It’s time Minnesota Republicans learn from their mistakes

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes a mix of guest commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Fifty-three. That’s the current number of senators Republicans will have when the new Congress is sworn in come January.

With Sen. Amy Klobuchar cruising to her easiest — and cheapest — win amid a landslide victory for Donald Trump and hard-fought wins for other Republicans across the country, Minnesota Republicans can only wonder if they could have been competitive against the now four-term senator if only they had a serious candidate capable of competing statewide.

From a Minnesota Republican who desperately loves Minnesota and wants to see Republicans be competitive and successful in a state that so desperately needs our voice in leadership, here’s this cycle’s hard truth: In order to win a statewide race for the first time since 2006, we must do a better job at candidate selection.

We failed Minnesotans in 2024 by choosing Royce White as our candidate. White is by far the worst candidate to run on the ballot to date — and that’s saying a lot considering Minnesotans allowed third-party candidate Jonathon Sharkey (a self-proclaimed vampire who claimed to drink animal blood) to run against Tim Pawlenty in the gubernatorial race in 2006. White’s failings are well documented, but Republicans legitimized him after he failed to cash in on his NBA career, MMA career and short-lived career as a Democrat activist.

Minnesotans voting in the general election saw what Republicans in charge of quality control failed to see or willfully ignored. The proof is in the election results.

President-elect Trump lost Minnesota by 4.2 percentage points, while White lost the state by 15.7 percentage points. It’s a trend that didn’t hold up for other Republicans across the state. In most cases, Republican congressional candidates’ vote totals remained closely aligned with Trump. In fact, Minnesota Republican congressional candidates overperformed Trump in 83 of 87 counties by an average of approximately 2.6 points per county, according to my analysis.

For White, it’s a completely different story. White underperformed both Trump and his fellow down-ballot Republicans by a significant margin. In 86 counties, Trump overperformed White by an average of 8.7 points. White’s support among Republicans drags even further compared to his congressional counterparts, with White trailing those Republican candidates by an average of 11.6 points per county. White’s biggest losses of Republican voters weren’t found in heavily populated counties, but in rural areas like Houston County where White trailed Congressman Brad Finstad by 20 points and Trump by 16.5 points.

While detractors will claim these are merely anecdotal, the Trump/Klobuchar counties also highlight our failings as a party. Scott and Carver counties, where Action for Liberty’s presence is growing and wildly supported White’s candidacy pre-primary, saw White lose to Klobuchar in reliant GOP areas Trump won. Meanwhile, Republicans, with the exception of White, were able to find success in counties like Anoka, Blue Earth, Nicollet, Beltrami and Winona. Furthermore, while White may claim this is the closest any Republican has come to defeating Klobuchar, we must remember that this is the first time Republicans have run against Klobuchar in a presidential year where the winds were in the GOP’s favor. In 2006, Klobuchar’s first win came at the height of the antiwar movement that saw George W. Bush’s approval numbers tank. In 2012, Klobuchar ran with a popular Barack Obama in office and a campaign that invested in states around the country. And 2018 marked a blue wave during Donald Trump’s first midterm — historically a huge loss for the party in power.

Ultimately, these trends — which only existed in the U.S. Senate race this year — occurred without negative advertising against White and minimal funds spent by Klobuchar on running a campaign against Republicans.

The reality is simple: When given the choice between White and Klobuchar, Minnesotans chose to skip the question altogether or to hold their nose and vote Democrat.

As White continues to scheme with a post-election announcement that could cost Minnesota Republicans a potential victory in 2026, we must do better. In 2024, Republicans chose an un-electable candidate in Royce White. Then Republicans rejected the un-electable candidate while giving President Trump and other down-ballot Republican candidates their vote. As we look ahead to 2026 — when Tim Walz, Tina Smith, Keith Ellison and others are on the ballot — we owe it to Minnesotans and to ourselves not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Preya Samsundar is a GOP communications consultant with K2 & Company. She has worked for Nikki Haley’s presidential super PAC, the Republican National Committee, President Donald Trump, and other Republican candidates around the country. She lives in Burnsville.