ROCHESTER, Minn. – The Republican state party endorsed business attorney Jim Schultz for attorney general at its state convention. It’s a bid to regain a state office that the GOP has not held since 1968. To convention delegates Schultz called himself a law-and-order outsider candidate. The Democrat incumbent, former Congressman Keith Ellison, is seeking a second term. Ellison has pursued consumer causes aggressively. Ellison’s greatest visibility was in 2021 in leading the prosecution team against killer-cop Derek Chauvin for the George Floyd murder. At the GOP convention in Rochester, Schultz defeated Doug Wardlow. In 2018 Wardlow lost to Ellison by four points. Wardlow was at the convention with Trump diehard Mike Lindell, the MyPillow proprietor who has perpetrated false election fraud theories. Wardlow is MyPillow’s attorney. He was endorsed by Lindell. A distant third at the convention was Tad Jude. Jude with in the Legislature from 1974 to 1989 and a Hennepin County judge from 2011 to 2021. There is still a chance for other candidates, besides Schultz, to win a place on the November ballot at the state pri,ary August 9.
Schultz. With law firm. Dorsey & Whitney. Also with investment firm Värde Partners. On Hennepin County Capital Budget task force. A Harvard Law grad. From Plymouth. Age: 36.