This week, Donald Trump officially became the Republican candidate for president. A week prior, former Vice President Joe Biden officially became the standard-bearer for the newly radicalized Democrat Party. The casual political observer may look at President Donald Trump and Joe Biden and not see much of a difference. Popular culture leads us to believe that everybody who looks alike also thinks alike. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Our president believes in capitalism, fights for every American, and wants to ensure the American dream for a generation to come.

Trump and Biden were forged from very different life experiences, and those differences are evident in their worldview and priorities. Biden was 30 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972. He stayed there until he became the vice president in 2009, a position he held for eight years. He was part of the federal government for nearly half of his life, and has a lot of baggage and failed policies to show for it. Trump won his first election in 2016. He's been part of the federal government for a little over three and a half years.

President Trump is a product of the private sector, capitalism and competition. His first-term accomplishments are victories for the private sector, the working men and women, and families across the country, not the government.

Almost 4 million private-sector jobs were created under our president, and 400,000 of those were manufacturing jobs. That is the fastest rate in manufacturing jobs growth in more than three decades. Economic growth dwarfed that of the Obama-Biden administration. Unemployment claims across all communities hit a 49-year low. Median household income hit an all-time high. Veteran unemployment reached a 20-year low, and almost 3.9 million Americans were able to lift themselves off food stamps.

Then the pandemic hit and state governments chose to shut down the economy. Regardless of whether or not that was the right decision to combat COVID-19, the shutdowns crushed the private sector that had been enjoying such great success under President Trump. Government, with her fat thumbs, did what government does; the private sector and the hardworking Americans who work in it paid the price.

State governments outlawed economic activity, and cable TV pundits seem shocked that the economy came to a halt. Before the government-imposed shutdown, the private sector was flourishing.

Joe Biden's many years in government have taken their toll. He is a creature of government, and the only solution he can offer is more government. It's all he knows, because it's all he's done. Biden is now a wealthy man because he was able to capitalize on his time as vice president, not because he built a successful business or navigated a company through the free market. Government is not geared toward solving problems, and neither is Biden.

While he was vice president, Biden got exactly what he wanted in Obamacare. It didn't work. Costs went up and people didn't get to keep their plans or their doctors. So what is his solution now? He wants to add more government by providing Medicare to everybody. More government is the only tool in Joe's toolbox. It just doesn't occur to him that the solution might be less government and more freedom.

Take a look at Biden's website. His answer for everything is more government. Under Joe Biden every government program will just get "more." Not "new" or "different" or "innovative." Just more. More government is the only thing Joe Biden knows.

We know President Trump and Joe Biden well. Biden and his "government is the only solution" mentality hasn't solved a single problem in 50 years. In contrast, in less than four years, President Trump's enthusiasm for freedom and the American worker produced phenomenal results. Whoever is the president in the post-COVID world will need to get the economy moving again very quickly. The right man for that job is President Donald Trump. Minnesota is ready to send our 10 electoral votes to help send President Trump back for four more years in the White House.

Jennifer Carnahan is chairwoman of the Republican Party of Minnesota.