Minnesota's Republican Party chairman is accusing protesters of racial intimidation after demonstrators disrupted a GOP dinner and displayed a sign invoking the Ku Klux Klan while the state's first Black female House speaker addressed the crowd.Minnesota GOP Chair Alex Plechash blasted the demonstrators in a statement after Friday night's Lincoln Reagan Dinner in Eagan, where protesters held a sign reading "RepubliKKKan Party" during remarks by House Speaker and Republican gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth."Last night, radical protesters stormed the stage at our Lincoln Reagan Dinner and held up a KKK symbol while Speaker Lisa Demuth spoke," Plechash said in a statement posted to X by the Republican Party of Minnesota.DAVID MARCUS: MINNESOTA GOP CANDIDATES KEEP TRUMP AT ARM'S LENGTH AS THEY EYE A POST-TRUMP PARTY FUTURE"Let's be clear about what happened.Left leaning protesters aimed a symbol of racial terror at a Black woman leader, at a dinner named for the president who ended slavery," he continued.Sunrise Movement Twin Cities, a progressive activist organization, claimed responsibility for the disruption and said the demonstration was intended to protest Republican policies it believes harm immigrants and marginalized communities, according to local news station KTSP.Gubernatorial nominee and state House Speaker Lisa Demuth speaks during the second day of the Minnesota Republican state convention at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC) in Duluth, Minn., on Saturday, May 30, 2026.
(Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)"We disrupted this fundraiser because we refuse to give a moment's peace to the people bankrolling racial violence," the group said in a statement cited by the outlet.The organization also said it was not affiliated with Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).Video of the incident shows demonstrators moving toward the front of the room holding signs, including one with the letters "KKK" highligh...