Tad Jude
TLDR: Tad Jude is the Republican Party of Minnesota's endorsed candidate and won the August 11 Republican primary. Born in St. Cloud, he was elected to the Minnesota House in 1972 at age 20, the youngest person ever elected to the Legislature, and later served in the state Senate, on the Hennepin County Board, and as a 10th District judge. He is an attorney and small business owner. His campaign slogan is "Secure the Vote, Trust the Vote," and he wants photo ID for voting and a crackdown on fraud in business filings.
Tad JudeRepublican- Running for
- Minnesota Secretary of State
- Work
- Attorney, self-employed
- Lives in
- Maple Grove
- Background
- Minnesota House, 1973–1982 (District 42A), and Minnesota Senate, 1983–1988 (District 48), first elected with the DFL caucus; became an Independent-Republican in 1992 lrl.mn.gov
- Hennepin County Commissioner beginning 1989 lrl.mn.gov
- Workers' compensation attorney, Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, 1995–2010; District Court Judge, 10th Judicial District, 2011–2022 lrl.mn.gov
- B.A. in political science, College of St. Thomas; J.D., William Mitchell College of Law; served in the U.S. Army Reserve 1971–1977 ballotpedia.org
- Ran unsuccessfully for U.S. House (1992, 1994, 2024), Attorney General (2022) and Hennepin County Attorney (2022) lrl.mn.gov
- Website
- tadjude.com
- [email protected]
- Raised
- $248,705, $66,239 on hand cfb.mn.gov
- Also running
- Steve Simon (DFL), Seth Kuhl-Stennes (Green), George "Chip" Tangen (Libertarian)
Q: Where does Jude stand on election security?
A: Would work with townships, cities, counties, school districts and federal partners to clean up voter rolls.
ballotpedia.orgQ: Where does Jude stand on election security?
A: Supports party-balanced election judges during early voting; wants to make "voting simple, but cheating hard."
communityreporter.substack.comQ: Where does Jude stand on voter ID?
A: Supports requiring photo ID to vote and using the federal SAVE database to check that only citizens vote; says "Securing the vote for every Minnesotan is my highest priority."
kaxe.orgQ: Where does Jude stand on voter ID?
A: Wants to revisit Minnesota's "vouching" system, saying the trusting approach "worked well 50 years ago" but has been exploited.
kttc.comQ: Where does Jude stand on voting access?
A: Says "voting should be simple, but cheating hard"; supports absentee ballots "for the military, disabled, ill or for travelers."
communityreporter.substack.comQ: Where does Jude stand on federal involvement in elections?
A: Would first make sure data that must stay private for safety reasons stays private, then "cooperate with the federal government to ensure our voter rolls are accurate and up to date."
kaxe.orgQ: Where does Jude stand on state flag?
A: Wants a public vote to restore Minnesota's previous state flag: "People fought under a version of the Minnesota flag. It means a lot."
kttc.comQ: Where does Jude stand on business filing fraud?
A: Would end what he calls "Fraud Tourism" with a task force and flag suspicious business filings earlier.
kaxe.org
- Endorsed by
- Republican Party of Minnesota
