ST. PAUL, Minn. — The 2022 Republican candidate for governor, Scott Jenen, who is running again, named Phouthaivanh Wilkerson as his running mate. Wilkerson is a 30-year veteran with the Hennepin County sheriff’s office in Minneapolis. Her work is mostly recruitment and public engagement. Wilkerson said she reached out to Jensen to be his running mate. “When I heard Scott Jensen say, ‘Minnesota is for families who want to build it, and America is for Americans who want to love it,’ I heard my family’s story,” she said at the announcement ceremony. Wilkerson, a native Laotian, came to the United States as a child after Communists killed her father. In tapping Wilkerson, Jensen passed up his 2022 running mate, former Viking football player Matt Birk. Birk was a frequent off-message disaster for the 2022 ticket.
Wilkerson. Family values her emphasis.