My Pillow lawyer Doug Wardlow makes it official - he will challenge the endorsed hedge fund - private equity lawyer the Republican Party in Minnesota endorsed for its Attorney General candidate. Both will be on the ballot in the upcoming Republican primary.
[UPDATE: Some Wardlow Facebook images failed to upload properly. They are not super relevant, and are removed from the post without loss]
Wardlow, who was the party’s nominee in 2018, is general counsel at
MyPillow and an ally of its founder, Mike Lindell, a leading proponent
of false accusations that the 2020 election was stolen from President
Donald Trump.
In a video posted on social media, Wardlow said he's
fighting what he called the “swamp” in the Minnesota GOP. He described
it as a “fear-driven” Republican-in-name-only establishment and “elites
who care more about staying in power than they care about the people.”
The executive director of the Republican Party of
Minnesota, Mike Lonergan, criticized Wardlow's decision to continue his
campaign, saying his public commitment to abide by the party's
endorsement was an "empty promise."
[...] Former legislator Dennis Smith, who skipped the convention, had already said he planned to run in the Aug. 9 primary.
Wardlow called both Schultz and Smith “creatures of the swamp" who can't beat Ellison in November.
[italics added] Pillow, swamp,swamp, and may the best man win.
Wardlow, a 42-year-old born in Eagan, Minnesota, graduated from
Georgetown University Law Center in 2004. He spent nearly half of his
law career working at the private firm Parker Rosen LLC and was elected
to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2010. However, he lost his
2012 reelection bid to Democrat Laurie Halverson.
Before launching
his 2018 campaign to become Minnesota's attorney general, Wardlow also
worked for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal group
that largely opposes LGBTQ rights.
During Wardlow's 2018 campaign,
Ellison's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party unearthed a 2013 audio
recording of Wardlow speaking against same-sex marriage. In the
recording, Wardlow accused the "radical left" of seeking to "redefine
the marriage and undermine the family," adding, "You cannot have liberty
with marriage redefined to include homosexual marriage."
Also
during his 2018 run, Wardlow sent out mailers calling Ellison "one of
the most dangerous men in America" and saying Ellison "pals around with
radical Islamic groups and defends known terrorists." Ellison became the
nation's first Muslim congressman in 2006.
Four clergy members
from four different religious faiths criticized Wadlow's mailer as
Islamophobic, according to KARE, although Wardlow disagreed.
In the video announcing his most recent run for attorney
general, Wardlow criticized Ellison for endorsing the state's Democratic
Representative Ilhan Omar, a fellow Muslim who is also a supporter of the "defund the police" movement.
Ellison
told a HuffPost reporter last June that he doesn't support the
movement, even though he does support police reform. In a July 2020
interview with Progressive.org, Ellison said he thinks people
mischaracterize the "defund the police" slogan in order to discredit
police reformers and social justice activists. He has said there's a
need for government officials to understand how to maintain peace
without abusing human rights.
"I think what [the police reform
movement is] saying is, 'Do you really need four guys with guns to
investigate a fake $20 bill? Is that what we need?'" Ellison said,
referring to the four police officers who killed Black Minneapolis
resident George Floyd.
Wardlow's video also accuses Ellison of presiding over a rise of crime throughout the state.
The
National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) says that state
attorney generals operate as the state's legal representative in
court—predominantly handling environmental, civil and only "serious
statewide criminal prosecutions," rather than lowering crime rates
statewide, a role which often falls to legislators and police officials.
Newsweek reached out to Wardlow's campaign for comment.
Following Wardlow's announcement, Minnesota
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin released a statement
calling Wardlow "a right-wing extremist who will do anything for
political power," who has "only gotten more extreme and more dangerous,"
according to the Star Tribune.
Martin also criticized
Wardlow's work for Lindell, saying "[he] provides legal advice to a man
who wants to use the United States military to stage a coup and
forcefully overturn a free and fair election."
Lindell is currently facing a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems
over his baseless claims that the company's voting machines switched
votes from former President Donald Trump to then-candidate Joe Biden
during the 2020 presidential elections.
IN CLOSING - Wardlow is indeed associating himself with Lindell, and is employed by Lindell's bedding business. Presumably they hold no major differences in outlook which would imperil Wardlow's ongoing relationship and status with Lindell and his adventures.
