Just quote the men (Michelle Benson having been the female contesting GOP things earlier, but having dropped out because she did not move the needle off zero) - quote the men and let their words speak for themselves, an occasional paraphrase or summarizing statement helping show convention mood and outlook.
The May 16 2022's item title - subtitle - credit:
'The same tired talking points’: Minnesota Republicans wrestle with how to appeal to more urban, suburban voters - A common theme at the state Republican convention was electability — how the party can win more votes in DFL-friendly Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs, where most voters don’t support many of the policies GOP candidates for governor have campaigned on. - By Walker Orenstein | Staff Writer
While Minnesota grows corn, wheat and soybeans, reading of the way those Republicans talked to one another did look as though from the "Land of Cotton." Where old times there are not forgotten.
Old themes. Like comfortable old shoes, socks with holes in them, but kept as what got them to the convention site, so each could be getting the conventioneers' votes, as they got them.
An early item observation -
One gubernatorial candidate, Neil Shah, a dermatologist from the Twin Cities, [...] opened the day by telling the crowd that the DFL has been “hollowing out the urban core for decades,” by “pulling the fathers out of homes, substituting gangs, crime and drugs and doing nothing about it.”
Lee Atwater, dead for years. But not forgotten.
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May 10, 2022 - Jensen-Birk endorsed! Cream of the crop. The convention's ninth vote saying so, as well as said by the touted pre-convention endorsement from the Wisconsin GOP politician.
That link - opening this paragraph, seems to embody the Jensen-Birk ticket's pre-convention idea of energizing appeal.
It worked at the convention, getting over the 60% hump.
But it is of record, and has yet to be tested among voters in the more urban ares of this state.
You read the blurb going with the endorsement tout, the ending,
We need leaders willing to stand strong despite the slings and arrows that come. Dr. Scott Jensen and his Lt. Governor Running Mate Matt Birk have endured such attacks from the far-left establishment, while other candidates have stood on the sidelines.
That "slings and arrows" business, in the play Hamlet ended up stone dead. Moreover - Throwing stones at other Republicans without courage to name even one seems antithetical to building trust. You have to believe, if touting an endorsement from Ron Johnson, there is a mutual kinship at play - Jensen/Birk placing unending value in Ron Johnson, and the values he embodies.
Pre-convention, at least. That being yesterday's news, yesterday's fish.
It's there. You cannot gloss over it.
Post-convention contortions toward a storied "middle" may prove interesting informative. Ron Johnson by the wayside? Used, discarded as roadside litter, like fast-food or other packaging trash?