FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 29, 2026
Minnesota Got the Mine, Iowa Got the Mill: MNGOP Chair Plechash Says DFL Policies Cost Minnesota a $15 Billion Steel Plant
ST. PAUL — The Republican Party of Minnesota today congratulated Congressman Pete Stauber and Minnesota’s Republican congressional delegation for delivering for the Iron Range, as Mesabi Metallics announced at the White House that ore from its new Nashwauk mine, the first new iron ore mine in Minnesota in 50 years, will supply a $15 billion steel mill projected to be the largest in the country.
That mill, and the thousands of permanent and construction jobs that come with it, will be built in Iowa.
“Today is a great day for the Iron Range, and Congressman Stauber and our delegation deserve enormous credit for fighting for it,” said MNGOP Chairman Alex Plechash. “But every Minnesotan should be asking one question: why is the ore ours and the mill Iowa’s? The answer is eight years of Tim Walz waging war on mining, Amy Klobuchar voting against the Range when it counted, and a DFL trifecta that raised taxes by $10 billion and buried employers in new regulations. Companies don’t build where they’re treated as the enemy.”
Walz: Eight years against the Range. Gov. Walz has spent his tenure siding against the families who mine and work in northern Minnesota. Just last month, with only months left in office, he signed Executive Order 26-10 halting state permitting and environmental review for copper-nickel mining across the Rainy River Headwaters, overriding Congress and ignoring his own DNR’s finding that existing state law already protects the watershed.
Klobuchar: When it counted, she voted no. Sen. Klobuchar, now the DFL candidate for governor, talks often about her grandfather the miner. But in April, when the Senate voted on Congressman Stauber’s resolution lifting the Biden-era mining ban, she voted no and urged her colleagues to kill it. Iron Range workers won 50-49 in spite of her.
The DFL trifecta: $10 billion in new taxes. Under Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the DFL trifecta turned a record surplus into roughly $10 billion in new taxes and billions in new regulatory costs, making Minnesota one of the most expensive places in America to build.
Hauschild: Part of the problem. Sen. Grant Hauschild represents the heart of mining country, but in St. Paul he is DFL leadership. He serves as Assistant Majority Leader, and his own caucus credits him as integral to passing the 2023 tax package at the center of the DFL’s $10 billion tax increase. His election-year criticism of Walz’s executive order doesn’t change who he keeps in power.
“Grant Hauschild wants Iron Range voters to believe he’s independent, but he helped write the tax bill and he helps run the DFL majority that drove this investment across the border,” Plechash said.
“Lisa Demuth will bring business back to Minnesota while protecting our state’s natural resources. Imagine how much more is possible when we stop the fraud, restore common sense, and tell job creators Minnesota is open for business again.”