MN Supreme Court denies petition seeking lawmaker's removal from ballot

NISSWA — The Minnesota Supreme Court denied a petition by a Republican challenger seeking to remove state Rep. Josh Heintzeman from the ballot.

The petition from Matthew Zinda of Brainerd asked for Heintzeman’s removal because he wrote “Republican” instead of the full official name “Republican Party of Minnesota” as his party designation. It goes on to argue that “Republican” alone is not a major political party, meaning Heintzeman failed to get required signatures to be nominated.

Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, has served in the Legislature since 2015. He represents District 6B, which includes Brainerd, Baxter and Nisswa.

In response to the petition, Secretary of State Steve Simon said it’s a longstanding practice to presume major party identification in these cases.

His office analyzed this year’s candidates and found that just two candidates out of 82 Republicans running for office used the full party name. None of the 105 Democratic candidates wrote “Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.”

In denying the petition, the Supreme Court opined that Zinda’s claims lacked legal merit. The court stated it acted quickly on the petition because the primary election process is underway but will issue a full opinion later.

The winner of the primary race in District 6B between Heintzeman and Zinda will face DFL candidate Emily LeClair and independent candidate Troy Scheffler, running with the Americans First Party.