The Republican is unopposed in the primary. Keith Ellison, the DFL incumbent, has one challenger. On the ballot:
Keith Ellison was first elected in 2018 and was re-elected in 2022, and has been exactly the Attorney General we needed in the Trump years. He has sued ICE; he has worked with Mary Moriarty to file charges against ICE agents for criminal behavior in our state; he has worked to investigate the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti despite a lack of cooperation from the Feds. He was part of a lawsuit that resulted in the right-to-repair John Deere settlement. He was part of a lawsuit to block federal funding cuts to affordable housing. He worked with other attorneys general to keep Trump’s DoJ from seizing Minnesota’s voter lists.
He’s also been very good at fighting for everyday Minnesotans. He’s terrific at consumer protection generally, but also, one of the first things he did on taking office was to create a Wage Theft division of the AG’s office. Given that wage theft is a huge problem (it’s astronomically larger than any other kind of theft) it’s honestly shocking that this didn’t exist before. His office has made wage theft a priority and recouped a huge amount of stolen wages for people.
They’re also responsive. Someone posted a thread to the Twin Cities Geeks FB group a couple weeks back that turned into people telling their own stories about Keith and his staff. A couple of excerpts:
As a patient of MHealth Fairview, I was following the arguments between Fairview and the U closely, wondering how it would affect my care. Ellison stepped in when nobody else wanted to.
He helped me with finding my employer who skipped town without paying me and the other workers at a factory here in Minnesota he owned.
I experienced an extremely frustrating situation with a well known health insurance provider who had informed me they would cover a particular expensive treatment. This information was provided to me on two different occasions. They then proceeded to backtrack and deny the claim even after numerous appeals on my part. After contacting Mr. Ellison’s Department, one of his attorneys took my case, all of my information and my claims were renegotiated and were fully covered. […] I also had the opportunity to deal with this office again when a company insisted on charging me sales tax on an item of clothing I had ordered on-line when Minnesota does not charge sales tax on clothing. After several attempts on my part without any success, the Attorney General’s Office was able to solve this concern in my favor. Again, with very kind and thoughtful assistance.
Sometimes he buys his groceries at my Cub location, and when he does he checks in with employees and sees how we’re doing. He’ll even swing by the pharmacy even though we’re out of the way to ask us how we’re doing, answer our questions if we want to know what he’s working on, and thank us for the work we do.
That was just one thread! And it was FULL of people who’d gone to his office for help and gotten it.
As the Republicans have gone after Keith Ellison over the Feeding Our Future fraud, they have brought up the fact that he met with some of the ringleaders in 2021. Keith’s response (he talks about it in this interview) is that he meets with constituents multiple times a week, and he took this meeting, investigated whether their claim of being harassed was legitimate, and determined it wasn’t. I would say that the Facebook thread demonstrates the accuracy of this: FoF didn’t get special treatment. Also, the Attorney General’s office (along with the Department of Education) went to the FBI with the initial suspicions against FoF, worked with them on the investigation, and did the clean-up afterwards.
(Also, if Republicans as a whole gave an actual flying fuck about fraud, they would support one of the proposed bans on insider trading by elected officials, and do literally anything about Trump.)
Keith Ellison is an incredible asset to the people of Minnesota and I will 100% vote for him in August and in November.
Dave Madgett is a solo-practice lawyer who has been running against Keith on the fraud issue. His case for himself is that the Republicans will run against Keith on fraud, so you should vote for him because he’ll be the stronger candidate, but if you look up his Twitter posts you’ll see that he seems to be appealing entirely to Republicans, who would in fact prefer the Republican candidate to ANY Democrat, including Dave.
