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My Point of View by Robert Hoffman

 

It takes a lot of hard work.

The Freeborn County Republicans have worked very hard on this campaign, and everyone can be proud of them. A great team is behind this success. From the day we opened our local headquarters until election night, a large group of hard-working people took on more because it was important to them to help others.

The local DFL didn’t take the time to have a headquarters and has chosen not to participate in the traditional election night get together with the media and Republicans this year. Maybe this wasn’t their year to work as hard as they have in the past. Understandably so, they haven’t had inspiring leadership to push them. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have put a lid on more days of campaigning than they have campaigned, and even then it is often just from a basement zoom call. C’mon man, get out of the basement, you’re running for president!

In southern Minnesota we have two of the hardest-working people serving us in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., and we’re thankful state Rep. Peggy Bennett and U.S. Congressman Jim Hagedorn each agreed to run for reelection. Peggy has always been trusted to work hard for District 27A and always delivers. Jim, in between flights back and forth to Washington, D.C., was just here for our local hero Arik Matson’s return home. Jim may live next door in Faribault County and grew up in Truman, but he loves Albert Lea’s Freeborn County and Minnesota District No. 1 and is working very hard for us.

Congressman Hagedorn is running against the same person he defeated in 2018. Jim’s DFL opponent moved to the area to run for office, and after being defeated, stayed in Mankato to run again in 2020. It is questioned how Jim’s opponent made a living while running for Congress during and in between these last two elections. It is very fair to ask if Congressman Hagedorn’s DFL opponent Dan Feehan was paid to run for Congress. Feehan did not work very hard between election-skirting local fairs, parades or community events (all pre-COVID) — despite knowing he was running for office again. Dan may just be sitting back and letting his well-funded campaign do the work for him. His social media presence is managed by college volunteers and is not engaging. Questions asked of Dan Feehan are left unanswered, unlike Congressman Hagedorn’s engaging activity. Without a local DFL headquarters and nonexistent visits to Albert Lea, we are only left to be force-fed commercial after commercial from Dan’s “money is no object advertising campaign.” Congressman Hagedorn hosted over 20 townhalls, and though the DLF sent agitators to each town hall, Dan didn’t attend. It takes more than posing for pictures and accepting an allowance to run for office.

We also have two amazing people running for state and U.S. Senate: Gene Dornink and Jason Lewis. Gene is a husband and father of 12, as well as a former union carpenter and small business owner who actually bought investment properties in Albert Lea during his  campaigning. Gene Dornink is running against an almost 20-year politician who doesn’t seem to want to be re-elected but has recently been made to resort to nasty political attack ads.

Jason Lewis introduces the president and vice president at their Minnesota rallies and just this weekend came to Albert Lea to shake Tim Matson’s hand and wish him well on his son Arik’s return home. Jason’s wife and Tim are both retired police officers. Jason Lewis’s opponent won’t even debate him and supports defunding the police.

Right, now we have a chance to vote for the hardest working candidates in 2020.

Peggy Bennett, Gene Dornink, Jim Hagedorn and Jason Lewis are ready to help us out and are who we can trust to give us a hand. We’ll never look back on life and wished we would have worked more, but we’ll never look back on 2020 and say our Republicans could have worked harder. This is all inspired by the hardest working president ever: our President Donald J. Trump.

Robert Hoffman is the vice chairman of the Freeborn County Republican Party.