There has been a lot of "either/or" public discourse about the state of Minnesota's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses should be open without restrictions — or closed. Students should be in school — or at home. People should stay home — or go about their normal routines.
Counterpoint: Under Walz, Minnesota found a balanced response
Data-based solutions have helped us lessen many of the worst possible outcomes during this pandemic.
By Susan Kent

These arguments have unleashed many tweets, but this kind of open/shut mind-set has never reflected the complexity of our historic pandemic. They also miss what most Minnesotans understand about the effects of a serious virus on virtually all aspects of our lives.
A recent KSTP Survey/USA News Poll posed the right question. When asked about the state's response to the pandemic, the top response (45%) was that the state is "striking the right balance." Compare that to 27% who think the state is "too focused on keeping you healthy," 10% who say we're "too focused on putting people back to work" and 18% "not sure."
As we all learned how this new virus works, Gov. Tim Walz was very clear that the pandemic would require a balanced response. With the perspective of one year out, most Minnesotans have struggled in some way, which is understandable. But data-based, balanced solutions have helped us lessen many of the worst possible outcomes and put us in a position for a strong rebound as we continue to get shots in arms and look to what's next.
Yes, it has been imperative that we manage the virus as much as possible to save lives and protect our health care system and caregivers. But we also know that we need to do our best to support student learning and kids' overall well-being when it comes to their school lives. Absent an aggressive federal response in 2020 to pay people to stay home and businesses to stay closed, we needed to follow science to allow as much economic and personal activity as we safely could provide.
This is why I was extremely disappointed to read "One full year of one-man rule is enough," (March 6) from Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa. At a time when Minnesotans need leaders to work together to strike this balance and find these complex solutions, Senate Republicans have spent most of the past year fueling this open/shut false choice and public anger so they could score political points and attack Gov. Walz.
Contrary to Sen. Gazelka's narrow view, there are several documented positive consequences of the governor's decisions. As a result of his tough decisions, many Minnesota lives were saved, and we had better rates of cases and deaths per 100,000 people compared with many of our neighboring states that enacted few mitigations.
A recent Save the Children analysis found that at the end of 2020, Minnesota ranked first nationally for children during the pandemic. And last week, the Centers for Disease Control ranked Minnesota third for the percentage of doses received that have been administered.
By contrast, at the end of a recent floor session on a Republican bill to restrict the governor's powers over businesses' operations during times of emergency, Sen. Gazelka read the number of deaths among people under the age of 50 to try to demonstrate that mitigations aren't needed. He cited 140 Minnesota young lives that were lost, which he tried to minimize as insignificant. I am certain the families of those 140 people believe otherwise.
And I am grateful to Gov. Walz for protecting our communities so that those numbers weren't higher.
Republicans regularly push legislative measures to end the governor's emergency powers. We all support a process to transition important measures contained in executive orders so that we can reach the point where emergency powers are no longer needed. But we must carefully and safely plan to land this plane, not jump out without a parachute. And that requires setting aside open/shut rhetoric and working together.
We have had very encouraging news in recent days, and we all can feel the hope that the finish line is in sight. Minnesotans are counting on us to get them through this pandemic. We would all be better served to recognize that we need to come together to fight the pandemic — and not each other.
Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury, is the minority leader of the Minnesota Senate.
about the writer
Susan Kent
It got me in the door as a reporter at Fortune, paving the way for other opportunities including writing for Trump magazine.