The 2022 Governor's race in Minnesota pitted incumbent Democrat Tim Walz against former State Senator and GOP nominee Dr. Scott Jensen. In the end, Walz cruised to another victory, and another statewide victory for the DFL in the state. That made it 16 straight years of DFL wins in statewide races.
Jensen talked to WCCO's Chad Hartman Show this week, and was introspective, reflective, and even apologetic when looking back on last year's campaign. He also says he feels "saner".
"I've got seven grandchildren six and under, my golf game's got a little better, I'm seeing patients four days a week," said Jensen. "I enjoyed the campaign immensely, but someone wins and someone loses. Tim Walz and the Democrats did a good job of running a stiff, firm campaign, they knew what their objectives were, and they won handily. I've had a chance to spend some time reflecting, just reconnecting with some of those foundational pieces in my life and it feels good."
Jensen is still critical of the Walz campaign for not doing more debates, something he said Minnesota deserved.
"This time around, we had not one debate that was televised across the state, for the whole state to participate in," says Jensen. "We had the limited public exposure in Rochester, had one by radio and we had the Farmfest one. I was frustrated."
Over the course of 2022's campaign, many political strategists said Jensen made crucial mistakes in taking a stance that alienated the crucial independent voters in the state and gave Walz and the DFL ammunition to use against their campagin.
That included Michael Brodkorb, the former deputy chair of the Republican Party of Minnesota, who was openly critical of the Jensen/Birk campaign on WCCO Radio, and on Twitter.
Jensen appeared on Brodkorb's podcast on July 20.
"I think at some level, I probably lost my way, in terms of maybe speaking from my intellect and from my heart," Jensen reflects. "I think you sometimes get wrapped up in the messaging. The mistakes that were made were truly all mine. I think I was a relatively naïve candidate that thought the idea of having to stay within their own guardrails maybe was a little overdone. In the end it wasn't. My willingness to engage in ill-advised comments caught up with me."
Jensen is also taking issue with how the state's Republican Party compares to the Democratic Party, giving credit to them for being prepared, being organized, and having plenty of money.
"No, we're not as effective. Absolutely not," says Jensen. "I don't think we have the money machine. I don't think we have the ability to respond to that negative, narrow narrative that so often times characterizes the Republican Party. I think there's a lot of folks who see the Republican Party as being less compassionate."
The money is a growing issue for Republicans with reports they're running out of it. The party says fundraising has "picked up" according to the Star Tribune, but that still leaves them at a significant deficit versus the state's DLF Party.
Another issue Jensen is raising is relevance, and he told Hartman one of the issues is the nominating process that pushes candidates to take stances that are getting further away from the middle.
"If we don't pull our head out of the sand, we really are irrelevant," Jensen says. "That's why I reacted last week when someone said 'it isn't the endorsement process.' It sure as hell is. If I'm getting beat up on this, this and this and you don't really get a chance to respond, the natural tendency is to outflank them on the right. And I think that was my mistake and I have to own that. The Scott Jensen in the Senate that was devil-may-care in the Senate that said we can have a conversation about anything. That's on me. It's nobody's doing but my own."
Jensen says the chase to get the nomination and avoid primaries can stifle creative thinking within the party.
The Issue of Abortion
In June, Jensen wrote an op-ed in the Star Tribune reconsidering his stance on abortion, an issue that hurt him considerably in the race against Walz. Jensen argues politicians aren't qualified to determine the state's abortion policy.
That issue created a major advantage for Democrats when it comes to independent, especially female voters. Jensen took a stand in May of 2022 on the Chad Hartman Show, saying he was supportive of a complete ban on abortion in Minnesota even for rape and incest. That stance was widely criticized by the Democrats and independent voters.
Jensen, who did backpeddle from that by the middle of the summer, said the damage was already done.
"I did not choose my words carefully enough, and I did not do enough thoughtful reflection on where do I really believe we should go, particularly in light of technological advances," says Jensen.
He adds that the Supreme Court's decision to end protections for abortion in the overturn of Roe v. Wade didn't help, creating an election issue he didn't see coming. Jensen says he felt pressured to move to the right on the issue to appeal to the far-right conservative base.
"It was, and really for that I do feel apologetic," Jensen said. "It was ill-advised and it was in the throws of that political rhetoric that goes on with me having this notion in my head that we always had Roe v. Wade as the backstop, we had Doe v. Gomez in Minnesota that provided even another level of protection. And I felt like the political rhetoric is rhetoric. We need to sort of make this strident remarks, knowing, thinking on my part that this wouldn't happen anyway because of all these guardrails that are up that would provide access. It was wrong on my part to do that."