Will GOP endorsement matter in governor’s race? Some Republicans say they may forge ahead without it.

Minnesota Republicans are rethinking whether to abide by their party’s endorsement in next year’s race for governor, after the process hasn’t yielded a winning candidate for statewide office in almost 20 years.

Scott Jensen, who won the GOP’s backing in 2022, said he plans to compete in the August primary election regardless of whether he gets the party’s endorsement again. The Chaska physician said he’s encouraging his fellow Republican candidates for governor to follow suit.

GOP state Rep. Kristin Robbins of Maple Grove previously said she also will go to the primary if she doesn’t win the endorsement for governor next spring. Asked again last week, Robbins told the Minnesota Star Tribune, “We’ll see. But I plan to stay in the race as long as I think I’m the best candidate to beat Tim Walz.”

Their early comments could foreshadow a major shift for Minnesota Republicans, who have long given more weight to the party’s endorsement than DFLers. The endorsement from GOP activists can give a candidate credibility and allow them to tap into the party’s get-out-the-vote infrastructure. But some Republicans feel the process has become too beholden to a small group of far-right activists.

By defying the endorsement, GOP candidates would give a broader pool of voters in the August primary election a say on which Republican is best positioned to defeat Walz, rather than deferring to party insiders. But a primary fight could also divide GOP voters and drain candidate resources heading into the general election.

“I think both parties find a moderating influence in having larger numbers participate,” Jensen said, arguing in favor of a competitive GOP primary. “If you look at the history of the Democratic Party, they have not used the endorsement process as the cudgel to hammer potential candidates [like] the Republican Party has.”

Both Jensen and Robbins said they still want and will seek the GOP endorsement. But they’re already encountering resistance from some activists in the party’s right flank, who prefer candidates that take uncompromising positions and are staunchly loyal to President Donald Trump, even if it’s a liability in the general election.

Robbins said she’s told activists who’ve asked about her past work for Haley that she supported Trump once he became the party’s nominee. As for Jensen, he said the pushback he’s received for treating abortion as settled law has been “astonishing” and “disappointing.”

“In Minnesota, access to abortion is a constitutional right. It’s been settled by the [state] Supreme Court for more than three decades. It’s also been legislated into statute,” Jensen said. “It’s a done issue. No governor, Democrat or Republican, can do anything about that.”

In looking beyond the endorsement, Jensen has given himself space to challenge his party on certain issues. He has called for the Minnesota Republican Party’s “antiquated” platform to be overhauled, saying it doesn’t represent the values of many conservative voters.

“We have a 12-page, 5,000-word platform that calls for banning gay marriage and a national sales tax,” Jensen said. “... Our platform is not a winning platform.”

The party’s activists remain an influential group for candidates to consider, however. History has shown the Minnesota GOP endorsement carries a lot of weight with primary voters.

The opposite outcome unfolded on the DFL side in 2018, as Walz bounced back from losing his party’s endorsement to win the primary.

Kendall Qualls, another GOP candidate for governor, said he will seek the party’s endorsement and will abide by its decision, departing from Jensen and Robbins.

Jake Duesenberg, founder of the Minnesota right-wing group Action 4 Liberty, said he thinks multiple GOP candidates for governor could push for there to be no endorsement at next year’s state convention. That would open the door for a more competitive primary.

“As we get closer to the convention, we’ll get a better sense of things,” he said. “If one of the candidates wins endorsement handily and has big fundraising numbers, I imagine that will change the tune for the others.”

There are drawbacks to having a competitive primary. Candidates would spend campaign money fighting each other instead of Walz, and their attacks could become fodder for Democrats. It also would delay the party from settling on a nominee to challenge Walz until August, three months before the general election.

“If we are hardcore on certain key issues all the way to the right, we’re probably not going to win,” he said.