One of my benchmarks for “is anyone paying attention to this campaign?” is social media following/interaction. Is anyone reading their posts? The answer in Dave’s case is a solid no. He has 25 Twitter followers (despite having paid for a blue check), 22 Bluesky followers, and 47 Facebook followers. He gets almost zero interaction (though on Bluesky a couple of people have taken to posting “this you?” with a screen shot of Dave’s now-deleted Twitter post from June 2025 telling Elon Musk he’s a patriot and history will be on his side.) My point here is this: if you are concerned about Keith’s ability to win in November, resolve to spend some time knocking doors, because he sure has a better shot at winning than Dave Madgett.
A couple of additional notes about Dave:
- He shared an AI image on social media of himself (complaining about not being allowed to speak at the MN State Convention). The AI image made me wonder about his books. He has fourteen books for sale on Amazon, all self-published. Seven are on legal topics. Three are thrillers, three are juvenile mysteries, and one is some sort of political treatise on centrism (I think). All of them appear to have been published in April of this year, between the 10th and the 26th. There was some discourse on Bluesky recently about how assuming that a fast writer is using AI is unfair to fast writers who are not using AI, and for the record I know some extremely fast writers, but when you don’t appear to have ever published a book before and then you publish 14 books (some with what absolutely look like AI covers) in a two-week period while you’re also running for office (and you’re also a lawyer), I definitely have my suspicions.
- I e-mailed to ask him about his AI use. Here’s what his Communications Director said: “Dave uses AI as a practical tool in his law practice…for organization, tracking information, drafting documents, and research. It helps him work more efficiently. In the campaign, we use it for honing graphics and content. Also for opposition research. Anything posted under his name is reviewed and reflects his actual beliefs.” I didn’t ask about the books, but he clearly has no concerns about using AI to write (so long as he reads it when the AI is done).
- Dave’s website doesn’t mention LGBTQ+ people at all; he does say, “Every Minnesotan’s constitutional rights must be defended. equally, consistently, and without political calculation. Dave will protect individual liberty, property rights, due process, and freedom of expression for all Minnesotans. The AG’s office should defend rights rather than picking winners. Dave will ensure the office protects constitutional rights for everyone. not just those whose politics align with whoever holds the office.” That should mean that he’ll be out there protecting trans rights but (especially given that he’s apparently an Elon fanboy) I have my doubts.
In my e-mail, I asked about trans girls and sports. Here’s the response: “Dave thinks a two-category system makes sense — women’s sports for biological women, and an open category for everyone else. That’s a policy question for the legislature to decide. The Attorney General’s job is to enforce whatever law Minnesota adopts.” I like Keith’s attitude here a lot better. Also, Minnesota has a human rights law banning discrimination in schools on the basis of gender identity (passed in 1993!) and the fact that Dave doesn’t know that is not reassuring. (Also, there are a ton of reasons to support the right of trans girls to play sports, and even if you have doubts, “women’s sports for biological women” generally means invasive testing for any girl that someone decides looks masculine.) - Dave doesn’t mention wage theft anywhere nor does he talk about the threat to Minnesotans’ lives and liberty created by ICE (he does say he wants to “depoliticize” the office, though.)
I am frankly not convinced that Dave Madgett is even a Democrat. He would definitely not be anywhere near as effective in office as Keith Ellison, nor would he have any chance of beating the Republican. I am going to vote for Keith Ellison in the primary, and I’m also going to vote for Keith Ellison in the general election.
We are so lucky to have an AG who has been willing to fight.
(The Republican, Ron Schutz, is unopposed in the primary.)
This seems like a good year to fundraise for a trans nonprofit, so I’m fundraising this year for TIGERRS. I don’t have a Patreon, and a fundraiser lets me see in a tangible way that people value my work, which is really helpful as a motivator. (This project is a lot of work.)
I also have a new book! Obstetrix is about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on hand to deliver their babies; it’s a story about enduring, surviving, and not giving up. You can buy it anywhere fine books are sold, and Uncle Hugo’s, Moon Palace, and Dreamhaven all (probably) have signed copies. (I also signed copies at Next Chapter, and will be making my way to other bookstores as time allows!)
Will Tell Stories For Food 