Ike & Karol are such a blessing, loved dearly by all, and a solid testimony to our great community as they celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary! Sen. Lucero was among the hundreds who celebrated with them last Saturday.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

As we celebrate Independence Day this coming Thursday, July 4th, we remember truth: Liberty is a blessing from our Creator, the author of all liberty, and freedom is not free.

We marvel and are thankful for at the extraordinary courage our Founding Fathers exercised when they declared independence from an oppressive government. It is the subsequent risks, sacrifices, accomplishments, and victories, guided by divine providence, which resulted in the greatest country on Earth, the United States!

The Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights are absolutely incredible documents and the envy people longing for freedom the world over. These three founding documents were penned by men but I firmly believe were inspired by God.

As masterful as the founding documents are, our government is not self-sustaining nor self-correcting. Instead, protecting our liberties and way of life require constant devotion by informed/active citizens. History records, upon Benjamin Franklin exiting the Constitutional Convention, he was approached by a group of citizens in which a woman, Elizabeth Willing Powel, asked: “What sort of government the delegates had created?” Benjamin Franklin’s answer was: "A republic, if you can keep it."

Keeping our Republic requires effort. We cannot take our Republic for granted!

I wish you blessings this coming Independence Day as you celebrate with friends, family, and loved ones!

Sen. Lucero visiting with local constituents Friday last week at BBQ in the Park social.

New Laws

A plethora of new laws passed by Democrats went into effect yesterday, July 1. Included was a new tax on deliveries on most orders over $100 including clothing, diapers, pet supplies, etc. Democrats do not care Minnesotans are already over taxed, do not care government already has record over-taxation surpluses, and do not care more new taxes are further crushing family budgets. What Democrats do care about, however, is collecting more and more and more money for government! The new Democrat tax is projected to siphon $189 million away from hardworking families into the government piggybank.

Mall of America

The Mall of America recently announced they are deploying facial recognition technology as part of their surveillance system. As a data privacy advocate, I have serious concerns. Colleague Sen. Fateh and I released the following joint statement this week:

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – In response to the recent announcement by the Mall of America that it had implemented a facial recognition system, Senator Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) and Senator Eric Lucero (R-Saint Michael) issued the following statement:

“Many view non-consensual capturing, storing, mining, and third-party sharing of biometric facial recognition data as a first-degree violation and direct assault on privacy. The Mall of America’s recent announcement regarding the implementation of facial recognition technology contributes to privacy threat against millions of Minnesotans and visitors to our state,” Lucero said. “Public policy concerns surrounding privacy rights and facial recognition technologies have yet to be resolved, including the high risks of abuse, data breaches, identity theft, liability and accountability. It is very clear the continued implementation of facial recognition technology should not move forward until concerns are addressed, including input from citizens, civil liberty and data practices advocates, and state and local government officials.”

“The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has reported facial recognition technology misidentifies people of color at a rate as high as 40 percent. The potential for racial profiling, harassment and false arrests is clear,” Fateh said. “Even in cases where the system does identify someone correctly, it is not yet clear how that data will be stored, distributed or protected from data breaches. The Mall of America is a major public institution for our state and should not take this dramatic new step without explaining to citizens how this would work, and why this invasion of privacy and violation of civil liberties is necessary. Legislators spanning the political spectrum have serious questions of the Mall and its technology vendor, and should consider legislation to regulate or ban this alarming new technology. We hope to act on these concerns as soon as possible, including if a special session is called this year.”

Voting

Early voting has started for the 2024 Primary in Minnesota that will determine which candidates appear on the general election ballot in Minnesota for offices including the Minnesota House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Amy Klobuchar. This is the first major election following reforms Democrat's made to weaken the integrity of Minnesota's election system since taking full control of state government in January 2023. The election changes by Democrats will undoubtably have major impacts in voter participation. Recent statements by Democrats only increase the concerns of fraud in a critical election that may have huge consequences at the state and federal levels.

Democrats are on the defense both in Minnesota and across the country. President Joe Biden's horrible performance and poor approval ratings, which have only been made worse by his miserable debate performance last week, will likely cost Democrats down ballot. At the state level in Minnesota, Democrats are receiving negative press even from their allies in corporate media who are unable to ignore the blatant corruption, fraud, and waste occurring within non-profits funded by Democrats. With the resignation of Democrat Sen. Morrison as she pursues election in Minnesota's third congressional district for the seat currently held by Rep. Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Senate is officially evenly split 33-33. This means Gov. Walz will likely not call a special session to address the widespread flooding in Minnesota or unfinished business from the 2024 legislative session since Democrats do not have a majority in the Senate to ram through the Democrat agenda.

Automatic Voter Registration

Last month in June, Democrat Secretary of State Steve Simon announced Minnesota's automatic voter registration system, passed into law by the Democrat Legislature, is now functioning. The system automatically and without permission, registers individuals to vote when people apply for, or renew a driver's license. The new system combined with drivers licenses for illegal immigrants passed by Democrats in 2023 seems to be a massive new opportunity for fraud to occur.

It’s already well known Democrats at the state and local level are regularly unwilling prevent obvious red flags in the voter file. Earlier this year, the Center for the American Experiment found several obvious examples of deceased or invalid individuals registered to vote that state and local officials had missed. Also this year, conservative groups had to go to the courts to get Ramsey County to remove several duplicate registered voters from their rolls. In just the first few weeks of the new system being active, Secretary Simon reported 15,000 new voter registrations and 13,000 16-17 year old teenagers being pre-registered. The automatic registration system includes checks for citizenship if a license applicant uses documents proving citizenship. However, the scandal-ridden executive branch under Democrat control has proven itself completely incompetent when it comes to preventing fraud and abuse in recent years.

Voter registration being the default option is what makes this system so concerning for several reasons. Registering people in mass who had no intention to register to vote is likely to only add more ineligible individuals to the voter file. Democrats intentionally made the opt-out option difficult to discourage it. The Democrat party is turning the DMV into a massive statewide data harvesting project to get more Minnesotan's information into the voter file so they can use it for campaign purposes. Sharing data should always require an affirmative opt-in, rather than making data sharing the default option with a difficult opt-out process. Not only does this new program make our elections less secure during a time of crisis at both our Northern and Southern borders, it also violates the privacy of Minnesotans as the voter file is public information that anyone can request from the Secretary of State.