02/06/26:Lisa Demuth serves as the Minnesota Speaker of the House and was elected to the House in 2018, now she’s running for Governor. She recently won a Minnesota straw poll in a crowded field of Republican candidates for governor. Of the 12 candidates listed on the ballot, she had around 32% of roughly 17,600 votes cast by Republican voters at local party gatherings across the state.

(Joel Heitkamp is a talk show host on the Mighty 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. His award-winning program, “News & Views,” can be heard weekdays from 8 – 11 a.m. Follow Joel on X/Twitter @JoelKFGO.)