Minnesota’s attorney general race is honing in on two of the most consequential issues this election cycle — fraud and President Donald Trump.
Both candidates have a considerable punching bag when it comes to attacking their opponent. Ron Schutz has blasted DFL Attorney General Keith Ellison for not doing more to stop fraud in the state’s social service programs. Meanwhile, Ellison argues that Schutz would be a rubber stamp for the Trump administration.
“The battle here is, what is the referendum in this race?” said Larry Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota. “Is it a referendum on fraud, in which case Keith Ellison is vulnerable, or is it a referendum on Donald Trump?”
A recent KSTP/Survey USA poll shows Schutz with a slight lead for the first time this election cycle. Ellison is polling higher with 18-34 year olds, women and moderates, but 21 percent of moderates say they’re still undecided. It’s common for the sitting president’s party to lose power in midterm elections, but Ellison has struggled to reach voters outside the urban core of the Twin Cities. As Gov. Tim Walz sailed to reelection in 2022, Ellison beat his Republican opponent by less than one percentage point.
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“The 20 percent [of undecided moderates] is the key,” Jacobs said. “They’re not locked in on the challenger, but there’s something about the incumbent that’s keeping them from supporting the incumbent. What they’re really saying is: ‘I’m undecided if I’m going to support the incumbent.’”
Both candidates are sitting on large stockpiles of money, according to campaign finance reports released last week. Ellison is currently trailing Schutz in cash on hand, $675,000 to $1 million respectively, but Schutz loaned his campaign $450,000 days before the reports were due. More than $5.1 million has been spent on the race by outside groups.
Attorney general’s role in suing and prosecuting
Fraud and the Trump administration’s actions, like Operation Metro Surge this winter, are issues candidates are grappling with up and down the ballot, and the attorney general’s office has legal sway on both issues.
On behalf of the state of Minnesota, the attorney general can sue a presidential administration, something Ellison has done 75 times during the second Trump administration, according to a spokesperson.
The attorney general’s office could also play a role in prosecuting the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the two Minnesotans killed by immigration enforcement officials last January. The attorney general’s office could help the Hennepin County attorney’s office if they bring state charges against federal agents involved. The governor of Minnesota can also designate the attorney general to handle high-profile prosecutions. After a legal fight, Ellison’s office received evidence from the federal government related to both shootings and state officials are currently weighing a charging decision.
“I am 100 percent committed to getting to the truth and getting to accountability regarding these two homicides,” Ellison said. “I’m the guy who led the prosecution regarding the murder of George Floyd, so I don’t think there’s any real doubt that I’m committed to finding justice, no matter where and no matter who it involves. I cannot say that for my opponent.”
But Schutz, a trial lawyer and Army veteran, has an advantage when it comes to fraud, an issue Minnesota Democrats have repeatedly fumbled over the past several years. Ellison has become one of the faces of Minnesota’s fraud scandal, which prompted Walz to suspend his reelection campaign. In March, Ellison and Walz testified about Minnesota’s fraud scandal at a Republican-led congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (left) and Attorney General Keith Ellison sit during a U.S. House oversight committee hearing on March 4.
David Peterliz | KARE 11
Ellison met with a group of business owners that included now-convicted members of the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal a month before the first search warrant was issued, according to leaked audio of the meeting. Ellison said he frequently meets with constituents and wasn’t aware of specific allegations involving fraud.
The Attorney General’s office also oversees Minnesota’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, a 50-person division that prosecutes businesses and individuals stealing Medicaid dollars or neglecting vulnerable victims. Since 2019, the office has convicted more than 350 people of Medicaid fraud, but Schutz argues Ellison isn’t doing enough to prevent fraud as attorney general.
“Every single case that’s prosecuted in that office related to Medicaid fraud is reactive,” Schutz said last Tuesday during an interview at the Minnesota Star Tribune’s North Star Summit. “There is zero evidence I’ve seen where the attorney general is taking any proactive measures.”
The bulk of the attorney general office’s work deals with civil matters, like consumer protection, and is limited in its criminal authority. The office has specific authority to prosecute Medicaid fraud. Schutz declined an interview for this story, but both he and Ellison have agreed to participate in a debate hosted by MPR News on Friday.
“We have a serious issue, which fraud is, and I see Republicans in Minnesota opportunistically trying to use it as a political weapon,” Ellison said. “We’ve been working hard to solve the problem, they’ve been working hard to pin the problem on us.”
Minnesota hasn’t had a Republican attorney general since 1971, and hasn’t had a Republican governor since Tim Pawlenty left office in 2011. Based on the outcome of Minnesota’s gubernatorial race, it’s possible that for the first time in 15 years, the governor and attorney general’s office could be held by different parties.
For the past eight years, Walz and Ellison have been in lockstep, a partnership most evident during times Minnesota has been thrust into the national spotlight — the death of George Floyd and the subsequent murder trial of police officer Derek Chauvin in which Ellison was the lead prosecutor, the assassination of Melissa and Mark Hortman and Operation Metro Surge.
The two began their freshman terms in Congress together in 2007. A win for a Republican in either race could impact that intra-party alliance.
