First off, best wishes for a prompt recovery to MN6 GOP Congressman Tom Emmer from the illness that prevented his participation.
Been going to Farmfest and it’s famous candidate forums for a couple decades now, and like it’s sponsoring big ag aligned Farm Bureau it’s slowly shrinking along with the number of farmers in our country, just as big ag intended. So no surprise that Farm Bureau’s membership and finances are shrinking too, with plenty of vacant lots in the temp city that is Farmfest and empty seats at the forum. Used to be SRO at the forms, today plenty of empty seats despite today’s relief from the global warming that has plagued Farmfest in recent years. So the giant pole building poorly cosplaying as a theatre that could hold hundreds barely saw a hundred in attendance at best.
Noting their rural approval ratings falling with the crop prices, the Trump Regime flew in apologists, with USDA head Brook Rollins finally taking the stage about the time the actual candidates for CDs 1 and 2 were intended to. Scheduled to start at 10:10 she talked up Trump until damn near 11, despite never having to wait for applause from the thin audience. Didn’t do much better online, with about 10 viewers on Valley News Live’s 21K subscriber YouTube channel.
Thus the CD 1 and 2 candidates started on their 2nd or 7th question, couldn’t tell due to bad audio, when Farmfest’s video finally worked at 10:20, over an hour behind schedule. CD1 GOP incumbent had at best a half dozen occasionally clapping supporters, well outnumbered by the democrat’s supporters. Showing the desperation of his re-election campaign, he spoke in support of vague “immigration reform” and joined the forgettable republican challenger for CD2’s open seat in opposing “foreign threats” to ag land ownership. Meanwhile, democratic candidates Jake Johnson in CD1 and CD2 candidates demonstrated detailed mastery of ag issues despite many not coming from farm backgrounds- Like current CD2 democratic congresswoman Angie Craig, they’ve clearly been doing their homework! The three democratic candidates running in the CD2 primary also demonstrated commendable civility to each other, U.S. Senate candidates please take note. With network news invoking a time certain forum end at noon, this first group of candidates were denied 20 minutes time by the Trump apologist- Finsted must need covering up pretty bad!
The afternoons forum with the CDs 6, 7, and 8 candidates started on time and drew a whole maybe hundred onlookers. CD7 democratic challenger Erik Osberg had over half the audience behind him, the first time I have ever seen democrats outnumber republicans at this event, they were spontaneous and even gave CD7 republican incumbent Michelle Fischbach a chorus of boos when she deserved it. CD8 republican incumbent Pete Stauber wore an AC/DC T-shirt and tried to play alpha male, clearly past his prime for the part. Again, DFL challengers Osberg, Doug Chapin from CD6, and Trina Swanson from CD8 showed mastery of policy details while Fischbach and Stauber dared not stray from the standard Trump talking points. When Stauber accused democrats of health care fraud, Swanson reminded him that Trump had just pardoned the largest health care fraudster in history! Both Stauber and Fischbach supported tariffs and Stauber even supports the Data Center that got snuck into Hermantown, corruption being SOP for the GOP.
The candidates got to run over a few minutes and the second Trump apologist, under secretary of something or other at USDA Luke Lindberg, got too prevent the dreaded “dead air” if the broadcast feed was still live as the crowd wandered out. After drama queen alpha male wannabe Stauber claimed the missing CD6 republican incumbent Tom Emmer was “fighting for his life”, several sources have confirmed that Emmer recently underwent surgery for a foot injury. As Donald Trump has taught us, foot injuries can be very traumatic for republicans… Especially when they’re trying to get outa something!
Sassy Democrat 