Keith Ellison: I'll keep protecting rights, safety, pocketbooks

Alec Smith was a young man who was on his way to making it in the world. He had a good job at a restaurant. He was also a diabetic. When he turned 26 and was kicked off his mother's health insurance, he couldn't afford his insulin on his own, so he started rationing it.

Alec's life mattered — but he died of ketoacidosis from rationing his insulin at age 26 because he couldn't afford his life.

"Everybody counts, everybody matters" has been my guiding principle for my career in public service. As your attorney general for the last four years, it means I've helped people afford their lives and live with safety, dignity and respect. It means I've protected Minnesotans' pocketbooks, safety and freedoms — no matter where you live, what you look like or how much money you make, no exceptions.

I've fought for a fair economy that works for everyone. I've protected Minnesotans when corporate predators scam seniors and homeowners, take advantage of students and renters, or gouge farmers and rural consumers. I've sued Big Pharma for illegally price-fixing drugs that people like Alec Smith need to live. I've put tens of millions of dollars directly back into Minnesotans' bank accounts by suing corporate bad actors and winning. It's all to help folks afford their lives and help build communities where people thrive and have hope for the future.

At a time when our most basic personal freedoms are under attack, I've also fiercely protected Minnesotans' right to choose the health care they want, including abortion care. I always will.

I've kept people safe. I'm at the national forefront of holding opioid companies accountable for the death and destruction they've caused. As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars have started to flow to Minnesota communities. I fought nursing-home fraud. I sued landlords for unsafe living conditions. I sued a gun retailer for negligently selling guns that were used in violent crimes. I sued JUUL for addicting our youth to nicotine.

In the important and defined role Minnesota law assigns to the attorney general, I've taken on the prosecution of violent criminal cases when county attorneys have referred them to me. I haven't lost one. That includes dozens of cases of murder, sexual assault and manslaughter, across the state — including convictions for the attempted murder of an Albert Lea police officer and for the murder of George Floyd.

I've fought in the Legislature for more resources to do more criminal prosecutions four years in a row. And I'm the only candidate who has been endorsed by county attorneys. Those endorsements come from your locally elected prosecutors, representing 2 million Minnesotans from all over the state.

My opponent Jim Schultz is playing politics with your safety by deliberately misleading you about fighting crime. He's making promises he simply can't keep under the very plain language of Minnesota law, and he thinks we won't notice. And he's pledging to "take a sledgehammer" to our 60-year history of consumer protection to pay for the promise he can't legally keep.

The work I've done as your attorney general is rooted firmly in the tradition of attorneys general who've protected Minnesotans from predators and the powerful.

Maybe Schultz's problem is he simply doesn't understand the law — after all, he's never set foot in a courtroom. It defies common sense that someone could try out to be Minnesota's top lawyer without courtroom experience. It's like trying out for the Major Leagues after playing Little League. Or maybe he does know he can't keep the promises he's making and is preying on fear and division just to get elected.

When it comes to personal freedoms, Schultz has promised he'll "go on offense, offense, offense" to dismantle your right to abortion. He served on the board of a fake abortion clinic that preys on vulnerable women. He served on the board of an organization dedicated to making abortion "not only illegal, but unthinkable." He even pledged to support a six-week abortion ban.

He's now trying to cover his tracks by calling the right to abortion "settled law." But "settled law" is exactly what Justices Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Coney Barrett called the 49-year Roe v. Wade precedent — until they threw it out. Minnesotans have seen this before. We won't be fooled again.

Through all the challenges we've faced in the last four years — including the COVID-19 pandemic and the murder of George Floyd — I've tried to bring people together, help folks afford their lives and build hope for our future. I've been an attorney general who protects people's pocketbooks, freedoms and safety, not one that attacks them and exploits fear. With your vote, I'll keep being that attorney general for all Minnesotans — no exceptions.

Keith Ellison is attorney general of Minnesota.

Opinion editor's note: Jim Schultz has repeatedly denied that he has ever pledged to support a six-week abortion ban, as Keith Ellison wrote in this commentary. Several Star Tribune news stories have explored the candidates' views on abortion and the dispute over this DFL claim: "Minnesota DFL slams GOP attorney general candidate over questionnaire he calls 'categorically false'" (Sept. 30) and "Roe's fall raises stakes in Minnesota attorney general race" (July 18).