Staff photo by Fritz Busch Dr. Scott Jensen of Chaska comes home to the Sleepy Eye Brewing Co. Thursday to campaign for Minnesota governor. A 1973 Sleepy Eye High School graduate, his campaign planks include requiring voter identification cards, school choice education funding, and protecting the Second Amendment.

SLEEPY EYE — Republican candidate for governor Dr. Scott Jensen was like a kid in candy store at the Sleepy Eye Brewing Co. Thursday — shaking hands and hugging old friends, posing for photos and trading anecdotes.

A former Minnesota Dist. 47 Senator, the valedictorian of the 1973 Sleepy Eye High School Class is now a Chaska family physician who believes strongly in the absolute need for patients to be their own “champion” for their health care decisions.

He says Minnesota can’t be healed by typical politicians.

His campaign planks include requiring voter identification cards, school choice education funding, protecting the Second Amendment with a Stand Your Ground Law and reforming emergency powers.

Jensen said he’s also like to change the way mail ballots are handled in Minnesota.

“If you lose it, too bad. You shouldn’t be able to get another one,” said Jensen.

“We’ve got a leadership crisis. It’s not going so well with with the liberal agenda. We’ve not done a good job respecting women,” Jensen said. “We’ve got to keep family farms in the family. We haven’t done enough for the agricultural economy. We need a blistering economy with good paying jobs.”

He said more work should be done to create agricultural jobs in rural Minnesota.

“Young people should be able to get into agricultural finance, sales, and research jobs out here in Sleepy Eye. They don’t have to go to the Twin Cities for it,” Jensen said. “It should be done across the State.”

Jensen said politics is based too much on seniority.

“We can do better. (Donald) Trump came from the outside and was a trailblazer. He came from the outside,” Jensen said. “I’m not going to be the darling of the far right. I won’t take a dime from “Big Pharma” (big pharmaceutical companies).”

Jensen, 66, has not been vaccinated against COVID-19.

“I got the disease in August 2020 and developed antibodies that I have checked every two months,” Jensen said. “I donate my plasma to the blood bank. They tell me I have everything they want and keep calling me to come back and give more. I have immunity. Herd immunity is a real thing. Vaccines save lives. We don’t have to disagree on those things.”

Jensen said bridges need to be built to get back to a better place.

“We’ve seen government expand at the hands of emergency powers,” he said. “We were told we can’t go to church but could go to the biggest candy store in the state. Remember that? The Catholic and Missouri Synod Lutheran Church said nuts to that and opened. Just think what Gov. Walz did. He was the first person in 500 years to get the Lutherans and Catholics together.”

Jensen said people need to appreciate the work police do.

“I remember Sleepy Eye Police Officer Don “Pudge” Mickelson saying to me ‘Scott, you know you shouldn’t be doing that. Do you want to straighten up or take you home and talk with your mom and dad?’

“I said I’d straighten and I wouldn’t do it again,” Jensen said. “Police are good people. They’re our neighbors and go to church with us. There are always problems in every profession. Let’s not lose perspective and throw the baby out with the bath water.”

Jensen said incarceration has to be used more as a crime deterrent.

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