Also, Wardlow did indeed work in the past for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), "a Christian legal group
that largely opposes LGBTQ rights;" a matter noted in a Crabgrass sidebar item from during the 2018 AG election -
He unleashed an ADF salvo, earning his ADF paycheck. Read about it, here, here and here. Outlawyered on appeal, Wardlow now apparently
has no ADF paycheck. Others for ADF are pressing on. ADF appears to be a
win-or-go-home team. James Dobson's team, so walk the line. Whatever
you think you want, trust me, you do not want James Dobson anywhere near
our attorney general office.
Wardlow’s public record on gay rights
As the attorney general campaign has worn on, Wardlow has frequently declined to discuss his stances on gay rights.
He has said gay marriage is “the law of the land.” During a recent
debate with Ellison, he said that he believes gays should enjoy equal
protection under the law. When asked about his past advocacy against
issues favored by the LGBT community, he has frequently demurred, saying
they’re legislative matters outside the purview of the attorney
general’s office.
But his public record of opposing a number of gay-rights issues, like
same-sex marriage and recognition of transgender people, is clear.
In 2004 and 2005, Wardlow appears to have authored a conservative blog while he clerked at the Minnesota Supreme Court.
In it, he criticized gay marriage, summarizing his takeaway from the
2004 election thus: “Americans have spoken decisively: We do not want
the government to secularize our society, we stand together in the
common belief that marriage should be reserved for the union of one man
and one woman.”
Wardlow was elected to the state House in 2010. During his tenure, he
supported a Republican-led effort to place on the ballot an amendment to
the state Constitution that would have defined marriage as exclusively
between a man and woman.
The amendment was voted down by a majority of voters in the 2012
election. The next year, the DFL-controlled Legislature, with Gov. Mark
Dayton’s signature, legalized gay marriage.
Shortly after the House voted in favor of the provision, Wardlow
tweeted: “MN House votes to allow same-sex marriage, undermine building
blocks of a free society, upend rule of law, jeopardize ordered
liberty.” Wardlow appears to have deleted that tweet earlier this month
as part of a purging of his social media accounts.
Alliance Defending Freedom
In 2014, Wardlow began serving as legal counsel for the Alliance
Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based Christian group that has fought
expansion of some gay rights.
Wardlow gained a national platform in his role as he defended
businesses that practiced unequal treatment of gay or transgender people
on religious grounds.
In 2015, Wardlow penned a piece for FOX News criticizing the landmark
U.S. Supreme Court decision that the Constitution guarantees a
nationwide right to same-sex marriage. Wardlow wrote: “Marriage is and
always will be the union of one man and one woman for life, regardless
whether the government incorrectly applies the label of marriage to
other kinds of relationships.”
Last year, Wardlow, on behalf of ADF, argued against transgender accommodations before the Anoka-Hennepin School Board.
Wardlow told school board members “… there are boys, and there are
girls, and boys and girls are fundamentally different in ways that
really do matter.”
Wardlow doesn’t appear to still work for ADF, although his exact status
is unclear. The organization has not responded to requests to clarify
the question, and Wardlow and a spokesman did not answer it.
That detail helps flesh out the Wardlow - ADF connection.
Please note, a large part of the GF Herald item dealt with an allegation of high school bullying which Wardlow has adamantly denied. Hence, only the part of the report dealing with undenied matters is excerpted above.
_______FURTHER UPDATE______
THREE CANDIDATES IN THE GOP AG PRIMARY - Schwartz, the endorsed Republican AG candidate has no background in managing a large law office, and his practice after law school has most recently been in private equity venture assistance, with no prior public service work. Wardlow has not had any experience managing a law office. Readers interested in the third primary candidate, Former legislator Dennis Smith, are encouraged to research his background. policy beliefs, and experience.
Ellison has been endorsed for 2022 by the DFL to continue his heading the AG office. Prior to serving in Congress (before becoming AG) Ellison had extensive trial experience. Schwartz is not a trial lawyer, Wardlow possibly did some trial work with the Parker firm - Smith, as noted, is unknown to Crabgrass.
______CLARIFICATION UPDATE______
In citing an out of state and national magazine earlier in the post, the SF Gate item was after the GOP convened and endored Schultz for AG. The Newsweek item was from before that convention/endorsement.
The primary will be Aug. 9, 2022, but yesterday was the cutoff date for candidate filing, making the primary slates firm (See Pioneer Press, here, for reporting, AG and other races.)
