Readers may remember our post from last February, Who owns Trump brand in MN?: MN GOP, #mnleg caucuses' battle Dorr Bros, MAGASOTA "scams" on new website; MAGASOTA fights back .
That's where we explored the politics of the Minnesota Scammers Exposed website, sponsored by the Republican Party of Minnesota and both Republican legislative caucuses. One of the groups labelled "scammers" was MAGASOTA.
Readers may also remember Footnote: Liberate Minnesota leader Michele Even part of GOP's MN Scammers Exposed at the time of the protest in front of the Governor's mansion.
The page remains online, so the disavowal of the scammers is still a thing.
We asked when we saw the speakers list for MAGASOTA's Trump Rally Minnesota 2020 on the Facebook event page for Saturday's rally at Castle Rock Bar & Grill in Northfield MN:
MAGASOTA is hosting a Minnesota Trump rally in honor of our great President Donald J Trump.YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS THIS EVENT!!!Please get your tickets here. It will expedite your check in.https://www.magasota.com/minnesota_trump_rally_2020
Print it and bring along.MAGA hats to the first 200 people.
45 KAG Flags to be given away.
MAGASOTA gear to attendees.Guest speakers:
Bill Jungbauer
State Rep Jeremy Munson
Republican candidate Erik Mortensen
Julie Quist
John Mitchell from The Rowdy Podcast
Don Huizenga
very special guest Michael Matt of The Remnant TV
Surprise Guest of International Fame
The registration page on the MAGASOTA site can be visited here. It shouldn't be confused with Friday's airport rally featuring the president himself.
So what's the rumpus? The Northfield seat, MN20B, is now held by a DFLer, Todd Lippert. The endorsed Republican candidate is Joe Moravchik of Lonsdale. The Republican senate incumbent, Madison Lake's Rich Draheim, also isn't on the guest list.
CORRECTION: The location of the event is in Castlerock Township, Dakota County, represented by Representative Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, and Matt Little, DFL-Lakeville. No Republican on the ticket in this district appears to have spoken at the event.
State Representative Jeremy Munson, the New Republican from Lake Crystal, represents House District 23B, which has been reliably Republican since 2002. Perhaps he can spend time away from his district.
But we're puzzled at "Republican candidate Erik Mortensen" spending time in Northfield, since Mortensen is the challenger in House District 55A, a very competitive district now held by Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee.
Tabke beat Mortensen in 2018 by just over 600 votes; with the exception of the state auditor and attorney general's races, Democrats prevailed in all the partisan contests on the ballot. That was a significant change from the 2016 election, when Republicans swept all partisan offices in the district.
There are a few other fun wrinkles on this roster as well. Take former Second Congressional District Republican Chair Bill Jungbauer, for instance. In 2016, Cyndy Brucato reported at MinnPost in Minnesota’s GOP activists are still pretty bummed out about Donald Trump:
Talking to Republican activists about Donald Trump at last week’s 2nd Congressional District convention in Apple Valley was like listening to people suffering through the five stages of grief. From denial to anger to bargaining, it’s clear that these GOP voters have some distance to go before they reach acceptance.
“I’m not happy with any candidate on the ticket,” said delegate Bill Jungbauer, a former party chair in the second district. “I’m considering going with a third party. Why not vote with my heart instead of the lesser of two evils?
The news in September 2015's Brucato piece, Can Trump turn his fans in Minnesota into actual Republican voters?, mined a similar vein:
Donald Trump officially won the Minnesota Republican Party’s very unofficial corn poll of presidential candidates at the State Fair, where visitors filled growlers with corn to indicate their preference.
And Trump won by a sizable margin – getting 25.5 percent of the votes in the field of seven. (Check out the full results here.)
Trump still hasn’t crashed and burned in the manner that many pundits predicted a few months ago, notes former 2nd Congressional District Chair Bill Jungbauer, but he thinks he will, eventually.
Jungbauer is a Libertarian. Trump, he says emphatically, is not. “He [Trump] does what he needs to do for him,” Jungbauer said. “I believe he’s another Jesse Ventura, only with thicker skin.”
Like Maginnis, Jungbauer said he has seen no grass-roots efforts on behalf of Trump, and says, in fact, the strongest support at the caucus level is for Libertarian favorite Sen. Rand Paul, whose father, Ron Paul, controlled Minnesota’s delegation to the national convention in 2012.
Still, “it’s possible Trump could pull something off,” Jungbauer said.
Jungbauer ran for Republican Party Chair in 2015, Brucato reported at the time. We looked at What's state Republican Party chair candidate Jungbauer scrubbing from his Facebook page? in April 2015. MPR's Catharine Richert reported in Race for MN GOP Party chair sparks a little drama. Jungbauer lost.
He maintained his contrarian politics in the 2016 Second District Congressional race, The Uptake's Mike McIntee reported in Former CD2 GOP Chair Backs Gerson For Congress Over “Summertime Patriot” Candidates. Former radio talk show host and summertime patriot Jason Lewis secured the Republican endorsement and the seat, only to lose to Angie Craig in 2018. Lewis is now the Republican U.S. Senate candidate seeking to grab the seat now held by DFLer Tina Smith.
Then there's Julie Quist, wife of former state representative Allen Quist, who ran unsuccessful campaigns for governor and First Congressional district. As a board member of the Child Protection League, Quist works for anti-LGBTQ policy. Her husband predicted some of the president's anti-Democratic rhetoric--back in 2010:
“Our country is being destroyed. Every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom… Terrorism? Yes. That’s not the big battle,” he said. “The big battle is in D.C. with the radicals. They aren’t liberals. They are radicals. Obama, Pelosi, Walz: They’re not liberals, they’re radicals. They are destroying our country.”
And then there's Don Huizenga, the Anoka Republican activist (also reportedly a Carver County property owner who appeared in an anti-equity that inflamed racial controversy in Eastern Carver County Schools). Huizenga was an organizer of the Liberate Minnesota protest.
Unlike Jungbauer, Huizenga was a Trump supporter in 2016. The Star Tribune's Allison Sherry reported:
Don Huizenga, a construction worker and Trump coordinator in Emmer’s district, counts himself among the “bar stool white Republicans” to whom the Republican candidate appeals.
“A lot of politicians have forgotten, and the media has forgotten, a large group of white working-class Americans that feel like they’ve been put to the side by both parties,” said Huizenga, who lives in Anoka. “We are always asked to come to the bar and pay the bill, but not participate.”
Earlier that year, Huizenga rejected gestures intended to bring anti-Trump Republicans back in the fold, the Pioneer Press reported in Minnesota GOP rejects anti-Donald Trump party member welcome:
A group of Minnesota Republicans opposed to Donald Trump had what they thought was a modest proposal: make it clear that one could still be a good Republican without supporting Trump as the Republican nominee. . . .
But a majority of members of the Republican Party of Minnesota’s statewide governing body had a very different take: the measure was “divisive,” bad for the party and bad for democracy.
“It doesn’t unite the party at all,” said Don Huizenga, an Anoka Republican. “It separates us into different factions.”
For a good overview of his beliefs, check of his Facebook page, Don Huizenga’s - Harsh Reality (The Mix clips here).
Heckova party for the president, even if the local candidates aren't getting a chance to campaign.
Photo: Huizenga and Munson at the Liberate Minnesota rally. Via Facebook.
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