Jim Hagedorn


James Lee Hagedorn is an American politician from the state of Minnesota. A Republican, he is a member of the United States House of Representatives from. The district covers much of the southern third of the state and includes Rochester, Austin and Mankato.

Early life and education

Hagedorn was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota in 1962, the son of former United States Representative Tom Hagedorn and Kathleen Hagedorn. He was raised on his family's farm near Truman, Minnesota and in McLean, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., while his father served in Congress from 1975 to 1983. Hagedorn graduated from Langley High School.
Hagedorn pled guilty to a DUI charge in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 1983. He expressed remorse in 2014.
He then graduated from George Mason University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Political Science in 1993.

Politics

Government career

Hagedorn served as a legislative aide to Minnesota Congressman Arlan Stangeland, 1984-1991. He then worked in the United States Department of the Treasury as Director for Legislative and Public Affairs for the Financial Management Service from 1991 to 1998, and later as Congressional Affairs Officer for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing until 2009.

Political views

Hagedorn has a history of offensive statements, many captured on a now-deleted blog, Mr. Conservative, which he wrote starting in 2000 while working for the Treasury Department. The remarks led him to be called the "worst Republican candidate in America" by the right-leaning Washington Examiner. His statements include sexist comments ; Islamophobic comments ; complaints about Barack Obama ; remarks against Native Americans ; homophobia. He also made anti-Mormon remarks towards Mitt Romney dating back to 2002 and antisemitic comments about Sen. Joe Lieberman.
He also said that Sens. Ted Stevens, Robert Byrd, who were in office at late ages at the time, were "living arguments for term limits, mandatory retirement age laws and a parliamentary system of government", referred to Sen. Frank Lautenberg as a "", and joked that Sen. John Warner was a ghost. He referred to Sen. Max Cleland, a triple-amputee from serving in Vietnam, a "half-soldier".
Despite pleading guilty to a DUI himself in 1983, ThinkProgress noted he had mocked Dick Cheney's DUIs repeatedly on his blog.

U.S. House of Representatives

2010 election

Hagedorn lost the Republican nomination for Minnesota's 1st congressional district in the 2010 election.

2014 election

Returning to Minnesota in 2013, he won the Republican nomination for Minnesota's 1st congressional district in the 2014, but lost in the general election to Democratic incumbent Tim Walz. Hagedorn lost the Republican nomination for Minnesota's 1st congressional district in the 2010 election.
In 2014 Hegedorn defended his posts and said he didn't need to apologize, then left a statement on Facebook a few days later, apologizing but stating the media was attacking him personally, taking commentary "out-of-context", and calling it "the rigged game of political correctness". Fillmore County, Minnesota Republican Chair Doug Baker emailed his district denouncing Hegedorn as the candidate, calling him an "angry kid", noting that he lived outside of Minnesota for the majority of his life, moving back for one year each time he ran for office, and calling out his "bigoted comments against Native Americans and women".

2016 election

Hagedorn won the Republican nomination for Minnesota's 1st congressional district in 2016 elections, but lost in the general election to Democratic incumbent Tim Walz.

2018 election

In the 2018 elections, Hagedorn received the Republican nomination, despite the National Rifle Association endorsing another candidate, who also received funds from Rep. Elise Stefanik, Richard Uihlein and Paul Singer. Hagedorn described himself as the most conservative candidate who is loyal to Trump.
After Hagedorn won the 2018 primary, then-head of the NRCC, Rep. Steve Stivers, said "that is news to me" about the viewpoints expressed on Hegedorn's blog. The spokeswoman for NRCC said the posts were inappropriate and were not condoned by the group. Hegedorn was engaged to Jennifer Carnahan, the current Chairwoman for the Republican Party of Minnesota, at the time; they are now married. ThinkProgress noted that Hagedorn called Romney a carpetbagger, despite Hagedorn's longtime DC residency.
In the general election, with Walz giving up the seat to make a successful run for Governor of Minnesota, Hagedorn bested Democratic nominee Daniel Feehan.

2020 election

During the George Floyd protests in 2020, commenting on a news story from an activist about depictions of a White Jesus being white supremacy, Hagedorn posted on Facebook that "The Democrat 'Black Lives Matter' Party, along with armies of rioters, are at war with our country, our beliefs and western culture. Their radical moment is orchestrated and growing. We must never let them take power. We must stand up and defend our, our nation's identity, our Judeo-Christian values and our American way of life." Hagedorn's statement led to denunciations, including from fellow Minnesota congressperson Ilhan Omar, and multiple sources highlighted the dog whistles in the statement as outlined by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Judd Legum, investigating Intel's financial support of Hagedorn being at odds with their stances towards gender equality and racial justice, asked the company about his statements. Intel responded "We regularly evaluate our political spending... In 2019 we added reviews of public statements... Our prior contribution to Rep. Hagedorn would not have been approved under our current process, and we will ask for the contribution to be refunded." Boston Scientific stated they "have no future contributions planned" as his views do not match their values. United Health, which had donated $7500 to Hagedorn, including $2500 in June 2020, said "We were unaware of these egregious and hurtful statements attributed to Rep. Hagedorn and they in no way reflect the values of our company. We regret our past contributions, and will not make any future contributions to him."

Tenure

According to the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University, Hagedorn held a Bipartisan Index Score of -0.0 in the 116th United States Congress for 2019, which placed him 190th out of 435 members. Based on FiveThirtyEight's congressional vote tracker at ABC News, Hagedorn voted with Donald Trump's stated public policy positions 94.4% of the time, which ranked him average in the 116th United States Congress when predictive scoring is used.

Committee assignments

Personal life

Hagedorn is married to Jennifer Carnahan, the current Chairwoman for the Republican Party of Minnesota, and they reside in Blue Earth, Minnesota. He was diagnosed with stage-4 kidney cancer in 2019.