The following is a twitter thread on my initial reaction to the 2022 Minnesota Election results. @andyformn

Make no mistake, this was a national wave. Minnesota was not an outlier. (R)s need to look in the mirror & be honest w/ themselves not blame everyone else. We have problems that are correctable but only if we are honest and willing to change how and what we do. 1/

If we don’t tackle our issues head on Dems can continue to buy Election’s by running ads saying anything they want. We can’t fight back w/ press releases alone. We know the press in this town won’t help explain the economic & crime wave realities Americans are suffering from. 2/

We need to fundamentally reform how our enterprise and party operates – including candidate selection. We won the lawnsign and tshirt battles but we lost the war. We had an audience not an army once again. We drew larger crowds. They attracted more voters. 3/

The DFL is just better at nuts N bolts. They don’t care how flawed or who the cands are. They get 100% behind them. Their ability to skirt the law on slush fund special interest coordination gives them the ability to fund 6 months of saturation digital and TV ads trashing (R)s 4/

If you think they were only going to spend $20+ million attacking the people who ended up on our ticket, you’re delusional. They pay people who can find a spec of sand in a blizzard to research all (R)s to find something. They attacked every (R) up & down the ballot 5/

Everyone on the (R)ight who is disappointed from last night and thinks someone else is to blame is part of the reason we lost. They did not cheat. The left has perfected an invisible machine that runs in the background to sway and turn out voters by using their screens 6/

They don’t have to go door to door now. We think we can start thinking about who should run and what the party should be doing 6 months before the election. They have a permanent operation gathering data on voters and perfecting messaging and delivery 24 months out from it. 7/

A few flawed candidates and bitter losers in the leg races cost us the majorities. Many fantastic (R)s lost too. Some blame top of the ticket in MN, but don’t forget the national wave. And we cannot ignore the fact that the 2024 election began before the 2022 race finished. 8/

Is MN a blue state now? If the (R)s in this state deny reality again and refuse to recalibrate their message and structurally reform the party, yes. We can’t continue doing the same thing over and over and expect different results. 9/

Activists need to do more than just go to monthly meetings & conventions. You can’t pick the cands and expect someone else to get them elected. Small donors need to give more. Big donors need to stop waiting until it looks good. Everyone needs to have skin in the game & early 10/

We have some soul searching to do. Everyone played a part in the losses. Some bigger than others. It is only correctable IF we can be honest and deliberative in much needed reforms and recalibration of the Republican brand and enterprise. 11/

Now is not the time for finger pointing or calling it quits. Now’s the time to figure out how to not let that happen again

They are better at Elections than we are. What we’re good at is losing because we refuse to learn from our mistakes and we think twitter is real life. 12/

I believed we had it. I really did. I think they’re surprised. How can voters be pissed at $4 gas and inflation and crime and not hold the party in power responsible?

Time for some tough conversations. Some thorough analysis. Needed reforms. And a lot of people and donors. 13/

I ran towards the party as it was floundering in February. This was after a very painful experience w/ the party in 2020 and again in 21 when it was in need.

I know if our party fails. Their party gets to do whatever it wants. 14/

Election’s have consequences. We need to grasp how seriously they take them. They are willing to do and say whatever it takes to win.

It’s important that we don’t let twitter trolls and fair weather (R) media darlings who have axes to grind perform the autopsy. 15/

History isn’t made by the people who write the books. There’s a path to turning this thing around. It’s not going to be easy. It will require sacrifice and change and commitment.

I just needed to get this off my chest while the wounds were still bleeding and the agony fresh. 16/

What would one of my rants be with out a Captain America line?

It’s adapt or die time friends. The socialists have the reins. Now or never. I can do this all day. #mngop 17/

This is the 2006 US Senate campaign ad of then Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar that ran statewide and hammered the nail into the coffin of her opponent. The conviction of Myron Burrell was in question and going before the Minnesota Supreme Court in the days leading up to the 2006 election. Even the ‘impartial’ reporters in Minnesota said to me, “what does it matter, she is going to win anyways” when I presented them with the court documents showing Burrell’s appeal.

Amy Klobuchar is a fraud’s fraud. She more illusionist than politician. She uses tragedies of others to propel her career through misdirection and sleight of hand.

As Burrell seeks relief from the parole board today, remember that for the last 14 years while Klobuchar has gotten filthy rich and become famous, he has sat behind bars.

Amy Klobuchar is the one who should be ashamed.

I’ll be dusting off the old keyboard and going back to blogging. I want to go back to the root of the social media revolution. Blogs gave people the power to escape the industrial media complex, censors, thought police, and corporate do-gooders to avoid their narratives and explore new realities and ideas. Looking back, the era of blogs was the Wild West of the age of social media. What we have now is some dystopian version where we are not much more than metrics.

When freedom of expression is boiled down to predetermined selections offered to us by corporate special interests, politicians, and elitists it is no longer freedom nor expression. It is tyranny.

The current algorithm driven formats of social media are designed for commerce not freedom of speech or the discussion of self governance. In fact the platforms we became accustomed to utilizing for sharing our personal (and political) beliefs in Twitter and Facebook are in fact now designed to stifle speech, sow devision, and create chaos all the while enriching the CEOs who harvest our data along the way.

When political discourse devolves into likes, retweets, and ratio’ing our opponents we are failing at the great American Experiment. We are failing Democracy. We are failing our forefathers who gave us a Republic and a road map to Liberty.

More to come.

Yesterday was my last day working for the Republican Party of Minnesota. When the opportunity started before COVID it was only going to be a few hours a week. Just part time so I could tend to family and my new contracting business. When the COVID shutdowns hit I came on full time to help with the remote conventions. I was then offered the opportunity to stay on as Political Director but it was never a permanent commitment.

I did my best to help the candidates make it to the finish line and left it all on the field of battle. While statewide did not go as planned, the merits of the work we did at MNGOP are visible in the Congressional and Legislative victories across the state. We didn’t “go red” but unlike 2018, we celebrated on election night and some were big victories. DFL incumbents lost. Rising stars on our side were discovered. We have a lot to look forward to as a party.

But the last 8 months have been a grind mentally, physically, and taken on toll on me. It is time for me to take a much needed break and refocus on my family and my own health for the next few months. I could not continue to put my life on hold for the party now that the election was over.

I thank Chair Carnahan for the opportunity. I wish all of those that I met and worked with this year all the very best.

I’m not done done. I just need a break. One way or another, all of the knowledge and experience I gained this year will be put to use and not lost.