Keith Downey, a former chairman of the state Republican Party, joined the race for governor Monday with a promise to vastly cut the size of Minnesota's government.
Downey led the state GOP from 2013 to April of this year. Before that, he served two terms representing the Edina area in the Minnesota House. His lost in his last bid for public office, a state Senate race in 2012. Before entering politics he worked as a private consultant to business as well as state and local governments.
As the chairman of the Minnesota Republican Party, Downey said, he worked to significantly cut spending, ultimately reducing the party's sizable debt load by more than half. Now he wants to bring a similar approach to the Capitol, with a pledge to reduce the size of state government by 15 percent in four years.
"I think that's a track record we can run on," Downey said. "We cut our costs, we cut our debts, and we won elections. I think that's a model people will respond to for state government."
A cut of that size to state spending would be hard to pull off: The total size of Minnesota's government has grown year over year for decades, under both Republican and DFL governors.
Republican candidates won no statewide races in 2014 or 2016 under Downey's leadership, but did win control of the state House in 2014 and the state Senate in 2016.
Downey said his time in the private sector positions him well with voters looking for a change.
"There is a great opportunity for an outsider candidate, somebody with business experience, somebody with a solid track record of reforming state government, to get in this race and go directly to the people with that positive message: that we do believe in them," he said at a news conference.