Deena Winter, Minnesota Reformer

Minnesota Republicans haven’t won a statewide race since 2006, and thus far they have failed to recruit a serious 2024 challenger against U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar — likely because candidates don’t want to play the part of the sacrificial lamb.

During a Saturday meeting of the GOP State Central Committee, a group calling itself Rebuild the MNGOP will try to remove state party leaders, including party Chair David Hann.

They aren’t expected to succeed, but it counts as another distraction as the party tries to regroup following a series of electoral defeats culminating in the devastating 2022 election. That’s when Democrats won a surprising trifecta and spent the next six months turning Minnesota into a progressive model for the rest of the nation. ...

CHASKA — Pillow mogul Mike Lindell calls up former Michigan state senator Patrick Colbeck, who works for something Lindell made up called the Election Crime Bureau, to talk about press strategy.

Lindell tells Colbeck a press release needs to mention his “offense fund,” to which people can give donations so Lindell can keep funding his election fraud battle now that he’s running out of money.

Lindell says he has a tally of U.S. counties that are eschewing voting machines for paper ballots, but he won’t disclose them to the “horrible media.” ...

A contingent of right-wing Republicans wants to remove the leaders of the Minnesota Republican Party, including Chair David Hann, at the Dec. 9 meeting of the State Central Committee. A group of delegates and alternates to the State Central Committee laid out their case in a letter for removing Hann, who was elected in 2021 after a federal sex trafficking scandal and allegations of a toxic work environment led to the fall of former Chair Jennifer Carnahan.

The state Republican party has been financially struggling — in part due to the cost of dealing with the Carnahan fallout — and divided over former President Donald Trump.

The insurgent group claims Hann failed to responsibly manage GOP resources and maximize support for 2022 candidates, contributing to a dismal election for Republicans in which Democrats won a trifecta. ...

Scott Presler is a 6-foot-5 rising star on the right known for his Fabio-like hair and organizing volunteer trash cleanups and voter registration drives in large cities, where he decries Democratic leaders who he says help “foreign nationals” and “illegal aliens” instead of veterans.

He planned so-called “stop the steal” rallies and was on the Capitol grounds the day of the insurrection, which he has described as “the largest civil rights protest in American history.”

The Minnesota event will be held at a Sauk Rapids country roadhouse that displays a large collection of Confederate memorabilia and whose owner was convicted in connection with hitting a Black man with his Ford Bronco. ...

Previously, felons had to wait until they were off probation or parole and had paid their fines or restitution. About 55,000 Minnesotans who have been convicted of a felony but aren’t imprisoned are eligible to vote in the next election.

On behalf of a conservative outfit, Minnesota Voters Alliance, the Upper Midwest Law Center filed a lawsuit challenging the law, which went into effect in June.

The lawsuit argues the new statute exceeds the Legislature’s authority under the Minnesota Constitution, which says felons lose their right to vote until the right is restored to them. But it doesn’t specify the timing, so the DFL-controlled Legislature stepped in this session, restoring voting rights as soon as a person’s incarceration term is done. ...