My Point of View: Republicans looking forward to elections 

Published 8:45 pm Tuesday, November 9, 2021

With less than a year to go before the mid-term elections in November 2022, our current elected officials, state Rep. Peggy Bennett, state Sen. Gene Dornink and U.S. Congressman Jim Hagedorn, do not have any declared opponents running against them yet.

Robert Hoffman

Though it is a little early, the clock is ticking, and the Freeborn County Republicans are looking forward to an exciting 2022 campaign.

Governor Walz has at least six Republican governor candidates currently campaigning against him. This many governor candidates this early outlines a clear lack of confidence in our current governor and his team. If last week’s elections in Virginia where Republicans flipped and won the governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general seats are any indication of the upcoming 2022 mid-term elections in Minnesota (and they are), Minnesota will do what is much needed and elect a new governor, secretary of state and attorney general in 2022.

Local elections are very important as well and in 2022 things are going to get very exciting. The mayor’s seat is up for election, as well as three of the City Council positions. The Albert Lea School Board has now become very popular, and four of the Albert Lea School Board seats are up for election in 2022. Three new county commissioners were elected in 2020, and two of the commissioner seats are also up for election in 2022. Many great elections are taking place soon! 2022 is going to be a fantastic year of campaigns.

Freeborn County has done a great job of electing people to serve. In 2020 every single Republican candidate on the ballot won in Freeborn County. Many local seats were also won by conservative candidates. We’ve seen the success of the 2020 elections already, and in 2022 if a conservatively valued candidate runs for mayor, City Council, school board or county commission we have the team that will help them win these local races this mid-term election in November 2022 also.

As the chairman of the Freeborn County Republicans, I have served with a team of volunteers and candidates that won every race on the last ballot. We have over tripled our volunteers and are working on 2022’s elections already. We have built a great team and always have room for more. We are easy to get a hold of. Reach out to us anytime. What we have not done is bring out the best in those in the races against us.

We split this My Point of View column every other week,  and in last week’s column the word Republican is mentioned right away within the first nine words. Over a dozen more times to follow the word Republican is repeated and many Republican volunteers and elected officials are also referred to time and again. The irony is last week’s column wasn’t written by the Republicans.

Every other week we are given 800 words to talk about our accomplishments. Last week’s writer used 790 words to talk about her lifelong nemesis, the Republicans, and 10 nice words about her county commissioner.

A word of advice: You won’t win with the team you have in place. Some of your writers are some of the best recruiters the Freeborn County Republicans could ask for. You need to choose to either rebuild, not reload; rebuild; or like so many have voted to do, side with moderate conservative Republicans to have your values represented. Voters do not support the new direction you have gone, and they understand that socialism is just communism for slow learners.

The 2022 mid-term elections are going to be exciting to be a part of locally and the governor races have already started to heat up. Our regions values do not support the out of control spending we are witnessing. The astronomical gas prices and why they are happening are ridiculous to us. Taxes and inflation will drown us and is a concern weighing too many down. The violence, crime and mess Minnesota’s metro has become is too close for comfort and nothing Greater Minnesota is proud of. Our students mean more than ever because we are not preparing them for the burdens we are handing them. We need to be excited to work very hard and support the candidates that reflect our values and the fight we have ahead.

The 2022 election will see those who wanted to just be left alone joining in to fight for their values to be represented — many for their first time. We want to have the best candidates in the races with us. We want everyone to be proud of the race they ran and the teams they have. Locally we are very proud of the races we’ve ran, the candidates we’ve elected and the team we’ve built. We want the Democrats to be very proud of their second-place finishes next November also.

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