“People are furious we lost the presidency,” said Sharon Peterson, a longtime GOP activist from Rosemount who’s backing Carnahan. She said many in the party’s volunteer ranks are consumed with worry about the fairness of the next election, having believed Trump’s unproven and legally discredited claims of a rigged election.
Allegations of a manipulated voting process have infiltrated the chair’s race. Koran and some of his supporters are upset that state party staffers, and Carnahan herself, directly managed about half of the local conventions where activists elected the delegates and alternates who will make up the voting pool for next month’s chair election.
“It’s a massive conflict of interest,” Koran said. “Free, fair, open and transparent elections have to be the basic foundation of what we do. If you have distrust in the process, it’s difficult to get people to accept the results of those conventions.”