By Jenae Hackensmith

Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Mike McFadden’s confidence showed Friday afternoon as he told more than 25 people that he was going to win the election in 18 days.

“I want you to know I’m going to win, I’m going to beat Al Franken,” McFadden told more his supporters during a 4 p.m. campaign stop at the Mower County Senior Center.

McFadden spoke enthusiastically during the brief stop, touching on a few of the things he hopes to do if elected.

“I’m running for the U.S. Senate because we can do better, it’s as simple as that,” he said. “We have to do better.”

McFadden, of Sunfish Lake, is running against incumbent DFL U.S. Sen. Franken of Minneapolis. This is the first time he has run for office, and he said he is proud that he is not a “career politician.” McFadden discussed his plan, consisting of three main points.

“I want Minnesotans to know what I’m going to do: I’ll be accessible, accountable and I’ll take action,” he said.

McFadden discussed many things recently outlined in his “Contract With Minnesota,” like a pledge to visit all 87 counties each year.

“I think that’s a bare minimum of what you do as a U.S. senator,” said McFadden, who accused Franken of not spending enough time visiting his constituents.

He told the crowd he will hold a quarterly town hall meeting, and he again said he would not seek reelection if he votes with his party 97 percent of the time — a key criticism he’s directed at Franken.

If elected, McFadden plans to co-sponsor a balance budget amendment, which would halt lawmaker pay if Congress doesn’t pass a budget. He made several other promises for action in his first 100 days in office.

“We’re going to get the keystone pipeline passed, we’re going to get rid of the medical device tax, and we’re going to get legislation to streamline our regulatory process,” he said.

One of McFadden’s key points was education. McFadden noted that he worked closely with Cristo Rey, an inner city school in Minneapolis, for the past few years on the school board. His plan includes improving the education system.

“We have great public schools in this state, but unfortunately we don’t have them for everyone,” he said.

He plans to allocate dollars away from broken school districts to “dramatically increase the funding to increase the number of charter schools” in the inner city communities, promising to help children get a first-class education regardless of zip code.

McFadden finished his campaign stop by touting his plan to reform the health care system and the Affordable Care Act.

“I’m very proud of the plan that we’ve put forward, that addresses cost, addresses quality and addresses affordability,” he said. “I have a multi-tiered plan that will drive down cost, unlike Obamacare.”

He added that he plans to look at using renewable energy and will work to dramatically overhaul the tax code.

“We can do it, this is the type of year that we can have a waive election and we need to do it,” McFadden said. “We need to take back our state and get back onto the road of growth and prosperity.”

Minnesota House District 27B hopeful Dennis Schminke, the GOP candidate running against DFL incumbent Rep. Jeanne Poppe, introduced McFadden and closed the meeting.