Jennifer Carnahan resigns as Minnesota GOP chairwoman

August 19, 2021

KVRR Staff,

Thanks everyone for an amazing past four years! We’ve done much to build our party to where it is today and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. Remember, love always wins over hate, and I can’t wait to share what is next up in my career. Stay tuned!

Love to all 🍾💛 https://t.co/LBHrFV4LfF

— Jennifer Carnahan Hagedorn (@jkcarnah) August 20, 2021

MINNESOTA (FOX 9) – Facing controversy, Republican Party of Minnesota Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan announced Thursday night she will resign from her post.

In a statement, Carnahan says: “Our party has faced difficult circumstances over the past week with the indictment of one of our party’s major donors for the heinous acts of sex trafficking and obstruction of justice. I want to be very clear in unequivocally stating that I had no knowledge or involvement in those activities. I trust justice will be served, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison.”

Carnahan’s support on the GOP’s Executive Committee and elsewhere within the party has crumbled after the arrest of close friend and big donor Tony Lazzaro on child sex trafficking charges last week. Over the past three days, several former party staffers and young Republicans have stepped forward to accuse the chairwoman of running an organization where verbal abuse, intimidation and sexual harassment is pervasive.

Thursday, sources told FOX 9 that Carnahan was looking for $100,000 in severance pay. Some board members were refusing to pay any severance, one person said.

On Tuesday, before the growing list of accusations from party staffers, Carnahan vowed to fight on. The chairwoman said she would call a meeting of the larger State Central Committee for after Labor Day, citing the 67 percent vote she got among delegates in her spring re-election bid.

That plan appeared to have changed by Thursday morning. Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said he’d spoken with Carnahan and her detractors and expected Carnahan’s status to be resolved at Thursday evening’s Executive Committee meeting.

Also on Thursday morning, former Executive Director Andy Aplikowski said Carnahan appeared to know in July of close friend and donor Tony Lazzaro’s legal situation, refuting Carnahan’s earlier comment that she did not know of the accusations against Lazzaro until his Aug. 12 arrest.

Aplikowski also said the party took a $5,000 contribution from Lazzaro in July. Since the check was to the Minnesota GOP’s state account, it doesn’t need to be made public until next year under Minnesota’s campaign finance disclosure requirements.