Minnesota Democrat Says ‘Both Parties Couldn’t Care Less About Corruption’ in Provocative New Ad

Screenshot via Jake Johnson on X

Jake Johnson, a Democrat running to represent Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, took shots at both Democrats and Republicans in a new campaign ad, declaring that “both parties couldn’t care less about corruption.”

The video showed Johnson, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Brad Finstad (R-MN), behind the wheel of a dented minivan as he dubbed himself “the math teacher with a minivan running for Congress.” According to his campaign website, he’s taught high school math for the past 20 years.

“It’s bad enough both parties couldn’t care less about corruption,” Johnson continued. “Our congressman, Brad Finstad, took $20,000 from a Chinese corporation that’s buying up our farmland, and voted to let them buy even more. And Brad took $28,000 from data centers while voting to let them build right here and to give them billions of dollars in tax breaks.”

The congressional hopeful was referring to allegations he has made about Finstad’s ties to Syngenta, a Chinese-owned agricultural chemical company. His campaign says Finstad received $22,500 from the company’s PAC before voting against a bipartisan amendment that would have made it easier to sue pesticide companies for violations of state law.

Johnson has also targeted Finstad over data centers, alleging that companies involved in a proposed Google data center in Pine Island, Minnesota, have contributed to the Republican’s campaign. Johnson has called for a moratorium on new data centers until further protections are put in place.

Data centers are an incredibly politically contentious issue. While President Donald Trump has continued to support them, suggesting last week that their major bipartisan criticism might be “a China PR thing,” a July Fox News survey found 70% of voters opposed to building one in their area, including 76% of Democrats and 60% of Republicans.

CNN data guru Harry Enten even called data centers “electoral poison” last month in reference to the Fox survey, noting that opposition also spans geographical divides, with 75% of rural voters and 63% of urban voters saying they do not want one built near them.

Watch the clip above on X.

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