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I read Jennifer Carnahan’s response to a letter to the editor that she insists “attacks” her and her business, Primrose Park. She claims to be disturbed that anyone would dare criticize her application for a PPP loan, blaming her need for the loan on Gov. Tim Walz and arguing that nothing about her or her business should “be the source of any political discussion.” Bless her heart — but we know Carnahan is also the chair of the Minnesota GOP.

Carnahan knows she is a power player in Republican politics, but she is trying her best to win the victim Olympics that the far-right so often, wrongly, and hypocritically accuses everyone — from victims of police brutality to sexual assault — of playing. Carnahan leads the GOP, which publicly defends Trump’s rank racism (“China Virus”), who compared Governor Walz to North Korean despot Kim Jong Un because he issued a mask mandate (COVID has killed more than 180,000 Americans), and who has blatantly lied about Minneapolis — a city that is not, in fact, “burned to the ground.”

Carnahan has the same low regard for the truth as her husband, Rep. Jim Hagedorn, has for ethical spending. My words might be unwarranted if Carnahan were just a small business owner, but she’s not. Carnahan is a public figure, one-half of a marriage that is relying on the lowest common denominators to win a U.S. representative campaign, and someone who knew her husband’s position would put her in the express lane for a PPP loan while other Minnesotan business owners struggled. Carnahan is utterly devoid of Minnesota values.

Misti Harper

St. Peter