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My Point of View by Robert Hoffman

Many thanks are owed to many people — let’s chip away at a few here to start, and I hope it takes me all year to get to everyone. First of all to my Freeborn County Republicans executive board, both past and present. Earlier this month we had our county convention, and we thanked our outgoing board as well as elected and welcomed our new executive board for 2025 and 2026.

A very special thank you to my outgoing deputy chairman, Aaron; vice chairman, Lukas; and communications director, Brad. Brad was elected to serve on the Freeborn County Soil & Water Conservation Board, is on our local watershed board and is president of MN Watersheds. Lukas was elected to a county commissioner position on Freeborn County’s Board of Commissioners, and Aaron is working for our congressman between southern Minnesota and Washington D.C. now. Our board is composed of amazing people, and they often move up to serve in great capacities. I also lost a treasurer a few years ago after she was elected to the school board, and all of this shows the caliber of candidates we have serving our Freeborn County Republicans and their trusted content of character.

I was just re-elected to serve what will be my final term as the Freeborn County Republicans chairman for 2025 and 2026, and I often think of the saying, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” It is my honor to be associated with our new Republicans’ executive board that is setting that bar for me now. We have a fantastic team to be very proud of that will be serving our Freeborn County Republicans in 2025 and 2026, and this will be an exciting time electing a new governor and U.S. senator from Minnesota in 2026.

Our new deputy chairman, Shannon, a local business owner, has served on the board as a vice chair and attended the RNC last year. We re-elected Mandy as our secretary, and no t goes uncrossed or i undotted on her watch. The attention to detail and work she puts into this position is unmatched by anyone I’ve ever worked or served with.

Our treasurer, Kasey, was re-elected as well for the same reason. The treasurer role is a very demanding position full of much more scrutiny and regulation than it is thanks and praise, but we have never been left to need anything with Kasey in charge. We have two new vice chairs. Nick is a commanding and bright man, whose leadership and ability are perfect for both someone to look up to and as someone to work next to, and Jackson, a 19-year-old business owner, who also attended the RNC a few months before he voted for his very first time, has the energy and eyes-wide-open attitude perfect to serve our Freeborn County Republicans.

These board members are a small portion of everyone we will say thank you to, and we will be dedicating 2025 to saying “thank you,” our theme for the year, before 2026 when we kick off a very interesting midterm election for Minnesota where we will most likely flip our state red and elect a Republican governor and quite possibly a Republican U.S. senator. Thank you is the least we can say to so many people who have put us in such a good spot in Minnesota politics, but we will make sure to say thank you and say it often.

I mentioned my outgoing Deputy Chairman Aaron, who is now working full time for our Congressman. Before working for the Congressman, Aaron was also the chairman for the First Congressional District (CD1) and is finishing his term as Chairman at our CD1 Convention this next month in March. CD1 is very respected and looked up to by the MNGOP and has become one of the most successful congressional districts in the state under Chairman Aaron’s watch. CD1 spans all of southern Minnesota along our border with Iowa all the way from South Dakota to Wisconsin and consists of all or part of 21 counties. In this last election every single county in CD1 voted red except one, Rochester’s Olmsted County, and Aaron played a very important role in all of the success the congressional district now gets to celebrate and deserves a very special “thank you” for that. Great work, Aaron, and thank you!

We may be the average of the people we spend the most time with, but in regards to politics that is something to be very proud of in southern Minnesota. So let me kick off my last term as our chairman by saying “thank you” and that it is my honor to serve with, and for, so many amazing people. Thank you!

Robert Hoffman is the Freeborn County GOP chairman.