Staff photo by Fritz Busch First District Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn talks at a barbeque fundraiser Saturday at the New Ulm Event Center parking lot.

NEW ULM — First District Congressman Jim Hagedorn, U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis and other Republicans talked about how important the November general election is this year at a Brown County Republican fundraiser Saturday at the New Ulm Event Center.

Hagedorn took a swing at Gov. Walz for continuing his emergency powers.

“It’s a d**n shame Gov. Walz won’t give up his emergency powers and what he’s doing to our state,” Hagedorn said.

He talked about the importance of reelecting President Trump in November as a way to get the country back to where it was before the coronavirus hit six months ago and threw a wrench into the economic system.

“The way we are going to get back to where we were is to have a leader like President Trump who did it in the first place and Republicans who will implement regulations that make sense, keeping energy costs down and getting new trade deals with Japan and China instead of over the top regulations,” Hagedorn said.

Hagedorn said the country of Mexico did more help the United States on the border than Democrats did.

“If we lose this (November) election, we’ll lose the America we love,” Hagedorn said.

U.S. Senate hopeful Jason Lewis of St. Paul called the Minnesota Senate “the last firewall.”

“This is it. We’re fighting a Democratic militia that doesn’t compromise. You don’t meet lunatics half way,” Lewis said.

He said if elected, he will ensure any federal workers not doing their job will be fired.

Lewis accused Democrats of “doing anything for power like defunding police, creating a mask mandate and taking away Second Amendement rights.”

“It’s about political gamesmanship, a power grab, separation of power. You have to check the mob. If they win, they’re in. I’m not buying it,” Lewis said. “We’re going to win this election. This is the most important election of your lifetime.”

Rep. Jeremy Munson of Lake Crystal urged everybody to call 10 friends about the November election.

“We need everybody we can get to go out and get people energized and vote,” said District 20 Rep. Rich Draheim of Madison Lake.

Rep. Paul Torkelson of Hanska urged people to be active.

“We have a chance to take Minnesota,” Torkelson said. “It’ll happen if we all do our share. This is a very unusual time. We have a great chance to send Republicans to Washington.”

Sen. Gary Dahms of Redwood Falls said the November election can really count to keep Republicans strong at the federal level.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.