Meet Lisa Demuth, candidate for Minnesota governor | WCCO Election Guide
Lisa Demuth, the Republican nominee for governor, is the Minnesota House speaker from Cold Spring and was first elected to the House in 2018. She is running with Ryan Wilson, a Maple Grove attorney and former business owner.
Watch her 60-second video pitch and read below how she'd tackle Minnesota's top issues, from the state budget and schools to health care, public safety and fraud.
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Minnesota's next governor and legislature will need to negotiate a two-year state budget. What are your top three spending priorities, and how would you pay for them?
For the last 16 years, Democrats have controlled the governor's office, and we've watched as Minnesota, which once earned national recognition as "a state that works," has become the epicenter of a nationwide fraud scandal, and one of the most expensive places to live in the country. Minnesota is ready to write a new chapter, and I know I can lead Minnesota's comeback story. I'm the only candidate in the race who has balanced a budget and has a plan to make Minnesota an affordable state where families and businesses can thrive once again. I'm the only candidate who has a plan to reduce taxes for working families. We need to make our state more affordable for families and businesses. We need to make it safer. And we need to make sure our students are getting the education they deserve.
Many Minnesota school districts are facing funding shortfalls, staffing shortages, or declining enrollment. What specific policies would you pursue as governor to address K-12 school funding and staffing?
Minnesota schools need a dramatic reset. Despite years of increased investment, our test scores have stagnated and too many kids are moving through our education system despite failing to meet basic benchmarks for reading, writing, math, and science. As Governor, I will lead Minnesota's Education Comeback that puts academic excellence and reading proficiency at the center of our agenda. It's my goal to make Minnesota, once again, a top education state. Under two terms of Tim Walz, who Amy Klobuchar has praised as "an incredible governor" we have seen Minnesota slip from inside the top 10 in education to outside the top 20. I will fight to keep woke gender and racial ideology out of our classrooms and focus dollars in the classroom instead of on growing the education bureaucracy that is driving up local property taxes across Minnesota. Read my education plan at lisaformn.com
What would you do as governor to lower health care costs and expand access to care for Minnesota families, including in rural parts of the state?
Amy Klobuchar spent 20 years in D.C. promising to lower health care costs, but since she was first elected, out-of-pocket costs for families have more than doubled. As House Speaker, I've fought to continue Minnesota's nation-leading reinsurance program - formed because of Amy Klobuchar's failed health care policies - and worked to give families more health plan options. As Speaker, I led bipartisan negotiations around hospital funding, including a rescue plan for Hennepin County Medical Center, which came together without needing to increase a county sales tax, in addition to authorizing millions of dollars for rural hospitals. As Governor, I will continue my bipartisan work to support rural hospitals and make sure health care dollars only go to those who need it instead of to fraudsters and illegal immigrants. As a legislator I voted to cap insulin prices. As Governor, I'll work to make sure Minnesotans have more affordable healthcare choices.
What would you do as governor to address public safety and crime, and how would you balance that with concerns about criminal justice reform?
Too often, anti-law enforcement politicians let violent criminals out to reoffend and hurt more Minnesotans. Under a Demuth-Wilson administration, justice will return to Minnesota. No longer will criminals be treated as victims and actual victims ignored. Last week I released my plan to make Minnesota safer, which contains a number of measures that crack down on crime, protect kids, support law enforcement and punish fraudsters.
My Public Safety Plan – which I invite voters to read at lisaformn.com – outlines several anti-crime measures I will propose and implement as Governor. Those include: "Three Strikes" for violent crimes, increased penalty for fleeing police, increased penalty for assaulting a peace officer, ending open-air drug markets and "homeless" camps, increased safety at the University of Minnesota, bolstered funding for Violent Crime Enforcement Teams, and ensuring local government aid is first used for basic services like police.
Minnesota has lost billions of dollars to fraud in state-administered programs in recent years. What would you do as governor to strengthen oversight and prevent this kind of fraud from happening again?
In January, the Demuth-Wilson ticket launched its Fraud Prevention Plan to end the culture of fraud that the Walz administration allowed to ravage our state. One of my top priorities as House Speaker was the creation of an independent Office of Inspector General with law enforcement authority, which I delivered for Minnesota this last session. I encourage voters to read our plan at lisaformn.com
Families and providers that are doing everything right are being punished and swept up into the tsunami of fraud enabled by Democrats. My message to the disability community and others that rely on these funds: Help is on the way. You don't deserve to be collateral damage in the Democrat-enabled fraud epidemic. As Governor, I will fire all existing commissioners and replace them with experts in their respective fields who are committed to ending the culture of fraud.