After failing to win the GOP
presidential nomination, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann finds
herself in a tough fight to keep her old job.
Jim Graves, the founder of Graves
Hospitality Corporation, won the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL)
nomination in April.
“I'm a libertarian when it comes to
social issues,” Graves told SiriusXM OutQ's Michelangelo Signorile
on Thursday. “Government has no role to play in personal lives,
contrary to Michele Bachmann. She kind of believes in a theocracy
and I believe in a democracy, and secular democracy at that. The
role of government isn't to get involved in people's lives.”
As a Minnesota state senator, Bachmann
sponsored an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution which would
define marriage as a heterosexual union, and she backs a current
referendum on the issue.
“My stand is, I've been for 39 years
in a loving and committed relationship,” Graves
said. “I'm very fortunate. It's been the best thing in my
life and, by gosh, everybody in America has the same rights under the
law and everyone should be able to marry who they want to, when they
want to. As far as what churches want to do, or synagogues, again, I
believe in separation of church and state. I don't care what the
Catholic Church wants to do. I happen to be born a Catholic. But
under the law everybody has the same rights and I believe very
strongly in dignity and respect for everybody.”
Graves, who has three sons with his
wife Julie, is running 2 percentage points behind Bachmann, according
to Graves' own internal polling.