A live forum featuring four candidates for Washington County District 3 commissioner will be televised at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 17.
Bethany Cox, Scott “Cutter” Junker, Michael Schultz and Mark Wiens will be competing against each other in the primary election Tuesday, Aug. 13.
The Pre-Primary Forum is an opportunity to showcase the four candidates who are vying to take the place of Gary Kriesel, a retiring longtime Washington County commissioner, according to Marguerite “Margot” Rheinberger, a candidate forum moderator.
Participating candidates will answer questions from a panel of moderators. Rheinberger encourages viewers to contact the candidates directly about any issues not addressed in the forum.
“I do these forums for the voters, not the candidates,” Rheinberger said.
After the primary, all general election forums are planned to be open to the public. This could include Lake Elmo, Stillwater, Bayport, Oak Park Heights, Stillwater Area Public Schools and more, Rheinberger said.
The two candidates with the highest number of votes in the primary election will go through to the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
By JOHN HANNA, CAROLYN THOMPSON, GEOFF MULVIHILL and JEFFREY COLLINS Associated Press
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Long before a would-be assassin shot and wounded former President Donald Trump, the fuse of political violence had been burning across America.
Members of Congress have been shot. One lawmaker’s staffers in Virginia were attacked with a baseball bat. In Louisville, a bullet grazed the mayor’s sweater after someone stormed into his campaign office. Someone put a tracking device on the Reno mayor’s car. Officials in South Carolina received death threats over a solar panel plant. And outside Buffalo, a man threw a dummy pipe bomb through the window of a county clerk candidate’s home while her family slept — with a message reading: “If you don’t drop out of this race, the next pipe bomb will be real.”
“There are people who’ve come to me and said, ‘I contemplated running for my town office, and I could never imagine my family going through what you did, so I chose not to,’” said Melissa Hartman, who was targeted in the pipe bomb episode and ran for county clerk after serving as town supervisor in Eden.
The attempt on Trump’s life was the latest and most stunning example of political violence and harassment playing out regularly across America, shaking the foundations of democracy and causing grave concern the atmosphere will worsen as Election Day nears. Trump and President Joe Biden each called for unity after the shooting, with the president telling the nation, “We can’t allow violence to be normalized.”
Intense partisanship, punctuated by violence, has long been a part of American politics. In 1798, congressmen from opposing parties brawled in the U.S. House chamber, beating each other with a cane and fireplace tongs. Four presidents have been killed by assassins, with other presidents and candidates wounded or targeted. Yet the attack on Trump evoked memories of more recent incidents.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords was wounded in a 2011 shooting outside an Arizona grocery store. Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, now House majority leader, was shot in 2017 while practicing for a charity baseball game. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan was the target of a foiled kidnapping plot uncovered in 2020.
Even after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol shocked the world, political violence continued.
A man with a hammer bludgeoned the husband of then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in their San Francisco home in 2022. Last year, a man with a history of mental illness went to the Fairfax, Virginia, district office of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, looking to kill him with a baseball bat. Connolly wasn’t there, so the man attacked two staffers.
FILE – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer greets legislators and guests as she makes her way through the House chambers before delivering her State of the State address to a joint session of the House and Senate, Jan. 24, 2024, at the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich. Whitmer of Michigan was the target of a foiled kidnapping plot. (AP Photo/Al Goldis, File)
FILE – Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors 90th annual meeting at the Peppermill Resort Hotel, June 3, 2022, in Reno, Nev. In 2023, someone put a tracking device on the Reno mayor’s car; she doesn’t know who did it, and now tries to avoid going to public places alone. (AP Photo/Tom R. Smedes, File)
FILE – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg listens at news conference in New York, Feb. 7, 2023. People connected with former President Donald Trump’s legal cases have been inundated with threats. In New York, Bragg’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s hush money criminal case, reported receiving nearly 500 threatening emails and phone calls since April, when the trial began. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
FILE – Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg speaks to reporter during a news conference, May 23, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. In 2022, a man burst into Greenberg’s Louisville campaign headquarters, firing several shots. A bullet grazed his sweater, and his staffers were unharmed. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
FILE – In this image taken from San Francisco Police Department body camera video, the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Paul Pelosi, right, fights for control of a hammer with his assailant, David DePape, during a brutal attack in the couple’s San Francisco home on Oct. 28, 2022. (San Francisco Police Department via AP, File)
FILE – Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., listens at an event, Oct. 22, 2020, in Fairfax, Va. In 2023, a man with a history of mental illness went to Connolly’s Fairfax district office looking to kill him with a baseball bat. Connolly wasn’t there, so the man attacked two staffers, hitting one of them on the head eight times. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE – Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks during a news conference, Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. People connected with former President Donald Trump’s legal cases have been inundated with threats. In Atlanta, Willis, who brought criminal charges against Trump and 18 other people alleging they schemed to illegally overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, is known to be accompanied by round-the-clock bodyguards. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
FILE – Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords talks during a vigil remembering the 25th anniversary of the Columbine High School mass shooting, April 19, 2024, in Denver. Giffords was severely wounded in a 2011 mass shooting outside a grocery store. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey, File)
FILE – Paul Pelosi attends a portrait unveiling ceremony for his wife, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol, Dec. 14, 2022, in Washington. A man with a hammer bludgeoned Paul Pelosi in their San Francisco home in 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE – House Republican Whip Steve Scalise leaves the House chamber inside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sept. 28, 2017, as he returned to the House more than three months after a baseball practice shooting left him fighting for his life. Scalise, now U.S. House majority leader, was shot and seriously wounded in 2017 while practicing for a charity baseball game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
And there are dozens of stories from far lesser-known political officials like Hartman.
