Minnesota Republicans gathered in Eagan on Friday for their annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner. The evening brought together prominent party figures, candidates, and supporters before leftist activists temporarily disrupted the event, as reported by Red State.

Among those attending were Senate candidate Michelle Tafoya, Minnesota House Speaker and gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth, and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Walker appeared as a featured speaker at the dinner.

The disruption began while Demuth was speaking. Activists interrupted the event, turning the annual Republican gathering into a brief scene of shouting and security intervention.

New: How did protesters get into Friday’s MN GOP Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Eagan?

Despite off-duty police and private security, a source tells me they bought tickets costing $200–$250 each. One even reached the podium as GOP governor candidate Lisa Demuth spoke. https://t.co/c8R2FQ3joY — Lindsey Brown (@LBrownKSTP) October 10, 2026

One woman held a banner reading “RepubliKKKan Party” and began screaming as security tried to remove her from the room. A male activist was also removed during the disturbance.

The protesters apparently did not simply wander through an unlocked door. According to KSTP’s Lindsey Brown, one of her sources said the activists purchased tickets costing between $200 and $250 each.

The banner was especially despicable given the setting and its target. The event was named for Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, while Demuth is black and is the first black person to become a party nominee for governor in Minnesota.

Minnesota GOP Chair Alex Plechash condemned the protesters on Saturday. He accused them of using “a symbol of racial terror at a Black woman leader, at a dinner named for the president who ended slavery.”

Plechash also rejected the use of those symbols in any setting, particularly against Demuth. He said the symbols “still have no place anywhere, least of all aimed at a Black woman seeking the highest office in our state.”

Eagan police said officers ordered eight people to leave the event. Whether any of those involved will ultimately face criminal charges remains unclear.

Minnesota House GOP Leader Harry Niska also denounced what unfolded inside the dinner. His statement placed the disruption within what he described as a broader pattern coming from extreme Democrats on the left.

“This kind of action is despicable, and it’s turning into a pattern of hateful rhetoric and disruption from extreme far-left Democrats,” Niska said.

Despite the chaos, no one was injured. Republicans continued with the dinner after the temporary interruption, denying the protesters the power to shut down the gathering entirely.

There was also an expensive catch for the activists. If all eight people ordered to leave paid the minimum reported ticket price of $200, they collectively handed at least $1,600 to the Republicans whose event they tried to disrupt.

At the upper end of the ticket range, eight tickets costing $250 each would total $2,000. The source only calculated the minimum contribution, but either figure makes the stunt look like a costly exercise in political theater.

The activists therefore paid for admission before displaying the inflammatory banner and creating the disturbance. Their protest may have generated a brief commotion, but the Republicans kept going and retained the benefit of those ticket purchases.

That financial twist provided the evening with a particularly sharp dose of irony. The people trying to derail the Republican event may instead have supplied the party with money that could be used against Democrats in November.

The source expressed hope that the money would be put toward defeating Democrats. It also thanked the leftist protesters sarcastically for their unwitting contribution to the Republican gathering.

The episode combined an ugly racial insult, a black candidate for governor, and an event honoring the president credited in the source with ending slavery. Republican leaders responded by condemning both the banner and the disruption.

The dinner resumed without injuries, while police removed eight people and left open the question of possible charges. For the activists, the lasting result may be less triumphant than intended: a short disruption and a sizable payment to Minnesota Republicans.

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