It was a testy final debate between Democratic Governor Tim Walz and his Republican challenger Dr. Scott Jensen on Minnesota Public Radio and Rochester TV station KTTC Friday.
On the topic of education, Jensen blamed Walz for pandemic-related learning slides among Minnesota schoolkids.
“Tim just said a few minutes ago, ‘Minnesota’s got some of the best schools in the country.’ I don’t know where that fluff comes from,” said Jensen. “Quite frankly, Minnesota K-12 education is in trouble.”
Walz says the state has made historic investments in education.
“Being governor means lifting this state up,” Walz responded.
“It doesn’t mean getting everything right, it doesn’t mean ignoring problems.
It means putting solutions out, and working with the people who are going to make it happen.”
In a retort, Jensen said he “almost fell asleep” listening to Walz.
Then handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was another big topic of the debate, with Jensen highly-critical of the Walz administration.
“But I think the locking out of kids was horrible, I think the locking in of nursing home patients to die a lonely death,” Jensen said about the COVID response. “And to see Tim Walz’ commissioner of the Department of Health, Jan Malcom, working with her staff to try to find a way to deflect that responsibility on emails where they’re trying to blame parents and kids, I think that was horrible.”
Governor Walz says Jensen personally contributed to the state's COVID challenges.
“Telling people not to wear the mask, he can’t even practice in hospitals because he can’t follow their procedures,” Walz says. “He mentioned, his license has been investigate five times. It’s currently being investigated now. This reckless, dangerous behavior, this pushing internet conspiracy theories, made our job even harder.”
The latest polls shows a neck and neck race between Walz and Jensen, with just over a week to go before Election Day.
There were only two debates between Walz and Jensen, plus a forum at Farmfest in August. There were six debates in 2018 between Walz and GOP challenger Jeff Johnson.
The Public Radio debate took place at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul with only media and campaign staff in attendance.
NOTE: Dr. Scott Jensen will be on WCCO Radio with Blois Olson on Sunday Take at 9:00 a.m. October 30. Governor Tim Walz was offered the same opportunity but declined the appearance.
Related
Related
