Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Tina Smith weigh in on Donald Trump's Minnesota visit

May 17—ST. PAUL — Ahead of former President Donald Trump's visit to St. Paul to headline the Minnesota GOP's Lincoln Reagan dinner, DFL leaders touted incumbent President Joe Biden's record.

Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Tina Smith held a press conference Friday, May 17, 2024, at the Minnesota State Capitol. Walz said he had hoped Trump would have kept his 2020 campaign promise that if he'd lost Minnesota, he wouldn't return to the state.

Walz had remarked earlier this week that he hopes Trump pulls a "hat trick" in 2024 having failed to carry the state in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections.

The Minnesota GOP announced earlier this month that Trump would be headlining the party's annual Lincoln Reagan fundraising dinner.

Minnesota Trump campaign chair and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer was set to co-host the Friday dinner.

"Joe Biden's failed policies are showing Minnesotans each day that President Trump is the only choice to lead our country forward," he said in a statement announcing the dinner.

Asked if he believed the state was in play for a GOP win in 2024, Walz said the DFL is not taking things for granted, but pointed to the DFL's recent track record. Republicans haven't won a statewide election since 2006, he noted.

"We also know that Donald Trump was beaten by seven points," he said. "But we also know we're not going to take it for granted, we're working hard, we've got folks hired on the ground."

Walz said Trump's baseless claim that he won Minnesota in 2020 is "an affront to our democracy."

Walz pointed to infrastructure funding coming to Minnesota from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was passed under the Biden administration. He also noted Minnesota is set to receive $120 million in federal funding from the U.S. CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) and Science Act toward a planned $525 million expansion of the Polar Semiconductor plant in Bloomington. The project will create an estimated 160 jobs, state officials said.

Walz said Trump has promised to do away with the Obama-era Affordable Care Act if elected. Walz said that promise would mean approximately 200,000 Minnesotans would lose access to health insurance.

"I'm going to go ahead and make the bet that we can get those 200,000 votes," he said.

Expanding on health care policies, Sen. Smith believes another Trump term could result in medicinal abortions being outlawed. She said the rollback of nationwide abortion rights and subsequent state abortion bans are a direct result of Trump's policies and appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Let's be clear, these are Trump abortion bans," she said.

Minnesota remains an "island" of accessible care in a "sea of abortion bans," Smith added.

Walz also dismissed Trump's recent claim that he helped end the unrest following George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis Police in May 2020.

"I can tell you being there every step of the way and every minute, Donald Trump had nothing constructive to do with that," he said, crediting coordination with former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper to help end the unrest.

Trump's administration also failed to help prepare states for the COVID-19 pandemic, Walz added.

"We were fighting in a Hunger Games style with other states for ventilators," he said.

In the final hours of the 2024 legislative session, Walz commented on multiple issues still up in the air. However, he adamantly declined to even comment on the likelihood of a special session.

"I have a new rule," he said. "I will not talk (about a) special session when we're in session."

House DFL Leaders have said they will move forward with a vote on drafting an equal rights amendment that contains protections for gender identity and pregnancy outcomes to go on a statewide ballot in 2026. Republicans have said they would withhold votes on a capital investment bonding package unless the measure is tabled. The proposal is likely to be voted on this weekend.

Republicans believe the amendment could limit religious freedom.

"Equality is not a political stunt. We believe in equal rights under the law. And the underlying bill does not provide that," House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said in an MRP story . "It would be unconscionable to enshrine favoritism and inequality in the Minnesota State Constitution."

Walz said brinkmanship over bonding is typical.

"I don't think you want to stop projects in your home district water treatment plants, public safety events, things like that because you're unwilling to have Minnesotans vote on a piece of civil rights legislation," Walz said. "I think a lot of this is hyperbole at this time."

Negotiations are also ongoing not just among legislators but rideshare companies on legislation outlining minimum compensation for drivers. Walz said he's confident a compromise can be reached in the waning hours of the session.

"We want to make sure people are compensated fairly, but we want to make sure these services remain here," Walz said. "We're asking the ride-share programs, 'What can you live with that's not the status quo?'"

On another hanging matter, Walz also said he's not feeling urgency in passing cannabis cultivation guidelines. He said he wants the state's rollout of legally grown cannabis to be smooth.

"Whenever we roll it out, it will be the earliest Minnesota has ever passed it," he said.