 

I could feel hope creeping in while fanning my face with his brochure as Qualls spoke. Standing there recalling the conversation I had with my family last weekend about leaving the expensive national embarassment that Minneosta has become for somewhere more liveable, this beautiful place in which generations of our family have lived and died, I thought, "Maybe if we just hold on. Maybe the people of Minnesota have had enough and will vote for change." 

Kendall Qualls seems to embody positive change for Minnesota's future. 

Qualls said we need to "attract the sensible center to join us to restore Minnesota to its former glory." That may worry some conservative Republicans who are already concerned about Minnesota's Republican Party running "just another RINO." But Qualls, who began his speech by congratulating Americans for delivering Donald J. Trump a presidential and popular vote victory and wants Minnesotans to follow suit and vote for change in 2026, seeks to bring everyone who loves Minnesota into the Republican party's newer, bigger tent.

He asked that we close the meeting with a prayer. The people responded with an enthusiastic "Amen" before bursting into applause. 

Kendall Qualls is running for Governor of Minnesota in 2026. There will be other candidates, and I will address them here as well. I left last night wanting to learn more about what this man, who seems to love Minnesota as much as I do, will do to save it. The people who came to hear him speak last night gave him a very warm welcome. I stepped into the cool breeze of a bustling city street with something I haven't had in too long--hope.

What is a New Republican?

I recall riding in the backseat of the car while my parents were talking politics. I was seven years old, and it was near the end of the Vietnam War. I asked, "Daddy, what's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?" 

He said, "Democrats like things to change, and Republicans like things to stay the same."

"Then I'm a Republican," I said, knowing that I didn't like it when things changed.

For a child whose life isn't all sunshine and roses, change often means negative things: Daddy loses his job, Mom has to start working, child is suddenly a latch-key kid at a time when that isn't a thing. Change can be scary. I think a lot of people are scared now, but not everyone.

What I love about American politics in this moment is the elasticity of the political parties. I used to scoff at Democrats who kept saying that in the post-reconstruction days of the Civil War, the political parties "flipped." Republicans became the racists and Democrats, who had overseen slavery and segregation, became the "tolerant" ones. (I think "tolerant" is a pejorative term as regards race--should we merely "tolerate" someone's race?)

Many on the right thought this was ridiculous because of President Obama's choice of Vice President, Senator Joe Biden, an old-school Democrat who not only palled around with KKK members but fought against school desegregation. (Kamala Harris' only factually accurate campaign moment was when she called Biden a racist during a 2020 Democratic primary debate.) Also, because of stats like the 17 percent of Democrats who said they wouldn't vote for Obama over McCain simply because of his race, which could be a reason to pick known-racist Biden as VP.

Republicans have long rejected this notion of the parties "flipping," but have they flipped now? If aversion to change is the metric, they certainly have. Other metrics have changed as well:

What is a "New Republican?" 

• A Trump voter or someone who didn't vote for Trump but who likes the policies coming out of the second Trump Administration. They realize the presidency isn't about who you'd like to have a beer with, it's about who's a more effective leader.
• New Republicans are patriotic but don't associate it with war. They're largely anti-war, especially for regime change or to benefit the Military Industrial Complex. In the past, you'd hear "Military Industrial Complex" uttered by Republicans only when making fun of liberals, but New Republicans recognize and are suspicious of these entities. Any military action must meet "America First" standards.
• They're willing to admit mistakes. I no longer agree with some things I wrote post 9/11. Many apologize for supporting the Iraq War. Events like realizing there were no weapons of mass destruction revealed to even the most patriotic Republicans that our government isn't always good just because it's ours. Obama's weaponization of federal agencies, like using the IRS as a weapon to audit conservatives, surveilling conservative journalists, or Biden's assault on religious liberty, speech and parental rights cemented the sad reality that our government isn't always on our side.
• New Republicans are fiscally conservative and hate government waste. This was given a lot of lip service by Republicans, but their actions didn't match their words. My late husband stopped identifying as Republican due to huge spending increases during G.W. Bush's presidency. It's still a problem, but New Republicans are more likely to call out their representatives for overspending.
• After years of proven government censorship, New Republicans are the Free Speech Party, a title ceded by the right during the McCarthy era anti-Communist hearings and claimed by the likes of the nakedly left-wing ACLU. The left now openly argues in favor of censorship. 
• They're younger and more racially diverse than ever.
• New Republicans love change--fast and sweeping, please. Known for their conservative values, Republicans have long been associated with keeping the status quo or returning to the past. While many still advocate conservative values like family, patriotism, and parental rights, most New Republicans want change. 
• In addition to "flipping" with Democrats on classical liberal issues, New Republicans are becoming more Libertarian than ever. The Dobbs decision led some pro-life Republicans to believe abortion education is a more effective strategy than outlawing it. Many Libertarians seem happy with a lot of the Trump Administration's policies, though they may disagree with implementation, like "due process" for illegal alien deportations. 

