Update, January 7: At Dakota Free Press, Cory Allen Heidelberger is a bit more direct in Big Liar: District 1 House Candidate Manhart Protests Free and Fair Election. [End update].
We're registered to vote in South Dakota's District 1, and so some of the copy in Christopher Vondracek's article at the Dickinson Press, South Dakota GOP navigates schism one year after Jan. 6 insurrection caught our eye.
Vondracek reports:
In a Facebook photo, Logan Manhart stands on the National Mall with a doctored Gadsden-American flag flowing behind his shoulder, grinning like a Cheshire cat. The dateline: Jan. 8, 2021.
"I am happy to have joined the one million Trump supporters in the peaceful demonstration in Washington D.C. on January 6th," reads the post.
Manhart, who is running for the South Dakota Legislature in District 1 in the northeastern corner, doesn't mention the violent attacks following the rally that January day that left five dead. He doesn't mention the hoax of an election fraud campaign that drove President Trump supporters to overturn a barricade and bum-rush the U.S. Capitol in what the FBI has called the biggest criminal investigation in American history.
But Manhart does add that he left with no "ill intentions."
Now, he doesn't want to talk about the day.
"I appreciate the outreach but I am not interested in any inquiries at this time," said Manhart, in an email to Forum News Service, in December.
He did tweet earlier today:
A year ago today we were told to protest “peacefully and patriotically”, and that’s exactly what we did. Protesting for a cause we believed in. pic.twitter.com/A2ZJiMiXGs
— Logan Manhart (@ManhartLogan) January 6, 2022
The article continues:
A former Wisconsin GOP staffer, Manhart isn't the only Republican candidate or legislator with ties -- either physically or by remote political support or cheering-- to the nation's most recent day of infamy. . . .
Whether antipathy toward Capitol rioters, and their enablers, translates into friction at the ballot-box for local officer-seekers in Roberts or Brown County this November is yet unknown. But the digital artifacts remain.
In a video call with the Brown County GOP on Jan. 5, 2021, party chairwoman Katie Washnock asks Manhart, staying at a hotel in D.C., what he'd seen so far.
"Nothing but patriots," Manhart replied, noting he'd "not seen any violence, yet."
Rep. Jennifer Keintz, a Democrat from District 1 who could face Manhart in the fall, said individuals had the "freedom" to flock to Washington, D.C., last January. She also noted that those who committed crimes should be prosecuted.
"I think it was a turning point for our nation, with an impact that we won't fully realize for some time,"Keintz said.
As to the implications at the ballot box, Keintz added that most people disagree with extremists, "regardless of the political party with which they align."
In addition to Keintz, a real estate agent from Eden, District 1 is represented in the South Dakota House of Representatives by Sisseton Republican Tamara St. John, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate's tribal archivist. Neither are career politicians.
On Tuesday, the Aberdeen American News reported in Political newcomer Logan Manhart announces bid for SD House in District 1 that he "earned certification degrees in leadership development and management in 2021 from Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, Wis."
On his campaign website, under the heading "A conservative leader," readers learn:
After spending a year at Northern State University, in 2019 Logan(right) moved from Aberdeen to further his college education in Wisconsin. In that time he found his strength and passion for politics while working on President Trump’s Re-Election Campaign. He worked tirelessly to help Wisconsin elect Republicans up and down the ballot. In 2021, Logan graduated with a certificate degree in Leadership Development and Management, with the goal to return home and further the conservative cause in his favorite state.
He's got a YouTube channel, where he announced his run three weeks ago:
Most of his YouTube channel is re-hashed conservative talking points. We'll be taking a look at the candidate's various keyboard warrior social media.
One example:
It's curious that he calls Northeast South Dakota a Republican stronghold in his announcement video. At the conservative Dakota War College, we learn in the November 29 post Manhart & Schoenbeck interesting GOP newcomers to legislative contests in Districts 1 & 2:
Manhart, a resident of Bath, SD, brings campaign experience from working as a Regional Field Director for the Wisconsin GOP as well as the Wisconsin Trump campaign.
His entrance into the race is particularly interesting, as with three quality candidates in D1 (Rohl, St. John & Manhart), for the first time possibly ever, the GOP could conceivably capture all three seats in what has been a Democrat stronghold for decades.
Guess that history is something Manhart missed.
Photo: Logan Manhart. From his campaign website.
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