Aaron Miller, the Minnesota Republican Party's nominee for the 1st Congressional District, said this week that he wanted to win because learning about evolution made his daughter cry, and he wanted to make sure that schools were not forced to teach it.

The Mankato Free Press reported last month that Miller told a story to a Republican county convention about how his daughter became "very upset because she had to learn about evolution at school."

Miller claimed that even the teacher expressed agreement with the daughter, but said that the evolution lesson was a requirement. The candidate refused to provide any other details at the time.

"There's a war on our values by the government," he insisted. "We should decide what is taught in our schools, not Washington, D.C."

Over the weekend, Miller was officially named the Republican nominee, and he took the opportunity to repeat the anti-evolution story.

"He also called for more religious freedoms," the Free Press noted. "He repeated his story about his daughter returning home from school in tears because evolution was being taught in her class. He said the teacher admitted to not believing in the scientific theory to his daughter but told her that the government forced him to teach the lesson."

Again, he declined to provide the details necessary for reporters to verify the story.

"I'm running for Congress because of my children," Miller explained at a Rochester Tea Party Patriots forum in February. "I have two daughters, 14 and 9, and I'm concerned that I'm about ready to offer a country to my girls that is not better off than my parents offered me."

The candidate later said that the federal government should not have a role in school curriculum.

"The more we can keep the decision making at the local level, the better off we are," he opined.

(h/t: City Pages)