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Politicians urge people to vote

GOP leaders say non-voters cost them dearly

Staff photo by Fritz Busch First District Congressman Brad Finstad, R-New Ulm, holds a two-month old baby, Heidi Luepke of Courtland at the Brown County Republican Fun Raiser at the Sleepy Eye Event Center Tuesday.

Staff photo by Fritz Busch

First District Congressman Brad Finstad, R-New Ulm, talks at the Brown County Republican Fun Raiser at the Sleepy Eye Event Center Tuesday.

SLEEPY EYE — Republican politicians agreed at the Brown County “Fun Raiser” Tuesday that they need good voter turnout for favorable November election results.

A few hundred people gathered at the Sleepy Eye Event Center to meet and greet elected officials.

State Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, said voters should use the voting tools now available.

“I hope people turn out to vote. The election is a little over a month away. Voter turnout is so important. It’s good to use all the available voting tools to cast a ballot, whether its absentee or early voting if you aren’t around in November. Do it. Get your vote in,” he said.

State Sen. Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls), echoed Torkelson.

“We need to get everybody we can out to vote. No matter what party. We have a lot of registered voters who are not voting. If you want input on how the Minnesota Legislature runs and what’s going to happen, you need to vote. We’ve got to stop the non-sense at the Minnesota Legislature. Lots of taxes including gasoline and license tag fees are going up. Governors get 75 to 80% of what they want because they have so much power and influence,” he said.

Dahms said a lot of elections are lost due to the few number of votes.

“Your vote does count. You have the right to vote. You also have a responsibility to vote. Please exercise your right and handle your responsibility. Vote on all the races, not just some of them,” he said.

First District Congressman Brad Finstad said the event is a fun tradition Brown County Republicans do and it’s timely with the November election coming.

He talked about the U.S. budget.

“First of all, we’re $36 trillion in debt. If we continue to kick the can down the road and do continuing resolutions, you could train a monkey to do that every day,” Finstad said.

“If we’re going to get serious about how we fund our government, find things that need to be cut and find areas to invest in, you can’t press auto pilot button every three months. That’s what its been for a long time. It’s been political gridlock. We just don’t have people talking anymore. We need to sit down and agree on things we can agree on,” he said.

A House Agriculture Committee member, Finstad said the House passed 60-70% of the budget bills, something that hasn’t been done for years.

“I think most citizens want to see Congress vote on an agriculture bill. If we’re going to vote on that, let’s just have agriculture stuff in the bill. If we vote on a military bill, let’s only have that in it. What we’ve been doing it putting everything in a big can and voting for or against it. Politicians have said the bills are so big, you can’t even read the whole thing. That’s just not a way to function,” he said.

He talked about issues democrats supported that he disagreed with including Minnesota marijuana legalization.

“I was taught marijuana was a gateway drug,” he said.

Other things he disagreed with were spending a $19 billion budget surplus, raising taxes, allowing illegal immigrants to receive driver’s licenses and tuition-free college.

“I believe we’ll win in November if we show up and continue to work hard. Thank you for allowing me to sit in your Congressional seat. God bless America and thank you,” Finstad said.

“It’s time to take back the Minnesota House majority and stop the garbage the Democrats are doing. Imagine what kids hear in school every day. We’ve got to stop it. Every Republican that votes will help. They all need to vote and get 10 of our own folks to vote. We’ll win this thing and turn it around. God bless you all,” said Seventh District Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach, R-Regal.

She serves on the Ethics, Rules, Budget, Ways and Means Committees. She is chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process and serves on Subcommittees on Oversight and Trade.

Brown County Republican Chairman Greg Bartz said it’s important to not let the Trump tax cuts expire.

Tiffany Knott of Redwood County, who represented 7th District Republicans at the national convention in July, said 250,000 registered Republicans didn’t vote in the last election.

“At the end of the day, every vote counts. This election really matters,” she said.

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