I got into an exchange on Nextdoor where I suggested that Diane Krenz is the conservative candidate in the race for Hennepin County Public Attorney, and received from pushback from people who don’t like that label being used for the candidate they support.
Here’s what I consider Krenz to be the conservative candidate.
She has pledged to the the opposite of our current liberal Hennepin County Attorney.
She appears to have skipped Minneapolis Pride and went to Minnetonka Summerfest and Rockin’ Rogers instead.
She is not endorsed by any progressives. In fact, she has little to no endorsements. Other candidates in the race are endorsed by Hennepin County progressive people like AG Ellison, Rep Omar, Lt Gov Flanagan. The DFL party has endorsed one of her opponents. Based on what I know about the people who’ve endorsed Hennepin County Attorney candidates, Cedrick Frazier would be the most progressive, followed by Hao Quang Nguyen, and then Anders Folk, who is aligned with more corporate wing of the DFL, like Mayor Frey and Ryan Winkler. From the progressive to corporate side of the DFL spectrum, none have endorsed Krenz.
Three of the five candidates for the seat sought the DFL endorsement. The two that didn’t were Krenz and the corporate dem.
So, she doesn’t appear to have any support from people on the left in the county. Does she lean right?
Here she is endorsing comments from the police union that was led by Bob Kroll in a post where they’re posting about the importance of horse patrols.
This is a division of the Minneapolis Police that the city council voted 11-2 to dismantle as a cost savings measure but the MPD refused to comply. Endorsing cops who don’t listen to the city council is a conservative position.
And here’s Krenz endorsing a transphobic candidate who’s running against Rep Omar for the 5th CD seat.
The candidate that Krenz is endorsing here is transphobic. She has acted transphobically towards trans Minnesotans, and filed complaints against trans Minnesotans because they complained about her transphobic behavior. This same candidate signed on to an opinion piece in the StarTribune arguing that DSA candidates have no morals. Honestly. She argued that candidates who oppose genocide have no morals. And this is who Krenz endorsed.
The dumbest part about this entire post is that it only exists due to the anti-intellectualism of conservative people who write things like this.
People who support conservative candidates while pretending that they’re not hurt our neighbors at the ballot box. This same person was a strong advocate for a racist city council candidate for Ward 12. The candidate made racist comments about two city councilmembers of color and still didn’t manage to lose the support of Michelle M. You can see some of her defense of that racist candidate in this post.
To me, it comes down to this: you can’t consider yourself a progressive while voting for candidates that progressives don’t support. Embrace who and what you are, or who and what you’ve become. Don’t spread lies about people who point out obvious truths. That’s disrespectful. It’s the behavior of conservatives. And by conservative behavior, I mean behaving how conservatives behave when they’re faced with uncomfortable truths, and responding by calling it fake news:
Closing the loop:
