To the editor:

I have known Congressional candidate Jim Hagedorn for years and know him to be a man of uncommon faith and conservative values. Thus, I am appalled at Carla Nelson’s decision to engage in a campaign of distortions and half-truths. Jim Hagedorn was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota, and raised on his family’s grain and livestock farm outside Truman. Jim attended Lutheran grade school in Truman. His dad, Tom, represented southern Minnesota in Congress when Jim was in high school and college.

After college, Jim spent 7 years working on the staff of former Minnesota Congressman Arlan Stangeland. More recently, you know Jim as the Republican candidate for Congress who garnered 49.6% of the vote against Tim Walz in the 2016 election. Jim resides in Blue Earth, where he attends services at St. Paul Lutheran, the same church in which he was baptized.

So what does it say about Jim’s primary opponent (who was born and raised in Iowa and who didn’t move to Minnesota until she was 30) that she would send out political hit pieces misrepresenting, among other things, where Jim is from?

Volumes.

There’s a reason why grassroots Republican Party delegates, after examining the candidate’s positions and character, voted 218-60 to endorse Hagedorn over Nelson. There’s a reason 13 Minnesota State legislators, including Senator Gary Dahms and Rep. Paul Torkelson, have endorsed Jim, while not a single senate colleague — those who work with her and know her best — has endorsed Sen. Nelson.

Politicians and their high-priced consultants engage in this type of smarmy campaigning for one reason: they believe it works.

On August 14th, I urge you to send a message that you’ve had enough of the politics of negativity and personal destruction. Please join me in voting for a trusted conservative, Jim Hagedorn

Jim Hahn

New Ulm