National
Watchdog Files Complaint Against Hagedorn Over Campaign Office
WASHINGTON — A Democratic aligned campaign finance watchdog group filed a complaint against Rep. Jim Hagedorn with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, accusing the first-term Republican of getting free or below-market-value office rent and lying to cover it up. The complaint from End Citizens United, which asked the FEC to investigate and sanction the […]
Republicans hope ground game, unfettered by virus, can deliver historic Trump victory
This story has been updated. WILLMAR — It’s 9 o’clock on a crisp fall morning here in western Minnesota, and about 30 people have gathered at the Kandiyohi County Republican Party headquarters, which is smothered in candidate campaign signs and flags. Right next door is Jerry’s Flooring, with a sign in the window that says […]
‘MyPillow guy’ Mike Lindell to announce decision on running for governor after election
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said he will announce whether he’s running for governor of Minnesota after the Nov. 3 election. Lindell has publicly flirted with the idea for months — and gotten a push from President Donald Trump to jump in — and certainly sounds like a guy who’s ready to take the plunge. Depending […]
Owner of burned out beauty salon got to meet Pence and Ivanka Trump, but she’s coy about her vote
Flora Westbrooks knew she was going to be on a policing panel with Vice President Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump last week, but she had no idea she was going to get personal time with them and visit her burned-out husk of a building in north Minneapolis. Westbrooks, who owns a beauty salon on Broadway […]
In Duluth, Trump warns his followers that Biden would turn Minnesota “into a refugee camp”
DULUTH — President Donald Trump returned for the second time to northern Minnesota since voting began in the state, holding a campaign rally at an airport hangar here where thousands gathered to see the president after a widely panned presidential debate performance. With an estimated crowd of 3,000, many of whom waited for hours in […]
Wanted: Election judges (GOP especially)!
President Trump created a furor during Tuesday’s presidential debate when he called on his supporters to be “poll watchers.” It was interpreted by many to mean he wants his supporters to go to polling stations to intimidate voters. But election judges are a real thing and an important part of Minnesota’s long history of best-in-the-nation […]
Trump tells far-right group to ‘stand back and stand by’ in presidential debate
President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Tuesday night’s chaotic and messy presidential debate were each asked how they would deal with the nation’s institutional racism. Trump directly addressed a far-right group, the Proud Boys, telling them to “stand back and stand by,” and failed to answer a question about why Americans should […]
Trump and Biden quarrel over mask mandates and state shutdowns in first presidential debate
The two men vying to become the next president offered a stark contrast to voters on face mask requirements and on how soon state economies should reopen amid the pandemic, just two of many areas where they squabbled during Tuesday’s contentious and often chaotic first debate. The exchange between President Donald Trump and former Vice […]
Unbeknownst to Trump during his lengthy speech in Bemidji, history pivots
BEMIDJI — During President Trump’s rambling two hour speech in an airport hangar here in which he praised confederate general Robert E. Lee, bemoaned his own fate of having to make speeches in places like Bemidji, Minn., and played the usual favorites (“Lock her up!”), he also got around to the Supreme Court “The next […]
Biden in northeast Minnesota: “All Trump sees from Park Avenue is Wall Street”
HERMANTOWN, St. Louis County — Former Vice President Joe Biden sought to rally the support of a crucial voter bloc here Friday that could be decisive in the all-important Upper Midwest: Trades unions. Touring a carpenters union training center near Duluth, Biden drove home his support of unions and middle-class jobs in an area of the […]
House passes bill to boost post office funding by $25 billion, block service changes
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House convened a rare weekend session Saturday in an attempt to stop the U.S. Postal Service from disrupting mail service to sabotage the November elections, as Democrats allege. The Democratic-led chamber passed a bill 257-150 that would infuse $25 billion into the agency as it prepares for a surge in mail-in ballots while […]
Postmaster general insists it’s his ‘sacred duty’ to ensure election mail on time
WASHINGTON — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy mounted a strong defense of his record Friday during a high-profile Senate hearing on recent postal delays, calling claims that the Trump administration is trying to sabotage the elections by deliberately disrupting mail service “outrageous.” DeJoy acknowledged delays during the pandemic but said the agency is fully capable of […]