Minnesota loses another major business opportunity

If I wsa advising Lisa Demuth's campaign, one of the first things I'd do at Friday night's debate is highlight how "a Minnesota-based company belonging to the Indian conglomerate Essar Group" is building "a major steel plant" in "southeast Iowa's Lee County." According to this Iowa Public Radio article, "President Donald Trump on Monday announced an $18 billion investment in a fully integrated American steel system, including a major steel plant coming to southeast Iowa's Lee County. The $15 billion plant will be built by Mesabi Metallics, a Minnesota-based company belonging to the Indian conglomerate Essar Group. The other $3 billion will help complete Mesabi’s new mine in Minnesota’s Iron Range, which will supply iron ore to the Iowa steel plant.

Gov. Tim Walz insists that Minnesota is one of the best places to build a business or raise a family. This isn't Minnesota's initial embarrassment. In Sept, 2025, KARE11 reported "The Minnesota Star Tribune will print its last newspaper locally in December. The paper announced Monday that it will switch to a Gannett printing facility in Des Moines, Iowa, but the Minnesota Star Tribune will still handle delivery."

That's 2 major companies with significan footprints in Minnesota that've left Minnesota for Iowa. To be fair, these companies' headquarters are still in Minnesota. If the iron ore wasn't in northeastern Minnesota, aka the Iron Range, that would've moved to Iowa, too. State Rep. Spencer Igo nailed it according to this news report:

One of the first rules of economics is that "Capital goes where it's most wanted." That dovetails with the principle that "labor and capital are mobile." If the DFL doesn't wise up, we'll have nothing but companies' headquarters stationed here. Corporate headquarters don't create jobs. Manufacturing companies do.

Minnesota doesn't need to make a few minor adjustments to become competitive again. It needs a top-to-bottom overhaul. That isn' Sen. Klobuchar's personality. That's Lisa Demuth's personality, though. We need someone who will take calculated risks, who will spend political capital.

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