The Minnesota Republican Party is running background checks on each candidate’s campaign volunteers and staff ahead of the party’s convention next month to try to weed out any far right QAnon freaks with a history of disrupting events or attacking other candidates get in the door, charging campaigns $30 for each person they plan to bring, the Minnesota Reformer reports.
The moves anticipate the kind of batfuckery that has marred recent local conventions in Minnesota (and in other states) as members of a group called “Action 4 Liberty”, whom check all the anti-vax, anti-RINO, and “Stop the Steal” boxes have caused bedlam during endorsement votes. Cops were called twice to the Morrison County, Minnesota Republican Party convention in March after the extremists seized the floor and held up motions. The Clay County, Minnesota GOP has split into two warring factions with each side’s leader claiming to be county chairman, both of whom reportedly plan to show up to represent the county party at the state convention in Rochester next month.
The Minnesota GOP overall is a complete shitshow after former chairwoman Jen Carnahan was fired last August following the arrest of her close buddy Anton Lazzaro on federal sex trafficking charges (She’s still running for Congress to replace her dead husband Jim Hagedorn though). The party itself pulled in $46,000 in the Q1 2022, while state Dems raised $2.3 million, so it’s quite possible that the $30 per head is more of a cover charge than anything else.