Minnesota Republican drops governor bid, blasts party over federal retribution after Pretti killing

Описание: Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate Chris Madel says the Trump administration’s interest in investigating fraud in his state would improve ‘transparency’ on ‘The Evening Edit.’
A Minneapolis lawyer who represented the immigration agent who fatally shot Renee Good is ending his Republican bid for Minnesota governor after a second protester was killed by federal authorities.
"I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state," Chris Madel said in a message posted on social media Monday , as he announced he was dropping his outsider bid for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. "Nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so."
Madel's move comes two days after a U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center who was filming an immigration operation.
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Minneapolis attorney Chris Madel, seen speaking in Minneapolis on Dec. 1, 2025, on Monday ended his 2026 Republican bid for Minnesota governor. (Leila Navidi/Star Tribune via AP)
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials initially said Pretti, who was legally armed with a handgun, was threatening agents, who they say fired in self-defense. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem labeled the actions of Pretti as "domestic terrorism" and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called him a "would-be assassin."
But videos of the shooting seem to indicate Pretti was brandishing a cell phone rather than his handgun, with federal agents appearing to secure Pretti's weapon moments before he was shot multiple times.
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The fatal shooting has further inflamed political tensions in Minnesota and across the country over aggressive efforts by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Border Patrol and other federal agencies to enforce President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
A screengrab from a video shows a law enforcement officer spraying irritants at Alex Pretti before he was fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 24, 2026. (Reuters)
"I support the originally stated goals of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Operation Metro Surge in locating and deporting the worst of the worst from our state," Madel said.
But he argued, "Operation Metro Surge has expanded far beyond its stated focus on true public safety threats. United States citizens, particularly those of color, live in fear. United States citizens are carrying papers to prove their citizenship. That’s wrong."
While he praised a number of Trump's achievements so far in the president's second term in the White House, Madel claimed that the massive deployment of a couple of thousand federal immigration agents to Minnesota "has been an unmitigated disaster."
"At the end of the day, I have to look my daughters in the eye and tell them I believe I did what was right. And I am doing that today," he added.
No Republican has won an election for governor in blue-leaning Minnesota in 20 years, and Madel claimed, "The reality is that the national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota. It is a simple fact."
Madel grabbed national attention earlier this month when he legally represented Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fatally shot Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was protesting an anti-immigration operation in Minneapolis.
Good's death, which instantly escalated already simmering tensions, came a couple of days after Democratic Gov. Tim Walz ended his re-election bid for a third term as governor amid a deepening federal investigation into the sweeping fraud scandal in Minnesota's social services programs.
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