Two gubernatorial candidates, Dr. Scott Jensen and Dr. Neil Shah, responded to the announcement that business owner Melissa “Lisa” Hanson was convicted and jailed for violating Governor Tim Walz’s (D) COVID emergency orders. Jensen posted a video to Twitter, where he called the conviction and sentence, “SO WRONG!”
Tim Walz’s Minnesota: where violent offenders and criminals run free, while small business owners defending their livelihoods are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
SO WRONG! pic.twitter.com/oGDleWs8Xc
— Scott Jensen (@drscottjensen) December 10, 2021
Jensen drew a comparison between how the courts treated the person who tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus, letting him go free, and how the courts treated Hanson, sentencing her to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Jensen said that Walz’s Minnesota is where “violent offenders and criminals run free, while small business owners defending their livelihoods are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Dr. Neil Shah told The Minnesota Sun that “radical leftists” in Minnesota state leadership, such as Attorney General Keith Ellison, are “letting our broken judiciary punish everyday Minnesotans like Lisa Hanson.”
Shah also referenced St. Paul’s “new homicide record” and the uptick in other crimes such as “daylight carjackings become[ing] common across our suburbs.” Shah continued, saying that Democrats are “letting violent career criminals roam our streets.”
Shah said, “During the pandemic, Tim Walz operated like a tyrant and shut down small businesses throughout this state – businesses that were not contributing to the spread of COVID in any meaningful way – while keeping big-box corporate retailers open. I’m running to save Minnesota from the freedom-crushing career politicians like Tim Walz who’ve done so much damage to our state over the last few years.”
Senator Paul Gazelka (R-Gull Lake) and Senator Michelle Benson (R-Ham Lake), the other two frontrunners in Minnesota’s gubernatorial, did not immediately respond to The Sun’s request for comment regarding the Hanson case and what, if anything, they would do differently if they were elected governor of Minnesota.
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Hayley Feland is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dr. Scott Jensen” by Dr Scott Jensen. Photo “Dr. Neil Shah” by Dr. Neil Shah. Background Photo “The Interchange” by The Interchange.
