Legislators failed to include an important provision banning bribes and vote solicitations in this year’s state and local government and elections omnibus bill, giving Super PACs and billionaires a continued opportunity to influence Minnesota elections through bribery.

In 2024 and 2025, political operatives in multiple states bribed and solicited voters in attempts to sway their votes toward certain candidates. Most recently, billionaire Elon Musk has been at the center of each instance, offering money to voters in Pennsylvania in 2024, and Wisconsin in 2025.

Despite this clear threat to elections, some legislators deflected from common sense language preventing any mega-rich person to buy votes in MN, to debate whether Musk or Soros is worse at it. They chose partisan games over closing the loophole this legislative session.  

“Once again, we must look at what legislators do, not what they say,” said Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera, executive director of Common Cause Minnesota. “Many say they are against dark money but when they have the opportunity to do something to stop it in our state, they vote against closing loopholes. For them, money and partisan agendas speak louder than their own constituents, because they refused to support common sense language making bribery illegal in our state. Language that moved out of the Senate with broad bipartisan support suddenly becomes controversial in the House. We must reject this form of corruption in our elections, by closing this loophole allowing the mega-rich to hand out checks or incentivize Minnesota voters to vote for a specific candidate or political party immediately.”