“Steve Simon’s decision to run for a fourth term should alarm every Minnesotan who cares about transparency, clean elections, and a functioning government. Simon has spent a decade turning the Secretary of State’s office into a partisan apparatus that protects the DFL at the expense of public trust. His record is not one of stewardship — it’s a record of blocking investigations, losing lawsuits, hiding critical information, and enabling chaos inside our state government.”
SIMON ENABLED THE 2025 LEGISLATIVE MELTDOWN
- When the 2025 session collapsed into a constitutional debacle, Steve Simon was in the presiding chair. It was Simon who ruled the House could not organize — a procedural decision that gave the DFL the escape hatch they needed to walk out for weeks and grind the Legislature to a halt. His ruling helped trigger the standoff that froze public-safety bills, stopped budget negotiations, and blocked election-security legislation.
And let’s not forget:
- This crisis started because the DFL attempted to seat a candidate who did not even live in the district, a violation that destabilized the entire balance of the House. Simon’s office failed to prevent the situation, and Minnesotans paid the price.
BLOCKS INVESTIGATIONS
Simon has repeatedly obstructed legitimate oversight efforts:
- Refused to turn over voter-roll data to the U.S. Department of Justice, forcing the DOJ to file a federal lawsuit when he blocked citizenship-verification efforts.
- Rejected participation in the DHS SAVE system, which other states use to identify noncitizens and deceased individuals on voter rolls.
- Stonewalled legislative committees seeking routine election-security information, including absentee-ballot rejection data and voter-roll maintenance procedures.
- This is not “protecting voters.” It’s protecting the DFL from scrutiny.
LOSES IN COURT
Simon’s tenure is littered with legal defeats:
- A federal court in Carson v. Simon ruled that he violated state law by unilaterally changing absentee-ballot deadlines.
- Courts struck down Simon-backed rules restricting ballot observers because he exceeded his legal authority.
- Judges repeatedly rebuked his office for attempting to rewrite election law without legislative approval.
- Minnesotans should not have to rely on the courts to stop the Secretary of State from breaking the law.
HIDES THE TRUTH
- Transparency under Simon has collapsed:
- The Office of the Legislative Auditor reported significant difficulty obtaining basic election data from Simon’s office.
- Watchdog groups and reporters documented delays and refusals in public-records requests involving election rule changes.
- Simon refused to release information — even in redacted form — on confirmed cases of double voting and ineligible voters referred to for prosecution.
What is he trying to hide?
THE RESULT: ERODED TRUST, MORE FRAUD, LESS ACCOUNTABILITY
- Just as Governor Walz and the DFL have wrecked Minnesota’s education system, allowed billions in fraud to flow out of state agencies, and destroyed our reputation for clean government, Steve Simon has done the same to our elections.
- Minnesota used to be known for its fair, transparent election system.
- Under Steve Simon, that reputation has collapsed.
In 2026, Minnesotans will choose between:
More secrecy, more lawsuits, more chaos under Steve Simon — or a fresh start that restores integrity and transparency to our election