In a speech about voting and trust in elections, a Minnesota Senate candidate said people need to “grow teeth” by “voting with a ballot before we have to vote with bullets.”

Stephen Lowell, the GOP-endorsed candidate for Minnesota Senate District 52, said Republicans should vote in droves, comparing the turnout needed to the number of protesters who demonstrated in the Twin Cities after George Floyd’s police murder in 2020.

“We have to vote just like they’re throwing Molotovs up in Uptown. We have to vote just like they burned down buildings… We have to vote as hard as they went out and did that,” Lowell said.

Lowell made the remarks in a July 30 speech in Rosemount at the Dakota County Patriot Summer Block Party.

An event flier said Republican secretary of state candidate Kim Crockett and Tyler Kistner, Republican candidate running for Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District, also attended the event.

Senate District 52 covers southeastern Twin Cities suburbs, including Eagan, Mendota Heights, Mendota and some of Burnsville.