Keith Ellison wins reelection in Minnesota attorney general race, CBS News projects

Keith Ellison has won a third term as Minnesota attorney general, CBS News projects.

Ellison, a former congressman, defeated Republican Ron Schutz, a longtime attorney who spent 39 years at the law firm Robins Kaplan.

The DFL has held the office for 60 years, and the last Republican to hold it left in 1971. Ellison won reelection in 2022 by about 20,000 votes.

What to know about the Minnesota attorney general race

• Ellison, a former congressman, was a two-term DFL incumbent. Schutz spent 39 years as an attorney and partner at Robins Kaplan.
• Fraud and the Trump administration were central issues. Ellison had sued the administration more than 70 times, and Schutz said Ellison had not done enough to stop the state's fraud scandal.
• Most of the advertising came from outside groups. A WCCO analysis found ads against both candidates often left out context or were partly or entirely false.

Who ran for Minnesota attorney general?

Ellison left Congress to become attorney general. At an Oct. 2 debate hosted by Minnesota Public Radio, he said his "core goal is to help people afford their lives."

Schutz is the former chair of the Center for the American Experiment, a Minnesota-based conservative think tank, according to WCCO reporting. Ellison and Schutz were the DFL and Republican nominees.

What did Ellison and Schutz say about fraud?

Schutz said Ellison had not done enough to stop fraud, pointing to the $250 million Feeding Our Future case. Ellison said his office had won about 350 Medicaid fraud convictions.

Schutz disputed that figure, saying many of those cases ended in stays of adjudication, which he argued are not convictions. Ellison said Schutz was wrong about the convictions and that a stay of adjudication carries consequences.

Schutz said he wanted the attorney general's office to play a bigger role in criminal cases statewide. At the debate, he framed the race as a choice between a career trial lawyer and a politician.

How did they differ on lawsuits against the Trump administration?

Ellison had joined other Democratic attorneys general in suing the Trump administration more than 70 times. He said the lawsuits had kept more than $7.3 billion in federal money flowing to Minnesota. They included challenges to Operation Metro Surge, a Trump administration operation in Minnesota, cuts to SNAP and Medicaid and the president's tariffs.

Schutz called the lawsuits "theater" and questioned why Ellison joined cases that California's attorney general led, saying the cases were not filed in Minnesota.

Ellison also pointed to consumer work he said included capping insulin at $35 a month, enforcing wage theft laws and suing John Deere over farmers' right to repair equipment. Schutz dismissed the idea that the office could help keep prices down. Ellison said Schutz owned stock in companies the office had sued, including John Deere and Meta.

What do polls say about the Minnesota attorney general race?

The most recent polls showed Ellison with a narrow lead within the margin of error, WCCO reported Sunday.

What did the ads and outside spending look like?

Ellison and Schutz each raised just over $1 million. As of early October, state records showed outside money against Ellison topping outside money against Schutz by at least 4 to 1, WCCO reported.

Neither candidate controlled the outside groups and, by law, they could not coordinate with them. One ad from Minnesotans for Justice said Ellison pardoned a man convicted of child rape. The state Board of Pardons, which includes Ellison, Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, voted unanimously to grant the pardon. The victim, now an adult, had asked the board to do so, and the man has since been deported, WCCO reported.

An ad from A Better Minnesota said Schutz led a group recently connected to white supremacists. WCCO found no evidence tying Schutz to white supremacists or hate groups, and none of the organizations that track hate groups considers the think tank one.

How close have past races been?

The last Republican to hold the office left in 1971. Ellison won reelection in 2022 by about 20,000 votes.