Dear Neighbor,
It’s been a good week for House Republicans.
A very good week.
One where we scored victories over the radical left on two separate issues despite having the odds stacked against us with Democrats in total control of the Capitol.
It started Monday, with overwhelming House approval of legislation that will allow school resource officers to return to buildings they had staffed before a Democrat change in law last year prompted their removal from buildings throughout the state.
Let’s be clear: The SRO bill the House passed 124-8 to start the week would not have been possible without House Republicans and our friends in the law enforcement community. This should have been fixed this in August with a special session before school started. It never should have been a problem in the first place – except Democrats deviated from normal legislative order and did not seek input from law enforcement.
This recent bipartisan outcome was not the Democrats’ first choice and not what they really wanted, as evidenced by the fact that they didn't initially include the minority in discussions with stakeholders prior to the start of session. They delayed taking responsibility while instead playing politics. In fact, 34 House Democrats (and 10 more Senate Democrats) co-signed a statement last September opposing a special session to fix the school safety problem they created.
The governor and House Speaker Hortman therefore needed House Republicans to get this done and that’s what happened. The bill language which passed the House includes updates to exclude SROs as employees or agents of a school district, exclude SROs from the prohibitions on prone restraints and physical holds, restore the “reasonable force standard,” mandate school districts and charter schools use only trained SROs, and establish new training and model policy requirements for law enforcement.
Here's the chef’s kiss: Remember those 34 House Democrats who signed that letter opposing SRO action? Well, 26 of them flipped and voted “yes” to the Republican-led solution to the problem those very same legislators created but claimed didn’t exist.
Things keep getting better. Mid-week, Senate Democrats scrambled to cancel a committee and dodge taking the same bad, anti-religious freedom vote House Democrats cast last week. That was when House Democrats voted against protecting religious organizations and faith-based schools against claims of gender identity discrimination.
That self-unmasking, admitting they place the state’s views ahead of your religious beliefs, did not go well for House Democrats. There was significant blowback from Minnesotans at large and our faith leaders. House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday announced they were hosting a press conference to call attention to this egregiousness and, coincidence or not, the Senate shortly thereafter canceled the committee meeting for where this issue had been placed on the agenda.
What the Senate does next on the issue of religious freedom is anyone’s guess. But let’s take what positivity we can from this week’s victories, and the hope they provide. The deck is not in our favor but, when good people come together with good intentions, we can make good things happen.
We are building momentum, and the Democrat trifecta is in disarray. You can feel the tide turning and we must prepare to restore balance in St. Paul. It is imperative we do so because we cannot afford any more of this one-party control treating its paper-thin margin as a mandate for the extreme at the expense of all Minnesotans.
See you in the trenches,
Walter