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Our verdict

LiberalMind endorses Tad Jude

Election Day is November 3. Steve Simon has been Minnesota's secretary of state since 2015 and is seeking a fourth term as the state's chief elections official — an incumbent the other side's own commentary calls historically unbeatable. The only polling in this race, three surveys from a single house, tells a stranger story: the mid-October poll puts Simon up six, and the poll before it put his challenger up two. We print both, in sequence, as the conflict they are. The challenger, Tad Jude, has held office across five decades — legislator, county commissioner, district judge for ten years — much of it long ago, and some of it as a Democrat. Underneath the race is one clean policy split: Simon refused the federal government's demand for private voter-roll data and won in court; Jude runs on cooperation and citizenship verification. LiberalMind endorses Tad Jude. Read the research, and see why.

How Minnesota got here

Minnesota held its primaries on August 11, 2026. Simon was unopposed in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary (615,129 votes, 100%). Jude won the Republican primary with 60.3% (229,824 votes) over business owner Wendy Phillips, 39.7% (151,619) — a small conflict sits inside that figure: a Jude candidate site reports his total as 229,804 votes, 60.25%, a 20-vote discrepancy against the primary summary; the certified Secretary of State count controls before any republication of the number, and we print the summary's figure with the discrepancy noted. Jude was also the Republican-endorsed candidate from the party's May 2026 state convention in Duluth.

Four candidates, confirmed against an official Minnesota sample ballot (House District 45B) and corroborated by the race's reference pages and voter guides: Steve Simon (Democratic-Farmer-Labor), the incumbent since 2015; Tad Jude (Republican); Seth Kuhl-Stennes (Green); and George "Chip" Tangen (Libertarian).

No formal race rating was located. The polling is three public polls, all KSTP/SurveyUSA, and successive readings moved in opposite directions — printed as a sequence, never averaged: the mid-October poll shows Simon +6 with 15% undecided, inside the survey's credibility interval; the prior KSTP poll showed Jude +2, also inside it. A conservative outlet's assessment (AMAC Newsline, labeled as such) calls Simon and the DFL "thought to be unbeatable" historically while noting Republican opponents running "much closer than expected."

The money is one-sided in the record, and we print it one-sided: per Transparency USA (Minnesota Campaign Finance Board data), 2026 cycle, as crawled October 25, 2026, Simon raised contributions of $814,872 and spent $425,275. No 2026 contribution total for Jude, Kuhl-Stennes, or Tangen was located in the sources consulted — the Campaign Finance Board reports were not pulled directly for those candidates — and we print no comparative money claim for this race.

The race's substantive axis is the federal voter-data fight. Simon refused the Trump administration Justice Department's demand for private, unredacted voter-roll data, is a defendant in the Department's lawsuit over that refusal, and — per Bolts — prevailed in court on the refusal. Jude argues for a more cooperative posture: he would use the federal SAVE database to confirm citizenship and runs a "SAVE Minnesota" platform — photo identification for every voter, and citizenship verification.

Steve Simon (DFL) — three terms, the nation's turnout, and a court win

Background and service: Secretary of State since 2015, first elected in 2014 and twice re-elected. Before that, a state representative and an assistant attorney general (background via MPR reporting, relayed; the tenure dates are corroborated by the race's reference pages). Minnesota regularly posts among the nation's highest voter-turnout rates under his administration.

His 2026 pitch, in his own words: To MPR, Simon said threats to elections are "too great for me to step away," and that his office is planning for potential 2026 disturbances, including federal personnel at polling places — "It's not a prediction… we have to plan for that." He considered the open U.S. Senate race and a run for governor before choosing to stay.

The record flashpoint: The voter-data refusal and the Justice Department litigation — he frames the refusal as voter privacy; Jude frames it as non-cooperation. Bolts reports he prevailed in court on the refusal. That is a proven in-service position, taken and defended successfully in litigation, and we print it as such.

Pros: A proven three-term administrator of the exact office, in a state whose turnout under his administration ranks among the nation's highest. A court-validated defense of his signature position. Institutional continuity in a year his office is openly planning for disturbances.

