ALBERT LEA — Congressman Jim Hagedorn was born in Blue Earth in 1962, where he lives today. Hagedorn was raised on his family’s grain and livestock farm outside Truman. Hagedorn has been a resident of Minnesota, and this geographic congressional district in particular, for 29 of his 57 years. Hagedorn was a resident of Minnesota the first 21 years of his life, and his first votes were cast as a Minnesota resident in 1980 for Ronald Reagan and his dad, Tom Hagedorn, who was the incumbent congressman from our area in south-central Minnesota. From age 22 through 29, he worked for Minnesota Congressman Arlan Stangeland in his D.C. office, learning about the legislative process and how to help people by working with federal agencies to ensure that veterans, students and all Americans are able to live their best lives. From there, Hagedorn spent 18 years as a congressional relations officer for two nonpartisan bureaus of the U.S. Treasury, where he used his position to reform government, downsize his own agency, and save taxpayers over $2 billion. From 2010 until today, Hagedorn has been a Minnesota resident, residing in Blue Earth in 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. This has been verified by residents of Truman and Blue Earth who have known Jim Hagedorn since he was born.

I’m sure you’re wondering why I told you all of that. It’s because, in that one paragraph that took me five minutes to write, I did what Dan Feehan has refused to do since mid-2017 when he announced his unsuccessful run for Congress.

Feehan wrote for his Hoya Program biography, “I hail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the finest state in the Union.” If Feehan grew up in Minnesota like he claims, why would he a) be saying that he comes from Wisconsin and b) be calling Wisconsin (home of the Green Bay Packers) the best state in the Union?