Minnesota GOP delegates hold moment of silence for Derek Chauvin

Delegates to the Minnesota Republican Party’s state endorsement convention in Duluth offered a roughly 10-second moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd. The gesture came before about 2,300 delegates on Saturday, May 30, 2026, the sixth anniversary of Floyd’s death, and immediately turned a party gathering into a public measure of how willing Minnesota Republicans are to tolerate, or even embrace, a tribute tied to one of the most charged killings in state history.

State Rep. Danny Nadeau of Rogers, who chaired the convention, led the silence after taking an informal vote from delegates. The motion reportedly needed 60% approval, underscoring that the tribute was not simply a spontaneous outburst but a decision carried through the convention’s own process. Chauvin is serving a 22-and-a-half-year state prison sentence in Texas after being convicted of second-degree murder in Floyd’s death.

The convention was also the setting for the party’s endorsement of Army veteran Kendall Qualls for governor, and Qualls later declined to say whether he would have supported the moment of silence, saying he was not part of the decision. That refusal left the party’s gubernatorial nominee detached from one of the weekend’s most consequential symbolic acts, even as the episode sharpened questions about the Minnesota GOP’s broader direction heading into the 2026 campaign season.

Minnesota GOP Chair Alex Plechash defended the party’s handling of the matter on WCCO Radio, saying the request came from the body of delegates, while declining to say whether he personally agreed with honoring Chauvin. A party spokesperson said the moment of silence was not a statement from party leadership and should not be treated as an official policy position or platform statement. But the distinction did little to blunt the impact of the tribute for Black Minnesotans, many of whom are likely to see the gesture as a test of whether Republican leaders are willing to distance themselves from a figure convicted in Floyd’s killing, or instead allow the symbolism to stand.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who has remained one of the state’s most visible voices on Floyd’s death and its aftermath, condemned the tribute. He said he was “heartbroken and frankly shocked,” and pointed to the human loss behind the politics, noting that Floyd’s children lost their father and his siblings lost their brother. For Democrats, the moment of silence offered an immediate opening to portray Republicans as out of step with the moral and racial reckoning that still defines Minnesota politics nearly six years after Floyd was killed.