Doctors group lines up behind Walz in Minnesota governor’s race, not Dr. Scott Jensen
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In the race for Minnesota governor this week, the non-doctor candidate — Gov. Tim Walz — got a boost from doctors over his opponent, Dr. Scott Jensen.
Why? In addition to Walz, a Democrat, earning praise from doctors for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, Jensen, a former Republican state senator and Minnesota Family Physician of the Year, has eroded goodwill among some of his peers for his dubious stances surrounding COVID-19, according to interviews with several doctors — some of whom have supported Democratic causes in the past.
“Sometimes you have to make a stand,” said Dr. Peter Bornstein, an infectious disease doctor with Allina Health who said he has voted for candidates from both parties over the years but has generally tried to stay out of public political discourse.
Through a spokesman, Jensen declined to comment for this story. As a candidate, his identity as a family doctor has remained central to his message.
On Friday, his campaign released a TV ad touting his experience as a doctor. Wearing a white lab coat, Jensen says to the camera, “As a family doctor for more than 40 years, I have been a trusted voice for my patients.” The ad closes with the tagline “Heal Minnesota.”
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION BACKS WALZ
The most eye-opening endorsement of Walz over Jensen came from the Minnesota Medical Association’s political arm, MEDPAC, which represents more than 11,000 physicians and physicians-in-training across the state and had a previous record of endorsing Jensen.
The group has endorsed both Democrats and Republicans in selected legislative races over the years, including three Republicans and eight Democrats this year. But the group rarely endorses candidates in statewide races, and when it has, it’s been mixed, endorsing Democrat Mark Dayton in 2014, Independence Party candidate Tom Horner in 2010 and Republican Tim Pawlenty in 2002.
In 2016, the same year Jensen was named the Minnesota Family Physician of the Year by the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians, MEDPAC endorsed Jensen as he sought an open seat in the Minnesota Senate representing the Chaska area.
Dr. Will Nicholson, a hospitalist with M Health Fairview and chair of MEDPAC’s board of directors, announced the group’s endorsement of Walz in a letter Tuesday. In it, Nicholson said Walz “used science- and evidence-based actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and strongly advocates for widespread vaccination.”
The letter never mentions Jensen, and in an interview, Nicholson declined to criticize Jensen, emphasizing that “negative campaigning goes against our core values as physicians. … We’re physicians, and we don’t talk a lot about the medicines we’re not using or the medicines that don’t work.”
DOCTORS SPEAK OUT
A few frontline local doctors have publicly criticized Jensen throughout the pandemic, as he has attempted to cast skepticism on the death count, endorsed unproven treatments and stoked doubts about vaccine safety and effectiveness, but many remained silent.
Bornstein, who has made three donations to Democratic campaigns or causes since 2004, said he felt the situation changed when Jensen became the Republican nominee.
Adding to his unease with Jensen was when Jensen recently defended his statements equating mask mandates and other COVID restrictions to the rise of authoritarianism in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, said Bornstein, who is Jewish and treated COVID patients during the pandemic.
“There’s a difference between public health skepticism and political opportunism,” he said at a news conference Friday.
PARTISAN OVERTONES AND ABORTION
The venue of Bornstein’s comments was a news conference organized by Protect Our Care, a Democrat-aligned advocacy group. The event featured numerous doctors from various disciplines, including prominent leaders like Dr. Penny Wheeler, who retired last year as CEO of Allina. Wheeler, like some of the other doctors present, has a public record of supporting Democrats — a fact seized upon by Jensen defenders.
They also noted that COVID wasn’t the only reason cited by doctors endorsing Walz. Jensen’s opposition to abortion hangs over the discussion as well.
MEDPAC’s endorsement of Walz states he “works to protect the patient-physician relationship and patient access to care, especially reproductive healthcare.” Abortion rights doesn’t appear to be a litmus test for candidates, however; some of the legislative candidates the group is endorsing this year describe themselves as pro-life.
In response to Friday’s event by the left-aligned Protect Our Care, Nick Majerus, communications director for the Republican party of Minnesota, released the following statement:
“Democrats want this election to be about abortion because they are desperate to distract from their failed records. Abortion is not on the ballot in November — it is protected in Minnesota by a supreme court case, Doe V. Gomez, and there is nothing the next legislature or governor can do to restrict abortion access here. Our Republican candidates are focused on the real issues impacting Minnesota families like rising inflation and a stagnating economy, fighting the Democrats’ crime wave, and improving educational outcomes while empowering parents.”
Jensen’s position on abortion has shifted since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion once hallowed in Roe v. Wade. After previously saying he would seek to ban abortions in Minnesota and didn’t support any exceptions for rape, last month he said he did support such exceptions.
