Two news outlets say they weren’t allowed to cover the Minnesota Republican Party’s election night party Tuesday in Bloomington, where top statewide candidates addressed supporters.

Outside the event, a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter overheard Sahan Journal reporter Katelyn Vue tell Noah Rouen, an election night party organizer, that she applied for credentials to cover the event, and heard Rouen tell her that Republican gubernatorial candidate Lisa Demuth’s team intentionally did not respond to her request.

The Minnesota Reformer also reported that it wasn’t allowed into the watch party, with no reason given, while reporters from the Star Tribune and other outlets were admitted into the party.

The Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom that covers immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota, reported that, when pressed on why the outlet couldn’t cover the event, an election night party organizer referenced an article the Sahan Journal published Oct. 27 about a TV ad from Demuth that focused on shootings and a terrorism plot allegedly involving Somali suspects. A local political science professor called her ad “racist,” and an imam described it as “racial attacks in paid political format.”

When asked by a Star Tribune reporter Tuesday night about the Sahan Journal reporter ban, Demuth declined to directly comment. A spokesperson from her campaign later said Demuth was not aware the Sahan Journal had been shut out of the event and that Demuth’s team was not involved in credentialing for the Republican Party event.

The Minnesota chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association condemned the decision to ban the Sahan Journal from the event.

“Freedom of the press is essential for democracy,” the organization said in a statement. “We stand with reporter Katelyn Vue and Sahan Journal.”

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(Elliot Hughes of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.)

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