Senator Mark Johnson (R-EGF), along with Senator Paul Utke (R-Park Rapids) and Representative Jeff Backer (R-Browns Valley), wrote a letter last week to Gov. Tim Walz urging him to reconsider his one-size-fits-all approach to battling COVID-19 in Minnesota. The letter was co-signed by 44 senators and representatives across rural Minnesota, including Deb Kiel (R-Crookston).
Johnson said the approach of lumping all of Minnesota into one large block for how COVID-19 should be handled is not going well for rural Minnesota. “We’ve got a group of elected house and senate members that get together, and we call ourselves the GOP caucus because we represent rural areas across Minnesota,” said Johnson. “I suggested we write a letter to the governor outlying some of the unique issues we’re dealing with in rural Minnesota. And how the approach of lumping Minnesota into one large block and saying that everything will be done the same across the state is not going well for rural Minnesota. This effort was urging the governor to change his approach and give some deference to what’s going on in local communities.”
Johnson said small businesses might not be deemed essential, but they are crucial to small communities. “My district is six counties starting in Polk County going up to the Canadian border, and we’ve had two COVID-related illnesses. That’s true for most of the counties around Minnesota,” said Johnson. “Very low numbers and we’re killing our small businesses whether it’s a hairdresser, a restaurant, a bar, all these small businesses that may be out deemed essential, but they are essential to our communities. It’s hard to watch our friends and neighbors get beat up like this. We need a different approach. We understand the danger that is involved, but at what point are we going to get the wheels back in motion again and the letter was just encouraging the governor to do that.”
Johnson added that rural Minnesota has been practicing social distancing for a long time. “When you look at the cases across the state, 80-85 percent of them are in the metropolitan area, which makes sense because it’s a much more dense living environment then it is in rural Minnesota,” said Johnson. “We’ve been practicing this physical distancing thing since 1895 in rural Minnesota. It’s nothing new to us, and it’s great to go around the district and see people being very conscious of the flu or COVID. Everybody is wiping down, using hand sanitizer, doing everything they can to keep things safe. You know, I don’t believe we need to be shutting down everything because of this new virus, this new danger. We’re are taking precautions to be careful around it, though. The data right now, there is some interpretation there too, we have to keep that in mind.”
Johnson said one model shared by the governor’s office shows almost no difference in the number of deaths between a full shelter-in-place and only sheltering those who are the most vulnerable. “One of the interesting models that have gone around and I think it was presented by the governors last week shows whether we all shelter-in-place or we shelter those who are vulnerable from the COVID virus death rates look about the same,” said Johnson. “It’s just the approach and the policy of how do you protect a community from this. That was very eye-opening to me that we could do this in a different way and still keeping people relatively safe from it. I’d appreciate that, and that’s what the letter urged, not in a disrespectful way, let’s take another look at this. The governor is in a very difficult position right now. We get that, and we get the gravity of it. I just wish he would listen to the elected representatives across the state. I represent 80,000 people in my district; our house representatives each represent about 40,000. We speak for a great number of people, especially when you have 44 elected senators and representatives signing this letter. That is a lot of rural Minnesota’s voice trying to be heard, yet he doesn’t even acknowledge that he’s read the letter. That’s very disconcerting for me.”
Johnson also encouraged people to contact the governor’s office to shares their stories. “I encourage people to contact the governor’s office,” said Johnson. “Right now, the legislature has been more or less sidelined by this peacetime emergency and the extension that came just yesterday. I know that’s been very frustrating for me, and I know for Rep. Deb Kiel and Dan Fabian up north. I just urge individuals to be contacting the governor’s office, leaving their stories, whether its email, voicemail, Facebook, Twitter. Leaving you stories, so people understand that this is causing issues in our neck of the woods and what those unique issues are.”
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