She lost her county clerk race and hasn’t sought elective office since in her town of 7,700, home to the only factory making metal kazoos in North America. The man who threw the dummy pipe bomb pleaded guilty. Hartman said he was paid to do it by a neighbor, and she remains skittish two years later when approached in public.
In York County, South Carolina, a booming suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, County Council Chairwoman Christi Cox said that after the attempt on Trump, she felt compelled to speak about a letter she recently received. She’d sent her three kids to get the mail and read it while they were nearby — a threat to kill her unless she stopped a solar panel manufacturer from building a $150 million plant receiving council-approved incentives. Cox is a Republican; an additional letter threatening the council’s only Democrat came to county offices.
“Our country is in a very dangerous and dark place right now, and I feel like some of that is spilling over to our community,” she said at the council’s Monday night meeting. “The level of anger, hate, lies, accusations, fearmongering — it is rampant.”
In Reno, Nevada, a far-right movement has targeted local politicians. Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve doesn’t know whether someone in that movement had the tracking device put on her vehicle, and she tries to avoid going to public places alone.
“I think people really forget that we’re human beings,” she said.
In Louisville, Kentucky, in 2022, a man burst into Mayor Craig Greenberg’s campaign headquarters, firing shots. A bullet grazed his sweater. Staffers were unharmed.
“Absolutely no good came from Saturday’s heinous act,” Greenberg said Monday. “But let’s hope it’s finally the wake-up call.”
Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss called the assassination attempt a moment to “reset.” Moss, who’s Jewish and gay, faced personal threats over the years, including one from a man charged with using social media to threaten the lives of Jewish Michigan state officials.
“I hope this is a moment that all of us on all sides of the political spectrum can say we all were saved by that bullet missing President Trump,” Moss said.
The attack came a day after governors at a National Governors Association meeting in Salt Lake City committed to collaborating on public service announcements and other campaigns to show voters they can get along with political rivals.
“We can disagree without hating each other,” said outgoing chairman Republican Spencer Cox, of Utah.
Cooling the political climate will require both a change in messaging at the top and a willingness of rank-and-file voters to move closer to those who disagree with them, said Austin Doctor, of the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center.
“It takes a lot of work and consistent commitment to the values of democracy,” Doctor said. “The question that we have to continue to ask is: How do we veer out of this potential spiral?”
In Oklahoma, Pat McFerron, a pollster and GOP consultant, said closed party primaries in safe districts encourage candidates to use extreme rhetoric. It would be toned down, he argued, in a single open primary.
“Most of the candidates I know, in their heart of hearts are people who want to make a difference who prefer an environment that wants consensus,” McFerron said. “If you’re going to be successful, you have to play the game that’s in front of you.”
Some Republicans — including vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance — quickly blamed Biden and fellow Democrats for portraying Trump as a threat to democracy. On Facebook, Alabama’s GOP lieutenant governor, Will Ainsworth, held “the radical left” responsible and said its agenda attacks Christianity and is “evil incarnate.”
Social media has helped fuel threats. In a 2021 survey of 112 public officials, the National League of Cities found the overwhelming majority – about 4 in 5 – experienced harassment, threats or violence. Most said it happened through social media; more than half said it also occurred at public meetings.
Threats of violence were also amplified starting in 2020 with the coronavirus pandemic, as public health officials imposed restrictions. Ohio’s state health director resigned after armed protesters came to her house; the health officer for Orange County, California, quit after weeks of criticism and threats over requiring face coverings in public.
And Trump’s false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen has spawned threats against local election officials, making some miserable or anxious enough to quit. Many are closely watching the upcoming election.
“It’s hard to imagine there is not an election jurisdiction in the country that now is not on high alert for the potential for political violence in the 2024 election,” said David Levine, a former local election official in Idaho.
Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas; Mulvihill, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Collins from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers Christina Almeida Cassidy in Atlanta; Matthew Barakat in Springfield, Virginia; Bill Barrow in Milwaukee; Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan; Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City; and Gabe Stern in Carson City, Nevada contributed.
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a lower court decision that if left unchallenged will allow 18- to 20-year-olds to carry a concealed weapon in Minnesota.
The state’s current permit-to-carry statute allows people 21 and older to carry a firearm in public if they obtain a permit. Last year, a group of gun rights advocates sued to challenge the age limit, arguing it deprived adults under 21 of the constitutionally protected right to bear arms.
In a unanimous opinion from the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Tuesday, judges agreed with the lower court’s finding that Minnesota’s age limit of 21 to obtain a concealed carry permit can not be enforced, as it deprives legal adults of constitutionally guaranteed rights.
“Ordinary, law-abiding 18 to 20-year-old Minnesotans are unambiguously members of the people,” wrote Judge William Duane Benton in the court’s opinion, joined by judges Lavenski R. Smith and David R. Stras. “Because the plain text of the Second Amendment covers the plaintiffs and their conduct, it is presumptively constitutionally protected.”
In her ruling last year, U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez wrote that a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision requires regulations on guns to be weighed on whether they are consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition” of regulation, rather than public safety concerns.
At the time, Menendez expressed reservations about the required historical analysis sought by the Supreme Court in their ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.
“Judges are not historians,” she wrote. “The process of consulting historical sources to divine the intent of those responsible for ratifying constitutional amendments is fraught with potential for error and confirmation bias.”
Gun owners group applauds ruling
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which brought the lawsuit along with other gun rights groups including the Firearms Policy Coalition and Second Amendment Foundation, hailed the Tuesday ruling as a “resounding victory.”
“Politicians should carefully consider the legal ramifications of infringing on Second Amendment rights, ” Senior Vice President Rob Doar said in a news release. “The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and its allies will relentlessly pursue legal action against any unconstitutional measures introduced in Minnesota.”
Minnesota’s permit to carry statute remains unchanged until the appeals process has concluded, so those under the age of 21 are still ineligible to apply.
Attorney general ‘disappointed’ in ruling
In a statement, Attorney General Keith Ellison said he was “disappointed” in the ruling and that the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen ruling expanding interpretation of the Second Amendment is an obstacle for efforts to prevent gun violence.
He noted Minnesota has had several shootings with multiple casualties this year, and that the person who tried to assassinate former president Donald Trump on Saturday was 20 years old.
“This epidemic of gun violence will continue unabated unless we do something about it,” Ellison said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling made that far more difficult by opening the floodgates to litigation from gun advocacy groups looking to undo reasonable safety legislation.”
The state is weighing options which could include an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Ellison’s office said.
Permit to carry law
Minnesota enacted its permit to carry law in 2003.
Applicants must take an approved firearms training course and apply at their local sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office then investigates the applicant’s background before deciding whether to issue a permit.
Minnesota’s permit-to-carry law allows for the concealed and open carrying of firearms. Other states, such as Wisconsin and North Dakota, allow for open carrying of firearms under certain circumstances without a permit.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — A company is now selling $299 sneakers showing an image of Donald Trump with streaks of blood on his cheek and pumping his fist in the air after he was the target of an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.
The white high tops are being sold as “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT High-Tops” for $299 on a website that sells Trump-branded shoes that is run by CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure. The company says the new shoes are limited edition with only 5,000 pairs available and estimated to ship in September or October. It also said 10 pairs will be randomly autographed.
“These limited edition high-tops, featuring Trump’s iconic image with his fist raised, honor his unwavering determination and bravery,” it says. “With only 5,000 pairs available, each one is a true collector’s item. Show your support and patriotic pride with these exclusive sneakers, capturing a defining moment in history.”
CIC Ventures is the same company that debuted “Never Surrender High-Tops,” shiny gold sneakers with an American flag detail on the back, for $399.
The sale is another sign the former president’s allies intend to capitalize on how Trump reacted after the shooting at a Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump got back to his feet and pumped his fist toward the crowd, mouthing “fight, fight.”
On Monday, Trump got a hero’s welcome at the Republican National Convention’s opening night, appearing visibly emotional with a bandage over his right ear as musician Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA.”
Supporters are hoping those moments help him pave his path straight back to the White House as he challenges Democratic President Joe Biden’s reelection. Biden has been to trying to reassure his own party that he is capable of serving another four years, but there are worries and calls to nominate another candidate after his debate performance last month.
Earlier this year, Trump made an unusual stop at “Sneaker Con” to introduce the shiny gold high tops.
CIC Ventures’ website says it is not political and has no connection to a political campaign, though Trump campaign officials have promoted it in online posts.
