View this email as a web page

By Briana Bierschbach

Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Good morning and happy Monday. Temperatures stayed in the 60s all weekend and everyone within a quarter-mile radius of my house was out grilling on Saturday. My telltale sign of spring are the blue scilla flowers popping up all over. Is it foolish to think this is really it? 

Another sign of something to come: The Minnesota GOP has moved into a new phase of its fight with the far-right factions of the party. Over the weekend, Ryan Faircloth gave us a deeply reported profile of conservative group Action 4 Liberty, which has spent years attacking and primarying Republican lawmakers. 

Recently the state GOP’s executive committee took the unprecedented step of formally condemning the group, declaring that its leaders are more focused on “tearing down Republicans” than helping the party win elections. The rebuke was the culmination of years of pent-up frustration toward Action 4 Liberty, which rallied activists last year to oust former state GOP Chair David Hann, endorse far-right Republican Royce White for U.S. Senate and block GOP U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach from winning the party’s endorsement.

Faircloth notes this quote from GOP operative Preya Samsundar didn't make it into the final story:

“The Republican Party in this state has always been like the KGB right before the Iron Curtain fell. You’ve got all these different factions that operate under the Republican Party of Minnesota umbrella, but they’ve all got knives and bazookas and AKs pointed at each other threatening mass destruction,” Samsundar said. “And as we learned with the USSR, a house divided cannot stand. So it’s only a matter of time before this collapses.” Read more. 

Update on Senate president: The team is also keeping up with the latest the conflict-of-interest questions swirling around Senate President Bobby Joe Champion. Republicans in the Senate filed an ethics complaint against the DFL senator on Friday, alleging he violated the chamber’s rules when he helped steer state funds to a former legal client. 

Allison Kite reports that Champion, who also works as a private attorney, has been under scrutiny for advocating that a violence prevention nonprofit receive millions of dollars in state funding in 2023, just months after he had represented the organization’s founder in court. Champion didn't disclose his relationship with the nonprofit’s leader.

In a statement announcing the complaint, Sen. Michael Kreun, R-Blaine, called it a “clear and deeply troubling case of a public official using their legislative position to potentially benefit their private legal clients.” In a statement, Champion said he was aware of the complaint and noted he had voluntarily sought an advisory opinion (and stepped down) from the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct.

The ethics complaint requests that the ethics panel review the matter, including whether Champion’s conduct violates Senate rules prohibiting actions that discredit the Senate or undermine public trust in government. The subcommittee has 30 days to act on the complaint. Read more. 

First in Dish: Former Senate Minority Leader Melisa López Franzen will report raising more than $260,000 in the past three weeks in her campaign for the U.S. Senate. The April quarterly report is the first glimpse at fundraising efforts since DFL Sen. Tina Smith announced she wouldn't run for re-election in 2026. Franzen announced her campaign for the seat in early March.

She's the second DFL candidate to jump in the race after Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who recently announced several endorsements, including Attorney General Keith Ellison and former U.S. Sen. Al Franken. 

In a release about her campaign finance numbers, López Franzen said she's "deeply grateful to the nearly 500 Minnesotans who’ve already stepped up to invest in this movement. The energy is real, the urgency is clear, and we’re just getting started.”

She served a decade in the Minnesota Senate and rose to the position of DFL minority leader, helping to flip the chamber in the 2022 election. She left her seat after she was redistricted into the same turf as fellow DFL Sen. Ron Latz.

“Melisa is the champion Minnesota needs in the U.S. Senate,” campaign manager Edwin Torres DeSantiago said in a statement. “The response we’ve seen in just three weeks proves that Minnesotans are ready for a leader who doesn’t just talk about change — they’re ready for someone who makes it happen.”

Gov. Tim Walz is in Rochester this afternoon to discuss progress being made on Mayo Clinic’s $5 billion expansion in downtown.

Do you enjoy Hot Dish? Encourage your friends and family to sign up. You also can share it using the links below.

Voting-rights advocates in Minnesota are warning about the consequences of a measure passed by the U.S. House this week they say could disenfranchise millions of Americans.

Kyleand Jackson reports that the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, act bars residents from registering to vote in federal elections unless they provide documented proof of U.S. citizenship. The House passed the measure on a mostly party-line vote last week. Minnesota’s four House Republicans all voted in favor, and its four House Democrats were opposed.

The measure is unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate, even as its Republican backers argue it would restore widespread faith in the country’s election system and deter noncitizen voting. “It’s a straightforward measure to ensure that only eligible citizens participate in our democratic process,” said Alex Plechash, chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota.

Critics see an effort to create more hurdles to the constitutional right to vote. “It would introduce unprecedented chaos into our election system, not only in Minnesota but across the country,” Secretary of State Steve Simon said Friday. “We’re going to count on the U.S. Senate to stall or defeat this bill.” Read more.  

The Legislature is on spring break this week, but the House and Senate DFL are holding a town hall in Apple Valley at 6 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig is holding a separate town hall in Lakeville at 6 p.m. with other DFL legislators and John Helcl, a veteran who was terminated from the Department of Veterans Affairs.