By Madison McVan | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
GOP state senate candidate Heidi Heino has fired her campaign manager after Democratic-Farmer-Labor Sen. Heather Gustafson accused the campaign manager of leaving “marked-up attack literature” at her door.
“The message is clear: we know where you live and we’re here to intimidate you,” Gustafson wrote on Facebook.
In a statement, Heino apologized for the incident and said she’d fired the campaign manager.
“Criticism of a candidate’s public record is part of political debate, but delivering it to her home was poor judgment,” Heino wrote. “I understand why the visit caused concern, and I apologize.”
In other elections news: two Republican super PACs have withdrawn financial support for two incumbents, Rep. Thomas H. Kean Jr. of New Jersey and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, the New York Times reports.
“The decision represents the first instance this cycle of national Republican groups abandoning incumbents as the party scrambles to prevent more widespread losses in the midterm elections,” Shane Goldmacher writes.
To the Reformer:
Jake Johnson, DFL candidate for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, greets an attendee at the kick-off event to his “Receipts Tour” in North Mankato, Minn. on Oct. 4. (Photo by Maya Betti/Minnesota Reformer)
By Maya Betti
Our CD1 correspondent Maya Betti evaluates Democrat Jake Johnson’s chances to upset Rep. Brad Finstad, who has represented the southern Minnesota district since 2022.
Finstad outperformed President Donald Trump in 2024, but Johnson’s campaign hopes that a number of factors — a poor farm economy worsened by the war in Iran, Trump’s low favorability, and demographic changes in the district — can boost Johnson’s chances, and in turn, deliver the House to the Democrats.
By Kayseh Magan
Kayseh Magan, a Somali-American and former investigator in the Medicaid fraud division of the attorney general’s office, writes that Somali Minnesotans have unfairly been forced to answer for the actions of a very few.
“Two things can be true: Our community is being unfairly targeted based on the actions of a few, and those actions — gun violence and social service fraud — should be rooted out,” Magan writes. “The exploitation of these issues by bad-faith actors for political gain only highlights why our elected officials should address these matters substantively. Doing otherwise breeds resentment, erodes credibility and feeds harmful narratives.”
By Ashley Murray
Democratic leaders in the U.S. House condemned a “deeply disturbing” raid early Monday at the District of Columbia home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who has long been a target of verbal attacks by President Donald Trump and Republicans.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., called the morning raid by Department of Homeland Security officials “egregious.”
The House minority leaders said the search of Omar’s home “raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”
IN OTHER NEWS
Researchers point to community violence programs, pandemic recovery in historic homicide decline | Reformer via Stateline
OH BY THE WAY
Happy to report that my Texan family approves of Top the Tater.
And, a song for your Tuesday. Have a great day!
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