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My Point of View by Brad Kramer

With the elections over, we have an idea how our government will be run for the next two years. In Freeborn County, every single Republican on the ticket won at the county level — by a landslide!

Congratulations to Rep. Peggy Bennett! Peggy defeated her Democrat challenger 12,038 to 6,252! With 65.75%, two out of three Freeborn County voters chose Peggy’s common sense, people before politics! Sen. Gene Dornink easily defeated his challenger 20,273 to 13,051. While our Republican candidates for statewide offices running for Governor, Secretary of State, and other positions did not win the state election, they easily won YOUR vote in Freeborn County!  In Freeborn County, 7,262 of you voted for Scott Jensen for Governor, while Governor Walz only received 5,350 votes. U.S. Representative Brad Finstad won with 159,615 votes compared to 125,450 for his Democrat challenger across Congressional District 1.

What does this tell us as a community?

With Minnesota’s Senate, House and governor all being held by Democrats, despite them losing 74 out of 84 counties in Minnesota’s governor’s race, for example, we can see that Greater Minnesota is not represented at the capital. While Sen. Dornink and Reps. Bennett and Mueller will do a phenomenal job representing you and they have an excellent record of working in a bipartisan manner, they will be very limited by a Democrat majority that does not have your interests in mind. 

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson commented in her last column, “If we are scared of change and hunker down and try to insulate ourselves in a bubble where time stands still, we will get left further and further behind.” She essentially told us that two-thirds of this county is behind the times and voting for obsolete values, and the qualities that set our rural life apart from the metro are going to continue to erode as we get lumped into their big-city, far-left policies. Each of you had a valid reason to vote Republican, and it’s not because we’re ignorant and behind the times out here in the land of “rocks and cows.” 

However, Jennifer made one great suggestion! She suggested you contact Peggy and Gene to pursue funding for our dredging and wastewater treatment plant. You absolutely should contact them! You may be surprised to find out how hard they already advocate for us to secure that funding and otherwise representing you. So, don’t take Jennifer’s or my word, but contact them for yourself! 

Looking across the maps of our state and country election results, it is becoming more red (Republican), with less blue (Democrat), while the population within the blue states and counties gets more populated. No, this does not mean that people are fleeing rural communities for large cities, but it does mean that we, as rural communities, must become better at identifying and standing for our needs as voters. When you look at a state map and recognize that approximately 85% of the counties voted Republican, and you look at the disastrous problems the metro is facing that are bleeding into the rest of the state, such as crime and lack of support for first responders, it’s safe to say that Walz and his administration are going to push more failed policies aimed at propping up the metro area (their voters) while ignoring the unintended (or maybe intentional) consequences for rural Minnesota. 

How can we hope for equal representation when two-thirds of our residents voted Republican, with many other rural counties voting similarly? As a local Republican Party, we will continue to deliver Republican votes, but it’s now time for us to come together to protect our way of life and prepare for 2024. We can’t just win our county back because our county never left. At our monthly meetings, election watch party, party caucuses and conventions, and other political events, our county’s Republican Party has been filling the rooms. Literally! Our county meetings, both before and after the election, have been packed with energized voters, sometimes exceeding expectations so much we had standing room only!

Now it’s time for you to join us and see what we’re all about! Now it’s the time to make your voice heard as we come together and decide what we want the Republican Party to look like as we move toward the future. We want to give everyone in our community a voice!

As a rural community, we have a way of life that is family-oriented, close to the land, peaceful and civil. We have many churches and community organizations that reflect our culture and values. We’re known for our work ethic, conservative values and sense of community. If that sounds like we’re hunkered down in a place that time stands still while we get left behind, maybe we should let our light shine a little brighter because that doesn’t sound backwards to me.

Brad Kramer is a member of the Freeborn County Republican Party.