Alliance for Consumers says DFL policies would raise costs

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(The Center Square) – A conservative free-market advocacy group is taking issue with several policy positions from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, arguing they would drive up costs for consumers.

O.H. Skinner, the executive director of Alliance for Consumers, said many of the party’s proposals are policies that would impose additional costs on Minnesotans.

“Leftwing politicians in Minnesota continue to push policies that will inevitably raise prices for consumers and wipe products off the shelf,” Skinner told The Center Square in an exclusive interview. “While progressive elites virtue signal to the far-left with policies like the 'Green New Deal'; 'Protecting Wild Rice'; and a 'Climate Superfund,' hardworking Minnesotans pay the price with higher energy costs and fewer choices at the store.”

The DFL, Minnesota's Democratic Party, recently laid out its 2026 platform amendments, along with an Action Agenda of proposed policy priorities.

The agenda supports a “Green New Deal” to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through investments in infrastructure, energy efficiency and industry. It also backs stronger legal protections for wild rice, a “polluter pays” climate adaptation fund financed by large greenhouse gas emitters, and a pause on new “hyperscale” data center construction until a comprehensive regulatory framework is adopted.

Skinner argued consumers would ultimately bear the costs of those policies.

“Minnesotans will unnecessarily suffer under mandated progressive lifestyle choices, which always lead to higher prices and fewer consumer choices,” Skinner argued. “While consumers are increasingly concerned about their energy bills, progressives in Minnesota are enacting an ideological agenda that does nothing to help everyday consumers.”

Beyond environmental proposals, the DFL platform supports immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and restructuring immigration enforcement, and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

It also calls for prohibiting private prisons, increasing “tax the rich” policies on high-income earners, and allowing Minnesota residents to sue federal agents and agencies in state court for alleged constitutional violations.

Skinner said his organization plans to continue opposing policies it views as increasing costs for consumers.

“Progressive elites are more interested in boosting their ideological bona fides by adhering to far-left policy choices like the 'Green New Deal' than enacting policies that would actually lower costs for consumers and make their lives better by letting them buy what they want,” Skinner said. “This is exactly why Alliance for Consumers is fighting against initiatives like woke lawfare which seeks to impose these radical progressive lifestyle choices through the courtroom onto consumers with little to no recourse.”

Only a handful of the proposed petitions failed to clear the 60% threshold required for adoption at the DFL state convention. Of the 117 platform and Action Agenda items considered, 10 did not receive the required support.

Among those that failed were adding plant-based school meal options to the state's free lunch program, ending fossil fuel subsidies, allowing incarcerated workers to unionize, and supporting constitutional amendments imposing federal term limits.

The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment.