In the Minnesota Attorney General Race, It’s Consumers and Unions vs. Corporations
Minnesotans vote for attorney general tomorrow, with progressive Keith Ellison facing Republican former finance lawyer Jim Schultz. Schultz is trying to frame the election around crime — to avoid the race’s high stakes for consumers’ and workers' rights.
Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison announces charges against former Minneapolis police officers involved in the murder of George Floyd, on June 3, 2020 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)
One of the staunchest consumer protection advocates in America will face off against a corporate lawyer in an election on November 8 that could shape litigation against corporations nationwide.
Incumbent Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, a Democrat, has sued a major private equity landlord for failing to maintain rental units, aggressively prosecuted wage theft, led multistate actions to lower prescription drug prices, and moved to block a major acquisition by health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group under antitrust law.
His Republican opponent Jim Schultz, meanwhile, has said that if he wins office he will cut resources to the attorney general office’s corporate prosecution division. The thirty-six-year-old hedge fund lawyer has also called Ellison’s lawsuit against oil companies for deceiving the public on climate change “frivolous.”
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