One year ago, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” ran a profile on Jim Hagedorn, who has twice failed to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota’s 1st District. His credentials are being a former CEO for Miracle Gro and… well, the classic GOP nepotism of being the son of a former Congressman himself. The problem voters seemed to have with Hagedorn was he had a habit of writing to the “Bluestern Prairie”, where he offered a variety of politically incorrect thoughts about gays, minorities, and Democrats. Things like calling Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell “undeserving bimbos in tennis shoes”, calling former Congressman Herb Kohl a “switch-hitter” and “packer”, echoing John Wayne’s sentiment that “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”, and discussing an election between Mike Taylor and Max Baucus by using imagery about fisting and lubrication. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The Minnesota GOP actually pulled all support from Aaron Miller, Hagedorn’s primary opponent in 2014, thinking Hagedorn was a much more well-rounded candidate to defeat Tim Walz during a mid-term election season. After his musings became public, though, Minnesota’s 1st, even with it’s slight +1 R Cook Partisan Voting Index lean and during a strong year for Republicans, overall, Hagedorn failed to win office.
So it seems unlikely that Hagedorn would be able to knock off Walz, especially in a presidential election year here in 2016. As of May 2015, surprisingly, he had announced he would take another shot at the 5-term incumbent. Minnesota Democrats are currently touting their party success, particularly that of Gov. Mark Dayton, so it seems like a tall order.
We’ll have to see if Hagedorn proves himself to again be so opinionated before election day eleven months from now.