The owner of the now-closed Interchange Wine and Coffee Bistro told The Minnesota Sun why she is running for state Senate after serving 90 days in the Freeborn County jail for violating Democratic Governor Timothy J. Walz’s ban on indoor dining service.
“The reaction to my declaration of my run for Senate has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Melissa “Lisa” Hanson in an exclusive interview.
“I chose to run for Senate for the same reason I chose to open my restaurant against the illegal mandates by Governor Walz,” Hanson said. “What’s right is right.”
The new state Senate hopeful said she is running for an open seat in the newly drawn district.
“As a senator and elected public servant for newly formed District 23, I commit to standing and fighting for the people’s rights,” she said. “My commitment is proven. My stand for the People demonstrated.”
Hanson said her saga made statewide and national news, which means she already has a base of support.
“My support has come largely from the people,” she said. “Not only people from our local area but people from all over the state of Minnesota as well as folks from all over the U.S.”
Hanson said people are rising up against the heavy-handed COVID-19 mitigation.
“We’re saying: ‘Never again!’ to a tyrannical, unilaterally acting governor. Never again will we be told to shut our businesses down, to social distance, to stay in our homes, what we should put in and on our bodies. Never again!” she said.
“There is no doubt that the governor’s illegal mandates were to control the people,” she said.
“It is imperative that we remember the People are to control the government, not the other way around,” Hanson said. “We are born with unalienable rights. The Constitution is there to protect the people’s rights.”
Protecting the vote and making sure Gopher State elections are clean and fair is also a plank of her platform, she said.
“Election integrity is of key importance, and we must get this right, or we lose our republic,” she said.
“I am encouraged as we see conservatives getting involved at all levels of government, local grassroots to state,” she said. “We must push forward and do even more. We must stay the course.”
The issue of election integrity is essential because corrupt elections threaten the longevity of our democracy, she said.
The restaurateur said she would not go along with the establishment when she got to the capital.
“As one of the people, I see, along with a whole lot of other folks, the need for a different kind of representation at the legislative level,” she said.
“We need legislators who are not concerned about being team players with the almighty establishment but are committed to serving ‘We the People’ – legislators who will stand against the machine of big government and stand for the people they have sworn an oath to protect. I am that person who will stand at all costs.”
Hanson said since her February 6 release from incarceration she has been able to think about how she was treated during her ordeal, especially by Albert Lea City Attorney Kelly D. Martinez.
“My interactions with her have been primarily in court,” she said.
“In regard to our court interactions, Ms. Martinez used the power she believed she had to inflict the maximum amount of harm against me,” Hanson said. “According to enacted law, Kelly Dawn Martinez has no authority to prosecute me in these cases. The fraud runs deep and wide. It’s all in the public record.”
Martinez, who earlier in her career was a public defender, refused to treat her professionally, she said.
“The only personal interaction that I’ve had with her is when I was trying to serve documents to her in a timely fashion,” she said.
“I requested to hand these documents to her or her assistant and was refused,” she said.
“Instead, the city attorney directed the panic button be pushed which rendered several armed law enforcement officers to enter the building which put myself and those accompanying me at risk.”
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Neil W. McCabe is the national political editor of The Star News Network based in Washington. He is an Army Reserve public affairs NCO and an Iraq War veteran. Send him news tips: [email protected]. Follow him on TruthSocial & GETTR: @ReporterMcCabe
Photo “Lisa Hanson” by Lisa Hanson.
