Jim Hagedorn

A Blue Earth resident is among three people who are seeking the Republican nomination, challenging Democrat incumbent congressman Tim Walz next fall.

Jim Hagedorn formally announced his candidacy for the U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s First Congressional District in Truman on Wednesday.

Hagedorn also stopped in Blue Earth, Albert Lea, Rochester and LaCrescent that same day.

Hagedorn was born in Blue Earth, the son of former Congressman Tom Hagedorn, who served the Second Congressional District from 1974 to 1983.

When Jim Hagedorn was one year old, his family moved to the Truman area, where they operated a grain and hog farm.

A young Jim Hagedorn meets President Ronald Reagan

When his father was elected to Congress, the young Jim Hagedorn went with him to the nation’s capitol. He graduated from George Mason University in Virginia, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and politics.

After that, he spent 25 years working in Washington. He was a legislative assistant to former Congressman Arlen Stangeland.

From 1991 to 1998, Hagedorn was the Director for Legislativeand Public Affairs for the Financial Management Service, the U.S. Department of the Treasury agency responsible for the management of more than $2 trillion in federal funds.

He also served as the Congressional Affairs Officer for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the department of the Treasury that manufactures U.S. paper currency.

“After my father was elected to represent Southern Minnesota in Congress, I enjoyed a successful career on Capitol Hill,” Hagedorn says in his official press release announcing his candidacy. “Over the years I learned a lot about how government works, but learned even more about how it doesn’t work.”

Hagedorn has been the author of the successful internet blog known as ‘Mr. Conservative.’ Last year he quit the blog, and announced it was because he was considering pursuing an elected office.

Approximately six months ago, he decided to move back to his home area, and decided to call Blue Earth his home.

“I came back to Blue Earth often during the past years, and always loved it,” he said while on a brief stop on the day he announced his bid for Congress. “I still have relatives here, and wanted to make my home here.”

He bought a home on Upper Valley Drive recently, and says he loves living in Blue Earth – calling it a very nice town and very comfortable.

Both sets of Hagedorn’s grandparents were Blue Earth residents, but are gone now. His grandfather, Floyd ‘Pete’ Hagedorn, died not too long ago.

“I am related to some of the Hagedorns and the Mittelstadts in Blue Earth,” he says. “My great aunt, Gladys Schwen, lives here.”

Currently, Hagedorn is employed as Director of Government Relations and Corporate Development for Electromed, Inc., a Minnesota-based company that manufactures devices to help patients with breathing disorders and circulatory ailments.

“I left Capitol Hill and returned to help the people I love the most, because this country is worth defending, our way of life is worth saving and the people of Southern Minnesota are worth fighting for,” Hagedorn states in his news release.

He adds, “The greatness of America is under assault by the liberal politicians who run Washington, D.C. The big government agenda of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Tim Walz, is in direct conflict with our free enterprise system and the enduring principles of liberty, individual opportunity, personal responsibility and traditional cultural values.”

Hagedorn was the third Republican to announce a bid for the nomination to gain the right to run against Tim Walz.

The others are former Minnesota House member and candidate for governor, Allen Quist of St. Peter and State Representative Randy Demmer of Hayfield. Quist is a farmer and a professor at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato. Demmer owns a corn and soybean farm, three auto parts stores, and an accounting software and computer consulting business.