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My Point of View by Robert Hoffman

This is the precinct-level breakdown for the presidential, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and Minnesota House races in Freeborn County from last year. As expected, we’ve been seeing growth in every precinct (with only a couple exceptions) and the city of Albert Lea itself is on trajectory to become conservative itself (which was not the case as recently as 2020), pending some earth-shattering realignment. Here are some highlights:

President

Trump won every precinct in Freeborn County.

Trump won every Albert Lea precinct, with his strongest being Ward 4 (54.39%) and his weakest being Ward 1 (51.88%).

For Albert Lea as a whole, Trump won 53.68%, and votes from the city of Albert Lea comprised 53.54% of the total votes in Freeborn County, meaning if we can even further strengthen our rural turnout (where we won 67.02%), we can make this a 65% county by 2028.

Trump’s Freeborn County margin of victory increased by just under 3% from 2020, and exactly 5% from 2016.

U.S. Senate

Amy Klobuchar lost Freeborn County for the first time ever, but by less than 2% (Royce White won with 49.03%).

White won 30/42 precincts, with Klobuchar winning every Albert Lea precinct (and the city as a whole with 53.52%). White’s strongest precinct was Ward 6 (46.30%) and his weakest was Ward 5 (38.59%)

White underperformed Trump by just over 10% as a whole, 12% in rural areas and roughly 11% in Albert Lea.

I don’t think this race is reflective of Freeborn County’s trend as a whole (in large part due to the candidates), but I do think it’s interesting that no matter how you slice it, you have at least 1,800 people in Freeborn County vote for Trump, then turn around and vote for Klobuchar.

U.S. House

Finstad won every precinct in Freeborn County. He won every Albert Lea precinct, with his strongest being Ward 3 (57.92%) and his weakest being Ward 5 (54.11%).

Finstad won 56.37% in the city of Albert Lea and won 69.21% in the rural parts of Freeborn County.

Finstad’s Freeborn County margin of victory increased by just over 5% from 2022, and just under 12% from Hagedorn in 2020.

MN House (23A and 23B combined)

Bennett won every Freeborn precinct in her district; Mueller won all but one (Hayward, where her opponent was from, and she only lost by three votes).

Bennett won every Albert Lea precinct (which is normal for her), with her strongest being Ward 4 (64.09%) and her weakest being Ward 5 (56.64%).

Bennett won 61.41% of the votes in the city of Albert Lea, and the GOP candidates combined won 71.45% of rural Freeborn County.

Bennett’s Freeborn margin of victory increased by just under 4% from 2022, and Mueller’s decreased by 0.8% (again, her opponent was from this area of the district and her overall margin increased.)

This is all very encouraging and we hope you find it as interesting as we do.

MN Senate 23

Due to the incredible work of Senator Dornink, SD 23 is poised to continue being represented by common sense, dedicated Republicans for years to come. Freeborn County voters have rejected time and time again the policies of sanctuary cities, socialized health care, higher taxes, burdensome regulations and radical liberalism that Minnesota Democrats are proud to represent.

Let’s talk about all of this soon. We’re getting together a lot this summer. Join us anytime to express thanks to one another for all of our hard work, to enjoy some of the summer together and to start to discuss if we see any good candidates emerge. Here are some dates to save:

The Freeborn County Republicans will be walking in the Morin Lake Days Parade this weekend. Join us this Saturday evening in Alden. We will also be walking in Albert Lea’s Third of July Parade, and again all are welcome to participate in this with us. Our next Freeborn County GOP meeting will be a little after the Fourth of July holiday this year in mid-July on the 14th. Our monthly meetings are held the second Monday of every month at the Edgewater Bay Pavilion. We kick off our meetings with a social starting at 4:30 p.m. and our meetings start at 5:15 p.m. with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The Freeborn County Fair, six of the best days of summer, and our GOP booth is year after year one of the most popular stops at the fair. Our Freeborn County Republicans Picnic will be Aug. 11 and will be jam packed with amazing food, entertainment, guest speakers and our fellow Republicans. Stop by our fair booth for your invite to this summer’s picnic. Never hesitate to reach out and ask what we have coming up next!

Robert Hoffman is chairman of the Freeborn County GOP.