DULUTH, Minn. — The second day of the Republican state convention began at 9 a.m. A Catholic priest from a Duluth parish, Richard Kunst, offered an opening prayer. Father Kunst called on holy guidance in developing a state party platform. The Pledge of Allegiance followed. A delegate then called for a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin. It was so agreed by acclamation. The convention chair, State Representative Danny Nadeau of Rogers, led a 10-second moment of silence. Chauvin is the Minneapolis police officer, a white man, now serving 40 years in prison for choking George Floyd, a black man, to death on a south Minneapolis street in 2020. The murder — with Chauvin’s knee pressed into Floyd’s neck until he died — was caught on a a passerby’s camera phone The painful -to-see asphyxiation of Floyd led to race riots and national outrage and reckoning.
