Minnesota GOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan and several other top republicans were in Cook County this past week. In front, L-R: Minnesota GOP Secretary Barb Sutter, Jennifer Carnahan, 3A Republican candidate Thomas Manninen, 8th Congressional District Liaison Connie Thorp. Second row, L-R: Tom Emmer’s Campaign Manager Matt Silhacek, Manninen’s Campaign Manager James Doty, Trump Victory Duluth Regional Field Director Tim Krey and 4th District Cook County Commissioner candidate Dean Berglund. Staff photo/Brian Larsen
Jennifer Carnahan, who chairs the Minnesota Republican Party, pumped up the small gathering of Cook County Republicans on July 21 at a noon luncheon held at Skyport Lodge on Devil Track Lake.
Carnahan told her fellow republicans that president Donald Trump spent $20,000 in 2016 in Minnesota, having only one staff member in the state, and won 77 out of 87 counties, nearly winning the popular vote.
This time around said Carnahan, the president is investing heavily in the state and is hoping to turn the state red for the first time since 1972.
The president told her, she said, that if he had come to Minnesota one more time on his campaign stops that he would have won Minnesota.
“No district left behind this time,” said Carnahan, asking the audience to get out and knock on doors and make phone calls on behalf of the president.
Telling the audience why she was against ballot harvesting— something popular in California— Carnahan said she had a friend running for office in Orange County, California, who was leading by thousands of votes on the last day. However, when the ballots were collected from activists who canvas neighborhoods and collect absentee ballots, her friend lost by 7-8,000 votes. Almost none of those received ballots had her friend’s name on them, she noted, and she worried aloud about the creep from California spreading across the U.S. when it came to ballot harvesting.
As strong as she was in support of the president, Carnahan was equally as tough on Minnesota Governor Walz.
Over the last four months, said Carnahan, Minnesotan’s have been living under tyranny as the Governor has continued to unilaterally “control our lives.” And she cited areas that the Governor has executed his executive authority over, including education, the economy, healthcare, leisure activities and more.
“This is communism,” She said.
On March 13, the madness started when Governor Walz declared a Peacetime Emergency in Minnesota, granting himself executive powers. Three days later, on March 16, Walz shuttered our state’s bars and restaurants and other places of public accommodation, starting the economic downturn in Minnesota as thousands became unemployed, and businesses faced the most horrible economic environments in decades.
On March 25, Walz ordered all Minnesotans to ‘stay home.’ Since then, the executive orders have not stopped.
Since June 21, with the exception of two (2) days, our state has had single digit COVID-19 deaths. The efforts to ‘flatten the curve’ have more than been surpassed. Yet, now the Governor and media are fixated on reporting the number of cases, not the number of deaths.
Carnahan was touring the state, updating the local republican BPOU’s as she tours. Elected April 29, 2017, Jennifer is the Minnesota Republican party’s first Asian-American Chairwoman.
The wife of U.S. Congressman Jim Hagedorn, Carnahan said she ran for office in
Other speakers included Thomas Manninen, a graduate of Littlefork-Big Falls High School in 2015 and the Minnesota State University of Moorhead in 2018. In 2017 he said he founded the MSUM College Republicans and served as president until he graduated. That next fall, he began law school at William Mitchell School of Law in Saint Paul.
The Littlefork native is running for the Minnesota House District 3A seat held by incumbent Rep. Rob Ecklund, International Falls.
The Governor, said Manninen, is taking away our voice. He said he didn’t believe the Governor had the power to shut down businesses, and that for years the legislature has “been putting the metro area first. It is time,” said Manninen, to “Bring back the North!
“I believe it’s time to give Northern Minnesota the conservative representation it deserves.”
Chris Hogan of Two Harbors was expected to come but couldn’t make it. Hogan is running for the Senate District 3A position held by incumbent Tom Bakk.
Dean Berglund, who is running for the Cook County Commissioner seat in District 4, spoke briefly. He said he was talking to a friend of his, and when he mentioned he was a Trump supporter, she replied, “Well, you just lost my vote.”
Berglund responded by saying that he would accept losing her vote over losing his principles but noted that politics aside, they were still friends.
Leave a Reply