GOP Lt. Governor candidate Ryan Wilson held a meet and greet with constituents at Pizza Ranch in New Ulm, Monday ahead of the precinct caucuses. Wilson is the running mate of Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth.

NEW ULM – Ryan Wilson, the running mate for Minnesota Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth in her campaign for Governor, stopped in New Ulm Monday to speak with voters ahead of precinct caucuses.

Wilson is an attorney and previously lost a narrow race for state auditor in 2022. He also represented the GOP caucus at the state Supreme Court during the House’s difficulties maintaining a quorum.

Wilson and Demuth were on a statewide tour to seek support in winning the GOP straw poll for the Governor’s race. Wilson said Demuth was traveling through northern Minnesota while he visited voters in the southern part of the state.

Demuth traveled from St. Paul to St. Cloud, then to Moorhead, Crookston, and Bemidji.

Wilson said he started Monday in St. Paul then traveled to Rochester, followed by Mankato, New Ulm, and Worthington.

“We’re sharing our new affordability plan, how we’re going to fight fraud, and how we’re really going to turn around the state,” Wilson said.

Wilson said Demuth announced her campaign for Governor in early November. They anticipated Gov. Tim Walz would drop out of the race. Wilson suspected that without Walz in the race, Amy Klobuchar would be the DFL nomination for Governor He said the Demuth campaign already has plans for defeating Klobuchar in the general election if they do receive the GOP state endorsement.

Wilson said in his meet and greet through southern Minnesota the top issues he has been hearing about from constituents is the need to stop fraud and affordability.

Wilson said he believes fraud concerns were the top issue Minnesotans were concerned about. On Friday, Demuth announced that if elected, she would empower Wilson as her Lt. Governor to run the anti-fraud work across Minnesota.

“My job would be to root through all state agencies to find fraud,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the different agencies and departments across Minnesota cannot be status quo, they need to change.

“I will be delegated as the anti-fraud czar,” he said. “I’ll be someone who can really look into agencies and change the culture. People will be trained to look for fraud, rather than ignore it.

“People are excited for change,” Wilson said. “With Amy Klobuchar you will get more of the same.”

He believed that voting for Klobuchar was the same as voting for a third Walz term. Wilson said Klobuchar would make no changes to agencies that allowed fraud to grow in Minnesota

“She won’t change department heads,” he said. “She won’t clean house.”

On affordability, Wilson said Demuth’s main plan was to end the tax on social security. He said the state played around with the idea before, but he said it was time for the tax to end.

Demuth also plans to roll back some mandates from the state that fall on the counties and result in local tax increases. Another was to roll back the car tab tax to the previous depreciation schedule.

Asked about the ICE crackdown in Minneapolis and the protests that have followed, Wilson said he believed constituents wanted greater law and order. He said believed Minnesota voters wanted to see local law enforcement cooperate more with federal agencies.

Wilson also discussed a push for greater judiciary accountability. Under the reform, judges would be held accountable for going against sentencing requirements. The idea is to center the victims of crime rather than the perpetrator. The accountability would allow the removal of a judge if necessary.

Wilson asked GOP voters for support in the precinct caucuses. He said he and Demuth could retake the Governor’s office for the GOP, but said Demuth would abide by the GOP endorsement.