I guess I should have expected the Freeborn County GOP chairman’s racist attack on Minnesota Congressman/deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee Keith Ellison as Ellison pursues the elected job of Minnesota attorney general. After all, the GOP county fair booth displayed a full-sized cardboard cutout of Donald Trump. So the local GOP stands with Trump’s support of the Nazi racist behavior on full display last year in Charlottesville, Virginia.

It was Congressman Ellison who said Osama bin Laden no more represents Islam than Timothy McVeigh represented Christianity. 

Does the local GOP chairman understand he has the same paranoid fantasies as these two monsters? Or is the local GOP chairman’s special rage a knowing act in bad faith to energize the racist base of his GOP party? 

This is clearly a prelude to what is coming next from the dark money. Literally, tens of thousands of dollars will be spent locally using the racist tactics of the local GOP chairman. We ask voters to vet the candidates fairly and critically, to think through comments like the local GOP chairman and identify those comments for what in truth they really are. 

For me, the main issue in the upcoming election is climate change. Nothing else compares to the magnitude of this one issue. A vote for any Republican is a vote for a climate change denier. 

I am so proud of the 21 youth plaintiffs who argued that our current government has violated their constitutional rights by allowing fossil fuel production to continue. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to stop the children’s lawsuit. Your local GOP supports Trump’s crusade promoting climate change denial.

Ted Hinnenkamp

Albert Lea