Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison elected to third term

Minnesota voters re-elected Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison to a third term Tuesday, handing him another four years to pursue his pledge to be a check on the Trump administration and large corporations. 

Ellison beat out Republican patent lawyer and conservative activist Ron Schutz, who ran a largely sleepy campaign that included few public events and just one news conference without taking questions from reporters. 

The race still drew big outside spending, totaling more than $12 million. Republicans tried to persuade voters to oust Democratic leaders over the sprawling scandal of fraud in state-run safety net programs that has come to light in recent years.  

Ellison defended his record on fighting fraud, boasting that his Medicaid fraud unit has won more than 350 convictions during his tenure. His office issued a flurry of news releases about cracking down on fraudsters. 

The Attorney General’s Office has served as a bulwark against the Trump administration, particularly for funding cuts to healthcare, education and food assistance. Ellison’s office has filed or joined 80 lawsuits against the Trump administration since the start of the second term, challenging tariffs, executive orders limiting birthright citizenship, Operation Metro Surge and more. 

Ellison ran with the slogan “afford your life,” a phrase he’s used long before affordability entered the national discourse. Ellison touted his record going after big corporations like John Deere and Ticketmaster as well as lesser known businesses for defrauding consumers, stealing workers’ wages and exploiting tenants. 

Ellison’s victory keeps alive major litigation against Big Oil. Ellison’s office has accused Exxon Mobil and other oil interests of defrauding Minnesotans by concealing what they knew about fossil fuel’s impact on the environment and global warming specifically. 

Schutz promised to be apolitical and lean on his experience as a trial lawyer to combat fraud and prosecute violent crime, even though the vast majority of crime is prosecuted by county attorneys, not the attorney general. He mostly avoided criticizing the Trump administration, but he also would not say if he opposed any of the lawsuits Ellison’s office filed. 

For Schutz, there is one significant upside to losing: He won’t have to relinquish control of his vast stock portfolio, which he committed to doing after the Reformer reported on his potential conflicts of interest.