Jason Lewis, the GOP senate candidate in Minnesota, stated Saturday that he believed the state had a good chance of flipping red in the 2020 presidential election in favor of President Donald Trump due to the state’s mishandling of the coronavirus and the riots that continue in Democrat-run cities, the Daily Wire reported.
Lewis made the comments while on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” arguing that the northern state is “sort of a microcosm of the entire country.”
“As the urban liberals become a little bit more crazy, it drives everybody else into Trump country and red country,” Lewis said, according to Fox News.
Lewis noted that he believes Trump has the momentum in the state heading into the election, which is less than two months away. At the time of this writing, Trump has injected $14 million into Minnesota advertising for his campaign, while Biden has reserved a mere $3 million.
“And especially so since Donald Trump has done the most important thing he could for the GOP, and he’s brought the working man and woman back to the party,” Lewis shared with the network.
“I think we are going to win, and I think the president is going to win,” Lewis added.
Fox reported that Real Clear Politics moved Lewis’s senate race against Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) from “leaning Democrat” to “toss-up.” The Cook Political Report still labels Smith’s seat as “solid Democrat.”
Lewis is a former congressman from Minnesota who also hosts a radio program, according to the Daily Wire.
Trump lost Minnesota to Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 44,000 votes, and the state has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972. Trump came closer to winning the state than any Republican candidate in the 21st century.
Minnesota has been ground zero for a host of protests and riots following the death of George Floyd—a man who, according to recently released court documents, apparently did not die by asphyxiation under the knee of Derek Chauvin but by an overdose on fentanyl.
Floyd’s death at the end of May sparked outrage across the country over allegations that it was another instance of systemic racism—specifically police brutality. Protests quickly devolved into riots, with demonstrators murdering and assaulting people while vandalizing, looting, and committing arson along the way. The riots quickly spread to Portland, New York, Atlanta, and Seattle, where violence and destruction have torn portions of those cities apart.
Police have been heavily targeted during these riotous acts, with multiple members of law enforcement injured. Portlanders have even burned down police buildings.
Since Floyd’s death, protests and riots have also been reignited following the police-involved shooting of Jacob Blake, who police were attempting to arrest him following allegations that he sexually assaulted his ex-girlfriend. Blake was shot in the back seven times after he disobeyed police orders and reached into the front seat of his car for what appeared to be a knife. Blake recently pled not guilty to the charges.
These riots have inspired many companies across the country to come to the defense of Black Lives Matter—a Marxist group that focuses on the dismantling of the nuclear family and other Western values. Members of this group have started venturing into residential neighborhoods, demanding that the white residents surrender their houses and property to black people. Some of these BLM members have even suggested that white people are “subhumxn,” calling for the death of white people and the enslavement of others.
Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association have also seen their ratings plummet after expressing support for Black Lives Matter following the start of the season amid the coronavirus outbreak.