Will/should Neel Kashkari run for governor of Minnesota in 2018?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Oh God this thread.

OK first of all Kingpoleon please shut up. None of the "very strong Democratic candidates" you mentioned have ever been nominated for statewide office, two have never held any office higher than mayor and Walz was a dark horse candidate who turned out to be very strong lifted by the 2006 wave, not an all star recruit. That seat wasn't even on the radar of the DCCC when Walz was nominated. I know more about that campaign than anyone here, having worked on it and met the man multiple times. And Pat Anderson is hardly moderate, or a good candidate, someone who last held office more than ten years ago in 2018 and who no one remembers, was only elected to her office by about 1 point and with less than 50%, and who failed to retake her office in a GOP wave year is not who I'd look for as the best candidate. And Pawlenty is not moderate either, nor was he seen as such here, he got elected with less than 50% each time thanks to third party candidates and weak DFL ones.

As for this guy: 1-No one here knows who he is. 2-No one will in three years either (do you know who your Federal Reserve branch President is? Hell I don't know who the outgoing one is, nor did I know that he was appointed to take over in 2016), 3-The Minnesota Republicans aren't going to defer to him when they have plenty of local candidates who want to run and honestly would probably make better candidates. He may not be a carpetbagger, but I do think most people would expect someone to at least live in a state for a full gubernatorial term before governing it themselves.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Who appointed him to this position? Minneapolis has a Democratic mayor, Minnesota has a Democratic governor, and the country has the Democratic president. So if he was appointed by a Democrat, he has no chance of winning a Republican Primary. Jon Huntsman syndrome.

Anyway, the Republicans are going to nominate that Iraq War dude with no legs who backed gay marriage like 5 years ago.

I don't think a one-term former state rep who past held office six years prior and was most well known due to praise from LGBT activists is a likely candidate to win the Republican nomination either.