Domestic Assault

I do not rat people out. This is an exception.

One problem with us Democrats out here is that we are not serious when it comes to vetting people who ask to represent us. I want to see Democrats win elections, so people – file this away in your memory banks and do not forget it:

The Democratic candidate who ran in the primary against Colton Kratky for house district 29B is problematic. He had made a comment at a candidate meeting about his education, claiming to have a degree from a particular institution, that I knew to be false. So, I looked online on MNCIS – this is the Minnesota public court records site – to see what public information I could find about him. Here is what I found out:

There was a court order forbidding him from running for public office until after April 2025. This is because he was convicted of domestic assault by strangulation in 2024, and his probation expired in 2025. [Court File No. 05-CR-22-1642.] This is a criminal conviction, and he was prohibited from running for office while he was on probation.

There are other legal proceedings involving this candidate which should be concerning, but it is the domestic assault conviction that is a non-starter for me. I have represented many domestic assault victims in my career, I have fought domestic abusers in court, and domestic assault is never trivial. I do not want my party, the DFL, or my district, to be represented by someone with a criminal conviction for domestic assault by strangulation.

I’m not saying that this person can never run for office. After all, the Court restored his right to do so. And he told me that he is going to run again. But when he does, we should demand of him that he address the domestic assault conviction. Also, he should be required to prove any claims that he makes about his education.

Republicans are smart. If we don’t vet our candidates properly, the Republicans will certainly vet them for us, and we will continue to lose elections out here. Count on it.