A Strib item carried non-paywall by MSN:
Story by Allison Kite, Star Tribune
The headline gets fleshed out in the text, but the headline should read, "Keith Ellison wants to run on his record of Dem AGs fighting Trump. Pepublicans want to make it about outrageous claims about fraud in billions of dollars."
And Ellison does have that record. Fraud? There's been some in a subsidizedchild feeding program the federal Ag Dept started to handle surplus Big Ag production - Big Ag thus getting more demand and a higher price subsidy, while feeding kids is a good, proud idea.
The fraud there is years-old history. It was found out. Perps were prosecuted, federally since it was fraud on a federal program. Ellison was not chasing fraud, nor was it his duty. Some clawback happened, much was lost. Millions. Not billions. That $9 billion, or $19 billion stuff from the Republicans is "speculative" at best, and made up, in truth.
How much fraud, in Minnesota, in total? It's a guess, and the Republicans are hot to allege, reluctant to prove any claimed total. In effect, they are making up a non-issue, since Ellison's done a good job and has been in office several terms because the Republicans have run absurd people. Ideological fascists, as well as unappealing stiffs. Anti-choice, anti-welfare except corporate, Big Pharma, Big Ag, and you get the picture. Reagan's "welfare queens" still get waved about, as much a lie now as when Reagan lied about it.
So, vote for Keith or some idiot who wants to help Trump and Blanche take away your Social Security. Perhaps argued differently, but that's the Republican constant pulse-beat aim, since even before Social Security was started. Tenterhook stretching is better for forming pliant prols, or whatever the thinking, Republicans are consistent on it.
In short, Ellison gets reelected since he's tried with Dem state AGs collectively to temper Trump's being Trump, to the detriment of little guys, who Trump campaigned to, professing love. And otherwise, he's done a fine job, including his best possible effort to tamp down the ICE invasion.
Hold Ellison up against Bovino, and then reelect the guy. While Bovino has gotten into whatever mischief he's into now after photo ops tossing tear gas cannisters, the only unmasked guy in and among the ICE goods.
Michele Bachmann's mentee, her being an early mentor, Stephen Miller (and his ICE whiteman passions) have not yielded Minnesota Republicans anything but grief, and the need to tout grossly enlarged assertions of fraud allowed and boys in girls locker rooms, while a stinking bad war and tanked economy are facts against GOP wannabes.
Miller is a white supremacist, in part, at heart, and that is not selling when people saw neighbors chased by masked gunmen in unmarked cars, calling themselves "police." and masked-up to avoid identification while killing folks. (Because, what else is a handgun for, anyway?)
If wondering why no story excerpt is given, what's needed after the headline tells it? Readers have a link, should they wish to follow-up.
Ellison will be reelected, that's not in the story, but what will happen.
UPDATE: Whatever Republicans grasp at as "issues," the big 2026 issue is Saving the BWCA and Minnesota's pristine northern watersheds from sloppy toxic sulfide mining aimed at profiting multinational mining giants.
Repubicans - for the mining giants. Dems - for the waters being preserved. Guess how that plays out.
And, sideline Susie. Sometimes the network will even show the field while the ditz rattles on, sometimes not. But put one of them on a high stakes ballot? Don't you have anything else, guys? Really.
FURTHER: A not paywalled original item, and not a current horse-race scripted and focused thing aimed at selling newspapers:
https://spokesman-recorder.com/2025/10/18/ag-ellison-minnesota-trump-overreach-lawsuits-2b/
That item frankly tells the story of Ellison being forced to keep going to court because Trump was pulling funds due the State in the budget that Congress gave to Trump, and Trump doing that out of meanness because Minnesota votes Dem more than voting Republican.
Forced to litigate, Ellison did, and won some money due the State but viciously withheld from the State, by Trump, out of spite. Trump being Trump, he made things harder to be correct. A retaliatory outlook atop the federal executive branch made Ellison's job all that much harder. And consumed time, since funds due are funds needed. Do not forget that. It matters.
Early paragraphs of the Spokesman Recorder item:
In every corner of Minnesota, Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office has become a bulwark in what he casts as a constitutional struggle, one state-led lawsuit at a time.
Across rural counties and in the halls of state agencies, his team is quietly but persistently pressing back against a federal administration he argues is attempting to override lawful norms. With more than 40 cases filed to date, Ellison says the stakes are not abstract — they are billions of dollars in funds Minnesota is entitled to, as well as the protections of civil rights he vows to defend.
“We’ve recovered money for the state…well ahead of $2 billion,” Ellison told me. He paused, then added, “We’re north of $2 billion right now.” That sum comes from forcing the federal government to release withheld funds without the sweeping conditions the administration attempted to impose.
Under conditions he calls unconstitutional overreach, Minnesota, he says, has been asked to convert local law enforcement into de facto immigration agents, or lose emergency management money. He refused and says he is winning in court.
But the legal drama is not confined to dollars. Ellison describes being part of a broader coalition with 23 other state attorneys general waging parallel fights over issues ranging from birthright citizenship to education funding cuts. He frames it as a clash over the 14th Amendment and the principle that no president is above the law.
The ending paragraph -
“I don’t wake up in the morning just to sue Trump,” he said. “I’d rather not sue Trump. I wish he’d just obey the law.” But for now, he says, suing is the work that must be done.
Jasmine McBride welcomes reader responses at jmcbride@spokesman-recorder.com.
