Polling from the group shows the governor’s DEI, crime policies are deeply unpopular
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) is opening a chapter in Minnesota, it announced Monday. As part of that announcement, AFPI commissioned polling that shows liberal governor Tim Walz’s crime and diversity policies are deeply unpopular.
AFPI, a conservative think tank founded by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, and Larry Kudlow, is expanding into the North Star state through a six-figure investment aimed at establishing a “Minnesota-based, Minnesota-focused entity that will hold failed policies accountable through everything from advertising and grassroots to events, town halls, and earned media,” said the chapter’s chair, Ryan Wilson, an attorney and entrepreneur who was the Republican nominee for state auditor in 2022.
If the group’s polling is anything to go off of, AFPI-Minnesota will likely train its aim on criminal justice and civil rights. AFPI tapped Torchlight Strategies to conduct a July statewide survey, shared with the Washington Free Beacon, of registered Minnesota voters. Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they oppose Walz-backed legislation that has allowed for the early release of violent criminals. Eighty-one percent oppose a controversial Minnesota Department of Human Services policy that would require hiring supervisors to provide a “hiring justification when seeking to hire a non-underrepresented candidate.” The new protocol swiftly earned a Department of Justice probe.
After the infamous Feeding Our Future fraud scheme saw a cast of mostly Somali immigrants siphon some $250 million from the federal child nutrition program administered by the Minnesota Department of Education, meanwhile, 65 percent of poll respondents said they believe fraud is “widespread” in the state. Forty-nine percent said the state is on the wrong track compared with 34 who said it’s on the right track. Forty-eight percent disapprove of Walz; 46 percent approve.
The group’s foray into Minnesota comes at an uncertain time for the state’s Democrats. Minnesota’s junior senator, Tina Smith, will not seek reelection next year, and though Walz considered running for the open seat, his spokesman later announced that Walz would forgo a Senate bid and is instead considering whether to run for a third term as governor.
“Minnesota is at an inflection point, and we will fight every day to empower and protect families to make Minnesota safe and affordable again,” said Wilson.
AFPI has emerged as a major player in the conservative policy movement following its 2021 founding. Ninety-five percent of the nonprofit’s federal legislative recommendations were introduced or passed in Congress in 2023, a record the group will hope to match through its Minnesota chapter.
