Ron Schutz says fighting fraud would be top priority as Minnesota AG

(FOX 9) - Republican candidate for Minnesota attorney general Ron Schutz joined FOX 9's Rob Olson on All Day as part of the station's "Candidate Conversations" series ahead of Election Day.

Schutz discussed his background as a military prosecutor and trial attorney, responded to allegations made against him in campaign advertisements and explained how he would approach the attorney general's office if elected.

Schutz is challenging incumbent Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has accepted FOX 9's invitation to participate in the "Candidate Conversations" series and is scheduled to appear Friday, Oct. 30.

Schutz on his background as a military prosecutor

"I was the equivalent of an assistant district attorney in a large felony practice. So I prosecuted, it was a large military base, 20,000 soldiers, and it was typical felony crimes. You'd have, you know, rapes, assaults, drug cases. That was kind of the mix of what we had."

Schutz on his outdoor adventures and taking on challenges

"As part of an effort to raise money for cancer research, we climbed five mountains in Peru."

Asked why his experiences running marathons, competing in triathlons and climbing mountains are important for voters to know about, Schutz said:

"Well, it's because I don't shy away from hard things. I seek out hard things, I've done a lot of hard physical things in my life. You run a marathon, a triathlon, climb Mount Kilimanjaro, trek to Everest base camp, which was actually incredibly difficult. It gives you the resilience that you need if you're going to take on challenges and other aspects of your life."

Schutz on why he is running for attorney general

"I love Minnesota. I'm a lifelong resident of Minnesota, having grown up on a dairy farm in the southwestern part of the state. And I think the state has gone down the wrong direction. And that's been proven true as we've been on the campaign trail. People feel the state is going down the wrong path, and they're looking for a change. I felt the same way. I love the state, I've got three grandchildren here. And I'd like them to grow up in a state that looks a little more like the state I grew up in, the land of 10,000 lakes instead of the land of 10,000 frauds."

Schutz on campaign attack ads

"Well, so I'm on the board of an organization called the Center of the American Experiment, which is basically a mainstream conservative think tank. And the charges, of course, are ludicrous. Let me just give you an example. The Star Tribune, which is not exactly a conservative publication, 12 times over the last two years they have had senior policy fellows from the Center of the American Experiment write editorials. The Star Tribune hosted a North Star Summit about a month ago, one of the keynote speakers was an economist from the Center of the American Experiment. There are 12,000 yearly donors to the Center of the American Experiment. It is a conservative think tank and I guess the left would like to claim that it's a hate group, which is absolutely preposterous."

Schutz on the Southern Poverty Law Center's allegations

Olson asked Schutz about accusations that the Center of the American Experiment contributed money to the Horowitz Freedom Center, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed as a hate group.

"Well, the Southern Poverty Law Center, as you know, is under federal indictment right now for having, in fact, funded KKK members. And so the Southern Poverty Law Center probably won't be around much longer because of their criminal activity. So to have the Southern Poverty Law Center make accusations is, I just hope Minnesotans step back and just think about the absurdity of a criminal organization, one under federal indictment, making allegations against an organization that I belong to."

Schutz on accusations involving health care companies

"I have never defended a healthcare company. Over the course of my long career, I have been involved in three cases representing healthcare companies as plaintiffs suing fraudsters. And so it's the exact opposite of what these ads try to portray. We were suing people who were stealing from the healthcare companies and in effect driving up premiums for average Minnesotans or the average policyholders for there. But I've never defended a healthcare company that has been accused of anything. It's always been plaintiff-side work. And most of my career has been cases where I have been a plaintiff, frequently representing individuals and small businesses against corporate giants. So again, unfortunately, it's the way politics works, but those are lies."

Schutz on his involvement in health care fraud cases

"One of the cases, well, two of the cases involved allegations against Regeneron, a multi-billion dollar drug company that was basically defrauding two health care companies. And the other one was on behalf of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida against DaVita for DaVita's basically a several hundred million dollar scheme to defraud Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Florida. So again, plaintiff's cases seeking to recover money for fraud, which is exactly what I intend to do in this job if I'm elected, which is pursue people who are defrauding the State of Minnesota."

Schutz on accusations that he supports cutting Medicare and the Affordable Care Act

"I've never commented one way or the other on that. I mean, that was a head-scratcher. I've had people come up to me and say, well, what is that about? Where did that possibly come from? And of course, my response is, well that's just another bald-faced lie made up by people that don't want to see me in office. The fraudsters and the criminals do not want to see me get elected. They absolutely do not want to see me get elected. And the attacks on me are absolutely false, as I've laid out here, and I'm hoping that Minnesotans look at my track record. I've been recognized as one of the top lawyers in America, repeatedly recognized as one of the top lawyers in America. And I have fought hard on behalf of my clients. I'm the only person in a race who's actually spent his career in the courtroom. It really is a contest between a career trial lawyer who has gone into court and personally won tens of millions of dollars on behalf of his clients, including many individuals and small businesses, versus a career politician."

Schutz on what he would do differently as attorney general

"Well, a lot. For one thing, I would aggressively prosecute the rampant fraud that we have in this state. And I probably don't have time to get into the details of what I would do differently to what Keith Ellison would do. But trust me, I didn't get to be recognized as one of the top lawyers in the country by doing anything other than being extremely aggressive and creative in court. And I will bring that same aggressiveness, the same creative lawyering to fighting fraud and working on behalf of the taxpayers of Minnesota."

Schutz on Ellison's lawsuit against Glock and gun rights

Olson asked Schutz whether he would continue a lawsuit brought by Ellison against gun manufacturer Glock over allegations that its firearms can be easily converted into automatic weapons.

"If the attorney general had his way, he would abolish handguns. Let's just be frank about that. And if he had his way in the State of Oregon, for example, the school shooting that just happened in Oregon would have been a far worse disaster than it was because it was an armed citizen, legally carrying a concealed firearm, who stopped that shooter in that Oregon school. And, quite frankly, the person who went in, I don't know what make of the handgun he had but it was probably a Glock because it's the most popular handgun here. I've not looked at the allegations. But I think that is just an example of a political case that the attorney general has filed. Because his real agenda is to make sure that law-abiding citizens don't have handguns. And if you were to wave a magic wand, even if you didn't like the idea of handguns and you were to wave a magic wand and outlaw handguns, does anybody think that would really work? Because it's been tried with drugs, it's tried with everything else, and we have a number of restrictive laws. Anybody who tries to buy a handgun in this state has to have either a permit to purchase or a concealed carry permit, which requires a lot of training. And so again, law-abiding citizens have to go through a number of hoops to buy handguns."

Schutz's final message to Minnesota voters

"I hope Minnesotans step back and ignore the negative ads. I hope they spend some time and really think about who they want representing them in court as the next attorney general. I hope that they look at my track record, see what I've accomplished, and I hope they vote for me."

2026 ElectionsElectionMinnesotaKeith Ellison