From 2002 to 2008, Hagedorn authored a now-deleted blog, Mr. Conservative. According to Mother Jones, the blog made Native Americans a "favorite punching bag" and commented on female Supreme Court justices and Barack Obama's ancestry "in ways many voters won't appreciate."[9] Hagedorn said the blog was intended to be humorous and satirical.[10]
Hagedorn's blogging history led the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner to run an editorial calling him "the worst midterm candidate in America" in 2018.[11][12]
Hagedorn received the Republican nomination, despite the NRA Political Victory Fund endorsing another candidate, state Senator Carla Nelson, who also received funds from Representative Elise Stefanik, Richard Uihlein and Paul Singer. Hagedorn described himself as the most conservative candidate, who was loyal to Donald Trump.[20]
After Hagedorn won the primary, then-head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Representative Steve Stivers, said of the viewpoints expressed on Hagedorn's blog, "that is news to me". The NRCC spokeswoman said the posts were inappropriate and not condoned by the group.[22]
In the general election, with Walz giving up the seat to run for governor of Minnesota, Hagedorn defeated Democratic nominee Daniel Feehan, a former Department of Defense official, in a very close race.[1]
In 2020, in response to activist Shaun King saying that depictions of Jesus as white should be destroyed, Hagedorn wrote that the Democratic Party and Black Lives Matter movement "are at war with our country, our beliefs and western culture." In response to critiques that the term "Western culture" has been used to promote white nationalism, Hagedorn said, "The notion that statues and images of Jesus Christ somehow represent white supremacy and should be destroyed is ludicrous and represent a growing intolerant movement on the left to silence any voices that do not align with their radical secular views."[29] His comments led several corporate donors, including Intel and UnitedHealth Group, to ask him to return their donations.[30][31]
Office funding
In 2020, LegiStorm released an analysis of Hagedorn's office spending, finding that the office had spent more than one fifth of its $1.4 million annual office budget on publicly funded constituent mail. Around 40% of his office's annual budget was spent in the first quarter of 2020, surpassing any other member of Congress during the same time period.[32] Some expenses for Hagedorn's mailings went to a firm partially owned by a part-time Hagedorn staffer.[33] Hagedorn initiated an internal review of his office's spending and reported the findings to the House Ethics Committee, which declined to pursue the matter.[34] As a result of the internal review, Hagedorn dismissed his chief of staff and said, "I acknowledge responsibility for the oversight of my office and will continue to make any necessary management improvements."[35][33]
In October 2020, Politico alleged that Hagedorn "appears to have enjoyed rent-free use of a campaign office supplied by a political donor."[36] Hagedorn denied the report, saying his campaign had leased a post office box and not office space in the building in question.[37]
On January 7, 2021, Hagedorn objected to the certification of the 2020 presidential election results in Congress based on false claims of voter fraud.[42]
Hagedorn was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer in 2019[51] and received immunotherapy. In December 2020, he underwent surgery to remove the diseased kidney.[52] In July 2021, Hagedorn announced that his cancer had returned.[53]
In January 2022, Hagedorn was admitted to the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, after testing positive for COVID-19; he had previously been vaccinated against the disease.[54][55] Hagedorn died on February 17, 2022, at the age of 59.[56] He was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Blue Earth.[57]
^Hunt, Chuck (November 15, 2013). "Back for another campaign". Faribault County Register. Archived from the original on September 24, 2018. Retrieved July 24, 2020. The Blue Earth native and sometimes resident is back to try again to become the Republican candidate to run against U.S. Congressman Tim Walz a year from now in the November 2014 election.
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