In the aftermath of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at his Pennsylvania rally this weekend, Blue Earth County DFL Chair Julianne Gruber is among local leaders describing the event as tragic.
“Violence has no place in democracy,” she said.
“I think as DFL, we really want to see this whole election be about issues. Be about plans. Be about platforms. What are we going to do to make this better? Of course, as Democrats, we think we’re fighting for democracy.”
Trump suffered an ear injury, but a former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, died in the shooting.
“The whole idea of violence in the political arena is just something I can’t comprehend,” Gruber said.
President Joe Biden quickly removed campaign ads following the incident and urged Americans to be nonviolent.
Blue Earth County Republican Chair Yvonne Simon, who said she couldn’t believe history was being repeated again when she saw the news, said the party has a board meeting this week where they’ll discuss an upcoming candidate event.
“There may be some discussions about do we need security or clearance or anything like that at that time,” she said.
Simon said in general, the events of this past weekend are going to cause a lot more people to think about how the election could impact them.
“I hope it’ll drive more people to the ballot, regardless of whether they’re Republican, Democrat or Independent. I hope they get off the couch and go vote to express their own personal desire,” she said.
The assassination attempt comes just before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Simon said she’ll be watching and believes there needs to be talk of unity.
“My personal opinion is that we need to talk unity instead of all this division that’s in the country right now. Let’s work together. Let’s try to keep our country as great as what it is and not decline because of divisiveness,” she said.
Nicollet County Republican Chair Peter Trocke also expressed shock at the events.
“Luckily, thank heavens the (former) president was not really seriously wounded, but it’s so sad when you have a father protecting his family, you know that he lost his life,” he said referring to the firefighter killed in the crowd.
Local professors are also providing their thoughts on how this assassination attempt compares to others in a historical context.
Minnesota State University history professor Matt Loayza said there’s a lot of differences based on timing, the tone, the circumstances and the communications of the day.
“I can’t think of an example of an attempt on a candidate right on the heels of a major party convention,” he said. “The political tensions and polarizations, I think, are probably similar to 1968, but again the timing is different, and certainly I think social media makes things quite a bit different.”
MSU political science professor Kevin Parsneau also compared today’s events with those in the past and said that only a certain number of assassination attempts would happen during campaigns.
Parsenau said the assassination of presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy in 1968 was almost more memorable because he was on the virge of the nomination after President Lydon Johnson decided to not run for re-election.
“Teddy Roosevelt was shot during campaigning to become president again, but other than that, the other different assassination attempts, especially in recent years, or in recent, modern times I guess, Reagan it was after he was elected, Ford, it was a year out from the election.”
Parsneau also said he doesn’t think the attempt on Trump will have an impact on the outcome of this year’s election.
“I don’t know how it’s going to move very many voters in 2024,” he said. “People are very set in their opinion.”