We've just passed the 100-day mark of Trump's second presidency. Change is happening so fast that a lot of people are freaked out by its pace and volume--mostly people on the left. The right voted for change, the change Trump ran on, and are thrilled to watch it happening at breakneck speed in real time. 

I was watching a TV interview today about military technological innovations and the new U.S./Ukraine minerals deal. The interview was followed by a White House Press Briefing about abolishing the Department of Education and Trump's signing an Executive Order to protect religious liberty, among many things. This is just one morning on Trump Time.

The left calls it "chaotic" and "destabilizing." Can some things, like tariffs, be destabilizing? Yes. Is that always bad? No. The New Republican party's position is that the status quo is unacceptably dangerous and change--rapid, immense change--is necessary for America's survival.

The left likes its change stirred nice and slow. The toxic brew of leftist ownership of media, academia and culture simmered to a boil during the Obama and Biden Administrations. There was a Trump Administration in between, but COVID seemed to erase a lot of what Trump tried to do. The rest was undone by Biden's executive orders and leftist tracks laid deep underneath Washington by Obama and his ilk running a parallel government that stopped Trump's progress. 

New Republicans saw their country dying before their eyes and moved to stop it by re-electing Donald Trump--a disrupter, change agent, a doer. Even Democrats knew the country was starving for change as they laughably tried to run the current Vice President as the "change" candidate. 

Changes coming out of Washington during this new Trump Administration are too numerous to list, but we all feel the inertia. Leftists reacted by self- infantilizing. Septuagenarians/octogenarians lead sit-ins and rallies at which they're all required to drop F-bombs, somehow managing to sound like they're headed to The Oval for a gangbang, and (oh my God) sing-alongs. It could work. The singing is so bad they might get what they want if it'll make them stop--like waterboarding or blasting Metallica to prisoners around the clock at Guantanamo Bay.

They've also returned to Fearmongering's Greatest Hits aimed at the elderly and disabled, making their 2012 "Throw Granny off a Cliff" ad campaign look like Sesame Street. Only the most craven politician goes out of his way to make the most vulnerable Americans think they're about to lose their Social Security and housing, especially while knowing it's not true. It's effective because these groups have disproportionately low incomes, which often leaves them with access solely to leftist media sources that put them in information silos the left counts on. 

But most New Republicans are happy. For example, Republicans overwhelmingly approve of DOGE, with a CBS News/YouGov poll showing 81 percent of Republicans think DOGE should have "a lot" or "some" influence over spending and operations of government agencies. New Republicans are excited about the prospect of aggressively saving taxpayer dollars, something that would have put people to sleep five years ago. Trump's immigration policy is overwhelmingly popular with New Republicans as well.

Sure, not all New Republicans love everything Trump's doing. I don't trust anyone who loves everything any politician does. It's sycophantic. I didn't love everything my husband did, and he was my husband. We should examine the policies of politicians we agree with and speak out if we don't agree. With our newer, bigger tent sheltering many high-profile former Democrats, New Republicans can do this in ways Democrats can't. For example, I'm not a fan of Trump's "Gold Card" for bringing in rich immigrants or his selling any merch like shoes, etc. I know conservative Republicans who feel Kilmar Abrego Garcia needs to come back to the U.S. for more "due process." Yet, when an illegal alien has been adjudicated deported twice, how much process is still due?

It's good to respectfully disagree with our own side, especially if we can foster debate and make sense while doing it. New Republicans are having a very good time under the second Trump Administration. Democrats are still going with "recite the talking points, fall in line, or get primaried/cancelled." 

If my Dad were still alive, I'd love to ask, "What's a Republican now, Daddy?" He was a politically savvy guy. I think he'd say they're people who love the Tilt-a-Whirl change the New Republican party espouses because they love the country they're trying to save, staying in place without change was not an option, and they're willing to go along for the wild ride even if they sometimes feel the need to hold on for dear life.

Democrats are on the sidelines watching, afraid, nauseated and weak. Change is too scary for them. Now they're the ones who want things to stay the same.