Staff photo by Fritz Busch Sleepy Eye native Dr. Scott Jensen of Chaska talks at a meet-and-greet at Booth Welding & Fabricating in New Ulm Monday. He said he’s running for governor because Minnesota can’t be healed by typical politicians.

NEW ULM — A woman with a We the People 507 button and bright red shirt that read “I trust Dr. Suess more than Dr. Fauci” was among more than 100 people at Dr. Scott Jensen’s meet-and-greet at Booth Welding & Fabricating Monday.

A 1973 Sleepy Eye High School graduate with an undergraduate degree in physiology, he attended Luther Theological Seminary before earning a University of Minnesota medical degree, Jensen was named the 2016 Minnesota Family Physician of the Year by the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians.

Elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2016, Jensen said he’s running for governor in 2022 because Minnesota can’t be healed by typical politicians.

In February 2020, he put forth a bill to create a new commission to probe drug price increases.

“In the Legislature, I worked across the aisle. I talked of how important it is to license pharmacy benefit managers,” Jensen said. “They’re controlling our lives far more than we realize. We have to say enough.”

The event was hosted by We the People 507, a citizens group from New Ulm and surrounding communities who say their goal is make positive changes statewide and locally, while resisting changes that would affect rights contained and guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Attendees recited the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance before Jensen spoke.

“Healthcare is best when it centers around a patient,” Jensen said. “We’re here today because you’ve got to be the champion of your health… You can choose if you get a flu or shingles shot.”

Jensen said in 2017, he was “annoyed as all get-out when Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance wouldn’t take care of all 87 Minnesota counties.

He cast doubt on the effectiveness of wearing masks.

“We have 19 years of data that says masks don’t do the job… They have 10% filtration efficiency,” Jensen said.

“Lockdowns? You don’t really know if your business is safe,” he added.

“Vaccines? I don’t think people should be fined for standing up for their core convictions. A vaccine is not like a penicillin shot. It’s a lot more like chemotherapy for cancer,” Jensen said.

He said natural immunity is superior to a two-shot vaccine.

Some of his other campaign planks include no mask mandate for school kids, no vaccine passports, no vaccine mandate in the private sector or emergency lockdowns that don’t work.

“We need to follow President [Donald] Trump’s model,” Jensen said. “His legacy will be policy. He reduced rules and regulations and put good judges in place. He went after NATO and NAFTA and trail-blazed issues. That’s what we’ll do. But we’ll do something different and engage groups that weren’t before.”

On another note, he also said catch and release may work for walleyes, but not for felons.

“I want to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat. And cheaters should spend some time in jail,” Jensen said.

Jensen also said the DFL party hasn’t helped farmers succession planning or E85.

“We need to let farmers farm, teachers teach and have good paying jobs and a robust economy,” Jensen said. “Talk of this and we’ll get this done. It isn’t about the candidate. It’s about values. We need to get back on the right path. As governor, I’ll work my tail off so Minnesota heals. We can do this together, creating a groundswell movement, respecting parents and rejecting Critical Race Theory (CRT) and mandates.”

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.