Cons: Eleven years is a long incumbency, and his signature fight is a refusal — of federal data demands — that his opponent prices as non-cooperation on citizenship verification, the one verification question this office cannot dodge. No break with his party was located in this record; his position in the data fight is his party's standard position, executed well.

The flaw, plainly: None proven in service on this record — the data refusal is a policy position his side won in court, priced as a position, not a failure. The case against him under our doctrine is not a flaw in his administration; it is that he is a reliable party-line Democrat, the standing enabler profile, with no Manchin-test break located — and enabler is a distinct word from extremist, which nothing in this record supports calling him.

Tad Jude (Republican) — a five-decade career, a long absence, and a verification platform

Background and service: A career spanning five decades and a party switch, documented in sequence: elected to the Minnesota Legislature in the 1970s–80s, including service as a Democratic state senator for District 48 (1983–1989); Hennepin County commissioner; district court judge, 10th Judicial District, 2011–2021; and the Republican nominee for MN-03 (U.S. House) in 2024. He now runs as a Republican, endorsed at the party's May 2026 convention and winner of its August primary with 60.3%.

His platform — "SAVE Minnesota," as sourced: Photo identification for every voter, citizenship-only voting, voter-roll cleanup with federal partners including use of the SAVE database to confirm citizenship, and restoring the pre-2023 state flag by public vote. The platform planks are sourced to a conservative outlet's summary of his campaign materials (AMAC) alongside his campaign materials themselves; we print them attributed at that strength.

The verification record on Jude himself: No scandal or verification failure concerning Jude was located in the sources consulted.

Pros: Proven in three different kinds of office — legislative, county executive-board, and a decade on the bench — including the judicial temperament the chief-elections job most needs when counts are contested. A platform aimed at the office's live question, citizenship verification, with a named federal tool for it. A primary won decisively against a real opponent, where his general-election opponent was unopposed.

Cons: The service is old at the front and gapped in the middle: his legislative career ended in 1989, and his most recent office, the judgeship, ended in 2021. He switched parties across that span — the Democratic senator of the 1980s is the Republican nominee of 2026 — and voters must price a conversion whose in-office Republican record is, so far, a single House nomination. His flag plank reaches beyond election administration into a culture question the office does not decide alone.

The flaw, plainly: Staleness and switch, both documented — a proven record, but proven long ago and partly under the other party's label. No conduct flaw was sourced against him.

The minor candidates, briefly

Seth Kuhl-Stennes (Green) and George "Chip" Tangen (Libertarian) are confirmed on the ballot by the official sample ballot and the voter guides. No biography or record for either was located in the sources consulted, and we state that gap rather than pad it. A standing check found no pedophile-association material meeting the proven standard — knowing association with or defense of a convicted pedophile — for any candidate on this ballot.

OUR CALL

LiberalMind endorses Tad Jude.

Simon is the strongest Democratic incumbent in Minnesota's statewide file, and this call says plainly what it is not: it is not a verdict that he administered badly. His turnout record is real, his court win is real, and no proven flaw in service was located. The call rests on the doctrine's standing distinction. A Democrat earns our exception only through the Manchin test — proven breaks with his party, in service, on our values — and Simon's record, ably executed as it is, is his party's standard: in the cycle's defining dispute he refused the federal citizenship-data demand his party opposes, and won. That is the enabler profile precisely defined — reliable party-line service — and the enabler classification is the standing reason the exception is not earned. Jude is proven in office, if not recently: a decade judging is the closest apprenticeship this office has, his verification platform answers the question Simon's office declines to cooperate on, and no conduct flaw was sourced against him. His age of record and his party switch are printed above as the real costs they are. Weigh a well-run office held by a reliable party-line incumbent against a proven former judge running on verification and cooperation, and the mission decides it: endorse Jude, with Simon's administrative record acknowledged in full.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Winner: Steve Simon (Democratic) — called by the Associated Press. This result was appended on November 4, 2026 (results wave 2); the original article above is unchanged, exactly as published before Election Day.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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