Lobbyist Legislator and failed former House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt announced his sudden resignation from the Minnesota House, which will be effective on February 11th - the day before the start of the 2024 Legislative Session. Daudt's surprising resignation strengthens the Radical Democrats' majority and makes their ability to pass things like gun control more likely.

While the motivation behind Daudt's decision may be a mystery, some speculate that he wants to take his lobbying full time and in the halls of the Minnesota Capitol. Daudt was hired many years ago by a Washington D.C. lobbying firm called Stateside Associates. Two fellow Republicans filed an ethics complaint against Daudt for serving as a legislator concurrently while representing a lobbying firm. 

Who is Kurt Daudt?

If you asked Kurt, he'd tell you he's a conservative and groups like Action 4 Liberty are fraudsters who don't believe in conservatism. But Daudt's legislative voting history tells a different story. As Speaker of the House in 2018, he earned a deep F (29%) on our liberty scorecard. His tenure in charge of Republicans in the House led to more government, unconstitutional omnibus bills, passage of a federal ID system, no movement on pro-gun bills like Constitutional carry or Stand-You-Ground, and more debt. 

In 2020, the heart of the Pandemic, Daudt's true colors shined. On April 14th, 2020, Daudt persuaded the majority of House Republican Caucus members to protect Governor Walz' Emergency Powers by voting against the resolution on the House floor offered by Rep Steve Drazkowski. Only 15 Republicans voted in favor of it.

Then, in a House floor debate, Daudt bragged that he wore a mask to save other House members' lives:

Once the experimental COVID shorts rolled out, we caught an advertisement running in Minnesota featuring Daudt who was using his position of power to encourage people to get the experimental COVID shots. The commercial was run by a third party organization funded by pharmaceutical companies, who his lobbying firm represents.

While Action 4 Liberty was busy working around the clock to End Walz' Emergency Powers by door knocking vulnerable Democrats in Greater Minnesota, Daudt empathized with Con Artist Democrat Dave Lislegard in a House Committee Meeting when Lislegard complained about all the heat he was receiving from Action 4 Liberty's highly effective door knocking operations in his district. Daudt joined him in calling Action 4 Liberty people "whackos" for trying to end Democrat Governor Tim Walz' illegal orders.

In the 2022 election, Daudt actively worked against conservative, Republican endorsed candidates. He coordinated funds from a federal Republican Legislative PAC to come to Minnesota and get spent against conservatives in the August primary. Luckily, he failed and they didn't win a single of the contested primary races.

Daudt has been a disgrace over and over again in Minnesota politics. Eventually all his vindictive, behind-the-scenes behavior and work to derail the conservative movement got the best of him. After failing to win the Minnesota House three election cycles in a row, House Republicans booted him from his leadership position. Surprisingly it took them that long!

We're not likely done hearing about Kurt Daudt though. His resignation is probably an effort to start lobbying directly in the state of Minnesota - something that definitely would've got him in hot water if he did it while serving as a legislator. House Rules state that a member can't lobby for a year after leaving the House, but there's no mechanism to enforce it and former Rep Nick Zerwas set a precedent years ago for not following that rule.

One more RINO is gone. Hopefully House District 27B finds a principled, conservative replacement once Governor Tim Walz calls a special election.