(Post from Jay Duggan of Rocks and Cows of Minnesota)
ITS WASNT AN OVERALL VICTORY, BUT THE VICTORIES WE HAD GAVE US MORE STRENGTH AND A PATH FORWARD
We have lots to be thankful for, even if the DFL swept statewide offices.
We flipped the Iron Range and the Northland. Majority Republican representation. Rocks & Cows did their job and voted in the Northland.
*Roger Skraba, The Official Mayor of Rocks & Cows Country (and Mayor of Ely) won House 3A from Beaver Bay to Grand Portage to I Falls and back again.
*Natalie Zeliznikar beat 40 yr incumbent Mary Murphy in 3B to represent Hermantown, Proctor, Two Harbors and Rice Lake.
*Jeff Dotseth claimed the 11A seat from the DFL winning Carlton County (Moose Lake & Cloquet) and parts of Pine and St Louis.
*Jim Joy filled the seat of retiring DFL Rep Marquart to flip Detroit Lakes, Hawley, and Dillworth
That’s +4 before the metro meltdown.
Many good folks were reelected, but Krista Knudson and Mike Weiner won House 5a/5b sending solid conservatives to replace folks with less fight. Dawn Gillman of Let Them Play won her House race for McLeod County, Cokato and Darwin areas and Glen Gruenhagen was elected senator for that area too. Walter Hudson for State Representative replaced Eric Lucero who moved on to the Senate to win putting Wright County at the front of the issues battles. Senate 10 was a victory for Nathan Wesenberg for Senate and Bill Lieske in Senate 58 won, sending 2 staunch conservatives to speak for Rocks & Cows values in St Paul and stop the same old same old. Overall the victories we had made the house and senate both more conservative and results oriented.
The biggest victories were local elections to put a conservative stamp on govt in our own backyards. Over 50 of the Parent Endorsed school board candidates on the MinnesotaParents.org/voter-guide were elected. A special shout out to Anna Manecke, Dave Wall, and Justin Hoover in Bemidji to win half the board in one vote, the 3 for 3 sweep in Sartell with Jenn Smith & company, Mindy and John Anderson in Elk River, 2 for 2 in Sauk Rapids for Dan Johnson and Lisa Loidolt, 3 for 3 in Centennial with Gloria Murphy, Knisley and Johnson, and big wins in Pine Island, Prior Lake, Brainerd, Alex, Rock Ridge, Greenway, New Prague, the Faribault patriots Linda Moore and Lynda Boudreau, and many many more.
County boards across the state added patriots like Bret Sample and Travis Leiviska in Aitkin, Kristi LaRowe and others in Isanti, and Ryan Shea won Sheriff in Freeborn County with the votes of folks that want an independent Sheriff that looks out for them. Many city councils added patriots like Jed Holewa in Chisholm. If you don’t build a community of conservatives with local connections you have no advantage past the issues in higher elections.
We can build a durable winning Republican Party with a farm team of quality conservative candidates, campaign experience, and a system to build and use more effective data if we continue to build from the bottom up. We started way too late, but now have a proven outline to grow and build power and effectiveness if the party will institutionalize it.
We also want to thank those incumbent representatives and senators that understood local races build our party and that campaigning with and for them builds everybody up for victories too. Hopefully they will spread the word more folks involved and invested means better support going forward.
If County parties spent more time growing the party locally and less investing time and money into incumbent protection we would have better incumbents, an agenda that didn’t need defending against constituents, and we would have stronger candidates with more support back home leaving us money and resources left over to attack in places we need to win.
There are bright spots going forward. Doesn’t mean the DFL won’t go full on commie, they will, but we can turn it around.