Ex-Vikings Mascot Ragnar Now Cheers for Trump Business Tax Cuts

Joe Juranitch, aka Ragnar, was the Vikings number one booster on the sidelines for years. But these days he cheers on the way the Trump business tax cuts have played out in his Ely manufacturing company since being passed by Congress in 2017.

Ely Mayor Chuck Novak told the Forum News Service that Juranitch and his sister’s blade-sharpening company has quietly expanded to a workforce of 20 employees in the past couple years.

“They’re innovative as hell,” Novak said. “It’s a treasure in the city of Ely. It’s unknown; it’s not on Main Street; people drive by here and they have no clue what happens in this facility.”

Juranitch gives much of the credit for the growth of Razor Edge Systems to the investment and innovation opportunities resulting from lower corporate tax rates now on the books.

“We were paying 39% corporate taxes; now they’re down to 21%,” he said. “We’ve been able to take the money, which is a significant amount, and put it into our employees and developing new products.”

The administration’s aggressive stance toward China has also made a difference in the manufacturing sector, even in remote northern Minnesota.

…He appreciates the president tackling China and its propensity for stealing intellectual property.

“Our goal is you need to be the first one out there, because if you’re not you’re going to get a country like China, which has distribution all over this country, take it and by that time it’s too late,” Juranitch said.

Juranitch said his company monitors its website and it can see Chinese companies spending lots of time looking at their devices.

Much of the attention in the 2020 campaign in northern Minnesota has focused on President Trump’s support for opening up the area to more mining. But the economic growth spurred by  pro-business policies already in place may also account for the rapidly shifting political allegiances on the Iron Range.