Thanks to President Trump, hope has turned into confidence for business owners and their employees in Minnesota and across the country.
On Thursday night when President Trump visits Rochester for a campaign rally, I’ll have the chance to tell an amazing story about how businesses and workers across our great state are growing in leaps and bounds — a result of the incredible growth in the Minnesota economy since Donald Trump sparked our great American comeback.
From the moment I met with him in 2015, I knew he would be the best president ever and he has not let me down.
As a business owner who proudly employs well over 1,000 Minnesotans, I’ve seen the great American comeback firsthand.
Since January 2017, Minnesota’s overall unemployment rate has been cut in half, and black unemployment is at a 17-year low.
Small business owners are eager to expand, which is why they are even more optimistic about the local and national economic outlook than are their counterparts around the country — which is really saying a lot, since small business optimism is now at all-time record levels.
Jobs are opening up across Minnesota, including hundreds of openings in Rochester, and recruiters at job fairs are eager to hire. That’s fantastic news for everyone, because when companies compete for employees, wages go up.
At MyPillow, for instance, we were able to give across-the-board raises of 5-10% to every employee thanks to President Trump’s tax cuts.
Similarly, Geotek Inc. in Stewartville laid out plans this summer to add 63 jobs with an average pay range of $16.91 an hour, and the Kerry Group recently celebrated a $28.6 million expansion in Rochester, adding a number of new jobs.
Meanwhile, Minnesota’s clean energy industry added 2,893 jobs last year alone — a 5.3 percent growth rate, which is even faster than overall job growth in the state.
Thanks to the President’s tax cuts, the average family in the Rochester area is saving $2,806 per year, and individuals get to keep an extra $1,504 of their hard-earned money, on average.
But things haven’t always been so great.
In 2010, when Democrats controlled the levers of power in Washington and I was still struggling to get MyPillow off the ground, Minnesota’s unemployment reached the second-highest rate in state history, at 8.6 percent.
Home foreclosures in Olmsted County were at a shocking 39 percent at the time, and the long road to recovery didn’t even seem to be paved.
All that has changed dramatically since President Trump took office. People aren’t talking about “recovery” anymore; they’re wondering whether there will ever be an end to America’s newfound prosperity.
That’s why all of Minnesota should heed the President’s warning this November: “We cannot afford to be complacent.”
Fortunately, there’s no reason to be complacent about the midterms, because we have plenty of amazing candidates to get excited about right here in Minnesota.
For instance, there’s Jim Hagedorn, who is running for the First Congressional District and understands that unleashing the potential of individuals, rather than burdening them with bureaucracy, is the key to economic growth.
There’s also Jason Lewis, who has been a consistent supporter of President Trump’s job-creating policies throughout his first term in Congress. We should make sure he’s able to keep doing that for the next two years, as well.
Jeff Johnson, who is running for governor, has served as a county commissioner since 2009, and is intimately familiar with what matters to the people of Minnesota.
We also have the opportunity put Karin Housley in the Senate, a serious politician who will prioritize the interests of Minnesota voters above those of party bosses in Washington, D.C.
And for Attorney General, we have the chance to elect the eminently-qualified Doug Wardlow, whose work with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal nonprofit, has put him on the front lines of many high-profile fights to defend religious liberty from government overreach.
I have personally met and got to know these amazing candidates, and I guarantee you that they will help President Trump continue this great American comeback story. With folks like these in power, Minnesota’s economy — and future — will be the best ever.
When President Trump was first elected, people around the country asked me what they could do to help him. At the time I told them they could pray for his success. But now we can do more than pray for President Trump’s success — we can go out and vote and send people to Washington who will help him make Minnesota and America greater than they’ve ever been.
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Mike Lindell is the inventor and CEO of MyPillow, which is headquartered in Chanhassen, Minn. He is also the founder of the Lindell Foundation (lindellfoundation.org) and co-founder of the Lindell Recovery Network.
