Two Minnesota GOP Candidates Punched on Campaign Trail


Two Republican candidates running for state office in Minnesota were attacked while out on the campaign trail over the weekend – leaving one with a concussion.

State Representative Sarah Anderson of Plymouth said she had confronted a man for kicking her campaign sign when he charged at her. First-time candidate Shane Mekeland of Becker said he suffered a concussion after a man punched him in the face at a Benton County restaurant.

Plymouth Police and the Benton County Sheriff said they had opened investigations into the incidents. Both candidates said they were stunned by their assailants.

“The idea that they will physically attack me, that is un-Minnesotan, that is not how we operate, and that’s not how we solve problems in the state,” Anderson said.

Mekeland said he had stopped at a restaurant Friday to ask if he could hold a campaign event there. He was talking to a few people around a high-top table when a man in the group punched him “out of nowhere.”

Mekeland said he fell backward and blacked out when he hit the floor. He said he’d been discussing health care and taxes with the man, who at first seemed to agree with his positions.

“The last thing I heard is him say – I’ll keep out the colorful language – ‘You bleepin’ people don’t give a bleep about the middle class,’” Mekeland recalled.

Benton County Sheriff Troy Heck said he expected his office to take 7-10 days to do an investigation. Mekeland said police had already interviewed his assailant. He showed Fox 9 a medical document that confirmed his concussion diagnosis.

Anderson said the man kicking her campaign sign Sunday afternoon said he was an anarchist and that Anderson should kill herself. She said she drove to a nearby gas station where she tried to get a photo of the man as he walked down the road.

That’s when Anderson said he charged and prevented her from shutting her car door.

“That’s when he just hauled off and punched me in the arm,” she said. “Then I put the car in reverse to just get out of there.”

The attacks came days after the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party suspended a communications staffer – for only one week – after he wrote in a Facebook post that Democrats would “bring [Republicans] to the guillotine” in the coming elections.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has suspended communications staffer William Davis for one week without pay after making a Facebook post joking that Democrats would “bring [Republicans] to the guillotine” on Nov. 7, the day after the midterm elections. Minnesota Republican Party chairman Jennifer Carnahan said the suspension was not enough, calling for his immediate firing in the aftermath of separate attacks against Republican candidates. She said she has been subjected to numerous death threats during her tenure as the state party leader and that death threats are no laughing matter.

“The overt hatred and violence that has become prevalent from many Democrats towards Republicans in recent times is unlawful, unacceptable, and downright scary,” she said in an email. “Yes, we have free speech and the right to peacefully assemble, but these words and actions by the left have gone too far. … He should have been terminated immediately.”

DFL officials did not respond to request for comment.

Source: Fox9, Free Beacon



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