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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Tuesday that he’ll pursue a third term, citing his desire to continue pressing back on the Trump administration and making the cost of living more affordable.

Ellison touted his work challenging various companies over their practices and pricing, resulting in settlements with the state. His entry into the race likely clears the field on the DFL side. In the last year, he has frequently sued over President Donald Trump’s actions that have a bearing on Minnesota programs. 

“I'm running again because I believe that there's still so much more to do to protect Minnesotans family budgets, so much more to help people afford their lives. We still have prescription drug prices that are beyond what people are able to afford. Housing prices are going up, and of course, people, a lot of workers are facing issues like wage theft and misclassification fraud,” Ellison said in an interview Tuesday with MPR News. 

“At the same time, it's undeniable that the federal government, under Donald Trump, is taking action in violation of the law,” he continued.

Ellison, 62, was first elected to the post in 2018. He previously represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in Congress and a Minneapolis district in the Minnesota House of Representatives.

Republican Ron Schutz, a litigator and partner at Robins Kaplan LLP, opened his campaign for the office earlier this month. Schutz was an adviser to former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. He entered the race pledging to take on violent crime and fraud in government programs.

Republican Party Chair Alex Plechash said Minnesota voters are ready to move on from Ellison.

“Instead of protecting taxpayers and victims, Ellison spent his time chasing headlines, pushing a national woke agenda and blaming everyone but himself,” Plechash said in a written statement, casting Ellison as lax on combatting fraud.

Democrats have held the office for more than half a century; in 2026 it will be 60 years since Doug Head’s last GOP win. But Republican candidates have come close the last two times Ellison won. He expects this, too, will be a tight race.

“There's still a lot of people who think Trumpism is a viable way to run a society. I disagree with them, and that's why I'm running. But they're there and but I'm going to represent them as well as I can,” he said. “Every time I've run, I felt that we were going to prevail, and we have but that doesn't mean there weren't some tough days.”

Ellison said voters can expect he would stand up against Trump in a new term. He said his office has filed more than 40 lawsuits against Donald Trump since January.

“We can't have somebody who thinks that it's just great to let Trump whatever do whatever he wants to do,” Ellison said. “We can't have somebody who's rolling out the red carpet for Trump policies. We need somebody who says we're going to uphold the law. Everybody has to obey the law, including the president.”

Ellison also said he takes the fraud done by state social service vendors over the last several years very seriously.

“I think attacking fraud is a bipartisan project, and we all should put our focus on stopping it,” he said. 

Ellison said his office has gone after hundreds of people for Medicare fraud, and he is bolstering staff to help prosecute fraud in the future and is hoping the legislature will increase penalties for Medicare fraud.

Minnesota News

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Election 2026 

Dana Ferguson

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Peter Cox

Attorney General Keith Ellison, a DFLer, won two close races. He says he’s going for a third term.

Keith Ellison to run for third term as Minnesota attorney general

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