'Not my governor': Minnesota small business owner rips Harris VP pick's 'radical' COVID-era policies

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Minnesota small business owner takes aim at Walz's COVID-era policies

A Minnesota business owner, Diane Kruger, told Fox News Digital she is still recovering from COVID-era policies enforced by Gov. Tim Walz.

COTTONWOOD COUNTY FAIR, Minn. - A local small business owner railed against Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz as "the worst governor we've ever had in Minnesota." 

Diane Kruger, who runs a business selling Scentsy products in Minnesota, detailed how she feels negatively impacted by Walz's policies since he took office.

"He has ruined our state. I am angry and disgusted," Kruger told Fox News Digital while working her booth at the Cottonwood County Fair in Minnesota. "Him and the Democrats, once they got the trifecta in the House and Senate and the governor, they have absolutely ruined our state. We are now probably more communist than California."

Kruger said that her business is still recovering in the aftermath of policies enforced by Walz during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Diane Kruger shared with Fox News Digital her experience working under Gov. Tim Walz's leadership. (Fox News Digital)

"During COVID year of 2020, my business income fell by at least 50% because when he shut down the economy in Minnesota in March, I couldn't do any house parties. I couldn't do any shows. I couldn't do any events," Kruger said. "And I still haven't recovered from that."

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Kruger also said Walz pushed "radical" policies in the state after expanding access to abortion and requiring school bathrooms to keep tampons in male restrooms for transgender-identifying individuals.

Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her 2024 running mate. (Stephen Maturen)

"Walz is the worst governor we've ever had in Minnesota. I don't care what anybody says," she said. "I always called him tyrant Timmy or dictator Walz. I wouldn't call him Governor Walz because he's not my governor."

The Minnesotan added that she believes "we won't have a country left" if Walz is elected as the vice president in November.

Kruger added that a Harris-Walz administration would make the United States a "communist country within a year" and would be the "worst thing that we'd never, probably ever get our country back."

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Several small business owners and residents in Minnesota have talked to Fox News Digital in recent days and have echoed Kruger's sentiment about Walz's tenure as governor. Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, told Fox News Digital he has "talked to a lot of businesses that either have left or, when they expand, are not expanding in Minnesota."

"He's supported the highest income tax rate in the nation at 10%, he has taken a $19 billion surplus and the next year added a $10 billion tax on the hardworking Minnesotans," he added.

Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Charles Lutvak previously told Fox News Digital that "Gov. Walz led Minnesota back with strong leadership, competent management, and smart policies — cutting taxes for working families and reaching the lowest state unemployment rate in recorded history."

Long Her, owner of New Fashion Tailoring and Alteration in St. Paul, Minnesota, told Fox News Digital that he watched hopelessly as his St. Paul establishment was destroyed during the 2020 George Floyd riots and that Walz failed to protect business owners like him.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign.