Dear John,

If you’ve lived in Minnesota for long you’ve probably watched the news during stormy conditions and heard the weatherman make a special announcement about bad weather. And then you do a double-take: “wait, did he say ‘watch’ or ‘warning?!’”

Though the words start with the same two letters, they are definitely not the same thing! One causes you to keep an eye out the window or leave the TV on. The other compels you to take active steps to stay safe.

Did you know that a tornado warning doesn’t necessarily mean a tornado has been spotted? The sirens went off not far from me last month because “rotational movement” had been observed on radar. No tornado yet, but an imminent threat of one. And while the storm brought down a few trees in the area, no full-on funnel was ever spotted.

All the conditions can be right for a terrible storm, but even the siren going off doesn’t mean it’s inevitable. Nevertheless, wise people take action!

That lesson from nature makes me think about the upcoming election. All the conditions seem right for a storm – a good kind of storm – this November, but it is by no means inevitable. We are certainly hopeful – even optimistic – that a “red wave” will roll across the country, but we can’t just sit on our hands and watch it play out.

Action is required! And we are poised to act, ready to do everything in our power to take advantage of the prevailing winds to move Minnesota in a new direction.

Our bold election plan centers around identifying, engaging and mobilizing pro-life Minnesotans who don’t always vote. We think this group is the key to state-wide success.

When we focused on this group in 2006 it resulted in a 15,000 vote increase, and Tim Pawlenty’s margin of victory that year was 21,208 votes. That was, incidentally, the last time a Republican won the governor’s race in Minnesota.

Voter turn-out makes a huge difference. We had record voter turn-out in Minnesota in 2020 – nearly 80%! The last mid-term elections in 2018 saw turn-out of 64.25%. Still good for a mid-term, but that’s 681,000 fewer voters.

This year’s election is more like 2014 though. That was also a mid-term election and all statewide offices and the Minnesota House were up for grabs. The sitting president was a Democrat whose popularity was waning and progressives had a firm grip on Minnesota, holding both the House and Senate and all three statewide offices. Governor Mark Dayton was seeking re-election, but nationally conditions were right for conservative gains.

That year conservatives flipped the house, changing a 12-seat deficit to a 10-seat majority, but Governor Dayton defeated Jeff Johnson by 110,000 votes (5.5%), the incumbent attorney general won by a 13.6% margin and Al Franken won re-election to the U.S. Senate with a 10.3% margin of victory.

A big reason for the gains in the Minnesota House, despite the progressive wins in statewide races, was the effort put in by MFC and MFI. We targeted six vulnerable progressives in the House and all six were defeated and replaced by conservatives.

But so much more was possible – if only we’d gotten more of our people to exercise their right to vote! The problem in 2014 was turnout. Just 50.51% of eligible voters went to the polls. That’s almost 30% fewer than in 2020! 1.3 million fewer voters! 

The key to success is obvious: get like-minded Minnesotans to get out and vote - and we need your help to do that!

It may be hard to imagine that people who share our values stay home on election day, but many do. The good news is that we know who many of them are and how to motivate them. We work with super smart people who relentlessly gather and analyze voting records and cross-reference them against polling results, surveys and other sources to identify like-minded Minnesotans who aren’t consistently going to the polls.

With your support we will reach this key group … and they may very well be the difference in shaping the next four years in Minnesota.

Many leftists who were so excited about their wins in 2020 are feeling pretty low right now, with a litany of problems that can be traced back to progressive policies that have proven over-and-over again to make things worse, not better. They rode to victory in 2020 with promises of progress, but have only delivered failure. And many of their supporters who were fired up then will stay home this fall, wondering what went wrong.

The conditions are right … but a good kind of storm won’t come without effort. We have to do all we can to get our side fired up – committed not only to vote in November but also to mobilize their like-minded friends, family members and neighbors.

That is the core of our plan to change the direction of Minnesota at every level of government. To win state-wide offices for the first time in sixteen years, to strengthen the pro-life hold on the Minnesota Senate and flip the Minnesota House to a pro-life majority.

Your gift of $25.00, $50.00, $100.00 or even more, as God leads, is urgently needed to help make that happen.

Thank you for your generosity, and God bless you!

John Helmberger, CEO

Minnesota Family Council & Institute

Two Ways to Give

Support our grassroots policy and elections efforts through Minnesota Family Council (MFC). Support our education and outreach efforts with a tax-deductible contribution to Minnesota Family Institute (MFI).

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Minnesota Family Council & Institute

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