Jeff Ettinger, former Hormel CEO, and DFL candidate for U.S. House 1st District, spoke first. Ettinger is running in the special election to complete the remaining term of Jim Hagedorn, who died in February. The special election in Tuesday, Aug. 9. He will also run for a full term in the Nov. 8 election.

Ettinger hopes to bring knowledge of the economy and how business works to Washington.

He retired as Hormel CEO in 2016 and is chairman of the Hormel Foundation, a charitable organization that has helped increase child care capacity, improve waterways, fund a cancer research institute and is active with schools.

Recently, Ettinger was asked to be co-chairman of Gov. Tim Walz’s Economic Expansion Council. One of the early recommendations of the council was bringing broadband across the state, which did make it through the Legislature this year.

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Jeff Ettinger, former Hormel CEO, and DFL candidate for U.S. House 1st Congressional District, spoke at Hermann Park during the DFL picnic event.

Ettinger said he was disappointed the State Legislature was unable to pass even more legislation, blaming partisan games by the Republicans.

“I think that is an example of how extreme things have gotten, and how the Democrats are the mainstream party in this country,” he said.

Ettinger said Democrats believe in voting rights, reproductive rights and the need to take action on climate change.

Ettinger said the threat to democracy was his strong motivation to run. He said the Jan. 6 hearings have uncovered some appalling activities and reminded the audience that even after the Jan. 6 attack on the capital, Hagedorn refused to vote to certify the election.

“It was just an embarrassment,” he said.

Staff photo by Clay Schuldt Anita Gaul, DFL candidate running for Minnesota State Senate District 15, gave a speech at Hermann Heights Park on Sunday dressed as a suffragette.

Ettinger assured the crowd the special election would be competitive. He said there are DFL strongholds across the 1st District but acknowledged there are strong Republican counties. He said to win, they don’t have to turn a red county blue, but if they could pick up 5-10% everywhere, the Democrats could win.

Anita Gaul, a DFL candidate running for Minnesota State Senate District 15, spoke next, wearing an early 1900s suffragette dress. Gaul described herself as a teacher, author and historian.

Suffragettes were the women who fought for women’s right to vote in the early 20th century. Gaul said they fought for full citizenship and democracy, and she plans to fight for the same thing.

“I will fight for equality for all Minnesotans,” she said. “I will fight for citizenship and the right to vote, and I will fight to defend this democracy from those who seek to destroy it.”

Gaul believed she could be a connector to the partisan divide. She called the current situation in the Legislature completely dysfunctional.

“This last session ended without a budget bill because our legislators could not agree on how to spend a $9 billion surplus,” she said.

Gaul believed the surplus could have funded several things, but the legislators could not get along enough to agree on a plan and instead left the money on the table.

“I think that’s ridiculous,” she said.

Gaul believed she could bridge the gap between farm and rural, having grown up on a farm, moved to the city for education and return to her rural roots.

“I am a woman who can get things done,” she said.

Tom Kuster, DFL candidate running for DFL House 15B spoke last. Kuster has been active with area DFL for many years but chose to run this year because the Republican incumbent Paul Torkelson was running unopposed.

“That’s not democracy,” he said. “Democracy means a choice, and that’s why I decided…to jump into this race, to give people a choice and give people like you a voice.”

Kuster said democracy is in peril on the local, national and international levels because of a rise in authoritarianism.

Kuster said there were many other important issues, but they pale in comparison to the threat to democracy.

In terms of the other issues, Kuster said the most visited page on his campaign website is “Fully Pro-Life.” This is how Kuster identifies himself, he said. He said the phrase sets many DFL teeth on edge, but he encourages everyone to visit his web page and read what that means. He believes this could teach Republican friends about what it really means to be pro-life.

He said fully pro-life is “not sending the cops to a pregnant woman’s house. It’s not setting up checkpoints at the state border, and it is not enabling some vigilante from Texas to come to harass a woman who had a miscarriage and make that heartbreak worse.”

Kuster described being fully pro-life is what currently exists in Minnesota with some other benefits. He wants resources to be available for any pregnancy. He wanted universal medical care for pre- and post-natal; paid family leave for parents; minimum wage to support a single-parent family; readily available family planning, a strong anti-poverty program, affordable child care and a robust foster care system.

He said with programs like this in place, a person with pregnancy has more than one option and that alone could reduce abortions.

Kuster said he likes to ask the men he meets, “What part of your reproductive anatomy would you like to put under the control of the State Legislature in St. Paul?”

Then he asks them what if the Legislature was 90% women? Then he said it was not a bad idea and encouraged everyone to vote for Anita Gaul.

If elected, Kuster said he would like to serve on the Health and Social Services, Economic Delvelopment and Agriculture committees.

Minnesota’s primary and congressional special election is Tuesday, Aug. 9.