Rep. Keith Ellison has ruled out running to serve the remainder of outgoing Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) term in a special election in 2018, a spokesperson confirmed to TPM Wednesday.
“He has ruled it out,” Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesperson for Ellison, wrote in an email to TPM.
In a Facebook post, Ellison congratulated Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith for her appointment to the Senate in an interim capacity and said she had his “full support both now and when she runs in the 2018 special election.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune earlier reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed source close to Ellison, that he would not run in the 2018 special election.
On Wednesday, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton named Smith to fill Sen. Al Franken’s seat until a special election on Nov. 6, 2018, and Smith will reportedly run in that election to serve the remaining two years of Franken’s original term, until the 2020 election when a senator will be elected to serve a full term.
Franken announced his resignation Thursday after several women accused him of sexual harassment.
Ellison is also the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
This post has been updated.
So, basically, he’s running for President…
Possibly a shrewd move - he has become a “name” and has a office that he can retain without taking every ounce of his energy and becoming consumed by a contest for a huge amount of time - it is not like Ellison needs to become a Senator to be heard - - would it ‘elevate’ him? yes - but his current visibility is pretty good and it might be more important to maintain steady visibility and flow of message and be occupied in politically productive activity .
He’s a congressman in a fairly blue district, isn’t he? Could he win statewide office? How progressive is Minnesota?
I’d also add that his position t the DNC is important for pulling the party together after 2016.
Regardless of one’s opinion of the DNC’s role on the 2016 primary, Ellison being Deputy at the DNC will help appearance of fairness in the 2020 primary.
I don’t believe he can, although I fervently wish otherwise. He’d get killed in rural Minnesota, which is little more than North Alabama in many respects. When the big mines closed and Reagan killed the unions it went from solid blue to solid red, as people turned their anger over their formerly middle class lives into epic kicking down, fueled by racism and evangelical religious revival…