Minnesota State Wire

A new ad by the American Principles Project (APP) PAC criticizes Steve Simon, the incumbent secretary of state in Minnesota, for being corrupt, lawless, dangerous, embarrassing and extreme. The ad claims Simon supported defunding the police and supported “lawless” policies. In a recent Trafalgar poll, the race between Simon and his opponent, Republican Kim Crockett, is very close.

A new APP PAC ad says, "It's a disturbing pattern…Career politicians ignore violent crime while breaking the law themselves. Secretary of State Steve Simon does both. Simon supports defunding the police. And Simon is lawless. In 2020, he tried to count illegally cast ballots. A judge said Simon’s scheme would have caused 'irreparable harm.' And thanks to Simon’s lawless policies, business creation is suffering under Simon…costing Minnesota families jobs. Corrupt. Lawless. Extreme. Steve Simon can’t be trusted."

The ad claims Simon supports defunding the police. According to a Planned Parenthood definition: Defunding the police means “investing less in militarizing police forces and investing more in community-based solutions, education and health care. APP cites a CBS news article where many businesses left Minnesota and crime increased in 2020 because of “the idea that the police department could be dismantled.” In 2020, Fox Business reported a Minnesota resident said, “They [local politicians] don’t care about my business … They didn’t protect our people. We were all on our own.” 

The ad also claims Simon tried to break the law by counting illegal ballots but the judge who settled this case said, “The secretary’s plan to count mail-in ballots received after the deadline established by the Minnesota Legislature will inflict irreparable harm on the electors.” The ad also suggests Simon attempted to “unilaterally re-write Minnesota election law for partisan gain” but was overridden by the courts in the same lawsuit.

According to the ad, Simon is “corrupt” because in 2020, Simon was the chief elections officer and he allowed Facebook, specifically CEO Mark Zuckerburg, “to funnel private and potentially foreign money into local election offices, diluting the voice and votes of ordinary Minnesotans,” according to the ad. Facebook sent more than $7 million to local election offices in Minnesota, according to the Capital Research Center.

Alpha News reported that a recent Trafalgar poll has Simon and Crockett basically tied with less than two weeks until Election Day. As of Oct. 21, Simon leads Crocket by 2 points, with 9% of voters still undecided. According to previous analysis by the Minnesota State Wire, the candidates are essentially neck and neck. The poll was conducted Oct. 17-19 and asked 1,091 likely voters, with a margin of error plus or minus 2.9%.