New Minnesota GOP leaders seek peace with party’s anti-establishment wing

The new leaders of Minnesota’s Republican Party want to make peace with anti-establishment activists heading into the 2026 election, when the governor’s office, Legislature and other statewide offices will be on the ballot.

Minnesota GOP Chair Alex Plechash, who was elected in December, said it’s time to resolve intraparty feuds and bring the so-called “grassroots” activists into the fold. The push for unity comes after the anti-establishment wing flexed its power last year, blocking an incumbent congresswoman from winning the GOP endorsement and helping far-right Republican Royce White clinch the party’s backing for U.S. Senate. White lost to Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar by about 16 percentage points.

“There has been a feeling from the grassroots — and I think that’s one of the reasons I got elected — that they weren’t paid attention to, and they were kind of shunned in a way,” Plechash said in an interview. “I’m out here to say, ‘No, we’re going to pay attention to everybody.‘

“The Republican Party prides itself on being the party of grassroots,” he said.

The Minnesota GOP has been plagued with infighting for years. Right-wing activists inspired by Donald Trump’s presidency have tried to reshape the party from the bottom up, backing uncompromising newcomers over more moderate candidates. Traditional conservatives have pushed back, saying the grassroots activists are undermining the GOP’s chances of winning elections.

That tension continued even after an election where Republicans swept into power in Washington and ended the DFL’s trifecta control of state government in Minnesota. At the Minnesota GOP’s state central committee meeting in December, party activists ousted David Hann in favor of Plechash.

Hann led the party for three years, helping it recover from a six-figure debt and break the DFL’s trifecta. But he had a tenuous relationship with the party’s increasingly influential grassroots activists.

“A lot of the older party individuals weren’t amenable to taking advice from the grassroots. I’m really glad that that has changed,” said Mike Murphy, a former GOP gubernatorial candidate aligned with the grassroots activists. “... It’s a breath of fresh air that they’re recognizing the failures of our past leadership and wanting to move our party forward.”

The leadership transition from Hann to Plechash was turbulent. In his final days as party chair, Hann moved to dissolve the Otter Tail County Republican Party, Plechash said.

The Otter Tail County GOP had fought for years with a group of confrontational activists who sought to take it over. Hann had to intervene when the grassroots activists hijacked the Otter Tail County GOP’s precinct caucuses last year and picked their own delegates to endorse candidates. Hann ultimately decided to invalidate the delegates picked by the grassroots activists, a move that put him at war with the party’s anti-establishment wing.

Plechash said Hann made the call to dissolve the Otter Tail County GOP on New Year’s Eve. When Plechash took over as chair on Jan. 2, he said he reversed the decision. He’s since been having “daily” conversations about how to resolve the conflict.

“The resolution in Otter Tail County will occur,” Plechash said. “We are paying attention to all vested interests, to include the grassroots, so that the solution that we roll out will include everyone. Some people may not be happy with the outcomes; some people will be very happy with the outcomes.”

Longtime Republican Harry Merickel was involved with the Otter Tail County GOP until he stepped away last year as the fighting worsened. He agreed with Hann’s decision to dissolve the local party unit, saying the conflict in Otter Tail County had become too dysfunctional and a distraction for the state GOP.

Merickel said he’s known Plechash for many years and wishes him the best. But he thinks efforts to appease the hardline activists are fruitless.

“These are people that talk about, ‘We need to rip out RINOs root and stem,’” Merickel said. “I’ve never seen anything that says they are interested in working as a cohesive unit for the party.”

The new Minnesota GOP leaders are taking a similar approach to working with Action 4 Liberty, a far-right group that antagonizes and encourages primary challenges against Republican state legislators.

State party leaders invited individuals from Action 4 Liberty to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration. They also invited former Minnesota GOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan but said she wasn’t able to attend.

“We’re ready to come together,” said Jennifer DeJournett, the state GOP’s new executive director. “That takes a bit of that, just like Otter Tail County, a little shuttle diplomacy.”

Action 4 Liberty touted the inauguration invite in a blog post on its website, writing that “A4L is clearly a threat to the Establishment and our invitation to attend the events in DC did not go unnoticed by the Swamp.”

“Despite rumors of threats to the party for this move, new MNGOP Chair Alex Plechash and leadership never rescinded the tickets, which may be a sign of a new beginning,” the post stated.

The inauguration invite didn’t stop Action 4 Liberty from attacking other Republicans. The group repeatedly slammed state House Republicans and their leader, Rep. Lisa Demuth, during a nearly four-week stalemate with the DFL. When the House GOP and DFL caucuses struck a deal Wednesday that gave Republicans the speakership for two years, Action 4 Liberty accused Republicans of “caving to liberal demands” and called them “unprincipled liars.”

Fed up with the attacks, even some of the state House GOP’s most conservative members pushed back.

“I’m calling on the @mngop to cut out the cancer of @action_liberty, to disqualify known associates of the grift operation from participating in party operations at any level,” state Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, wrote in a post on X.

Plechash and DeJournett said they believe fighting has only made things worse. The party’s various factions must be as united as possible heading into the 2026 election, they said.

“If we listen, if we have dialogue, it’ll be better than it would’ve been,” Plechash said.

The GOP chair has set an ambitious goal for 2026: A “clean sweep.” The governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor will all be up for election next year, as will Democratic U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, both chambers of the Legislature and Minnesota’s eight members of Congress.

Minnesota Republicans haven’t won a statewide election since Tim Pawlenty was re-elected governor in 2006. But Plechash said he thinks Minnesota is “so close to being a red state.” The state House and Senate are almost evenly split, and Republicans make up half of Minnesota’s U.S. House delegation.

Plechash hopes the party will back a strong candidate for governor to take on Walz, whom Republicans feel is vulnerable after being on the losing presidential ticket. Walz hasn’t yet said if he will seek a third term.

“I think it has to be a candidate that will secure the base but also appeal to the middle,” Plechash said, referring to the ideal GOP candidate for governor. “It’s been difficult to get somebody that can span that.”

Minnesota’s highest-ranking Republican in Washington, U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, recently ruled out a 2026 run for the governor’s mansion.

Preya Samsundar, a GOP operative in Minnesota who previously worked for the Republican National Committee, said the state party must get its house in order quickly. There will be promising opportunities in 2026 with Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and State Auditor Julie Blaha up for re-election, she said.

Republicans came about 8,400 votes short of defeating Blaha in 2022, and about 21,000 votes short of beating Ellison. The Minnesota DFL Party is also going through a big transition with Chair Ken Martin leaving to lead the Democratic National Committee.

“Republicans have a very good opportunity. Whether or not they choose to squander it is going to be entirely in our court,” Samsundar said. “We have a habit of squandering opportunities in the state with bad candidate picks and poor management overall.”