FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, October 22
Contact: Logan Smith
[email protected]
202-709-8825
Bend the Arc releases ad targeting Hagedorn as race moved to “toss-up”
Ad highlights Hagedorn’s history of racist and antisemitic rhetoric as Cook Political Report moves race with Dan Feehan from “Lean R” to “Toss-up”
ROCHESTER, MN – Bend the Arc: Jewish Action released a new ad on Thursday targeting Minnesota Rep. Jim Hagedorn, just one day after the Cook Political Report moved Hagedorn’s race with Democratic challenger Dan Feehan from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-up.”
The ad, titled “Six Things To Know About Jim Hagedorn,” educates voters on Hagedorn’s history of using racist and antisemitic rhetoric to divide Minnesota voters, including an antisemitic attack ad in 2018 which Hagedorn defended.
[Click here to watch the ad on YouTube]
“Jews and non-Jews alike in Minnesota deserve a congressman who doesn’t use bigotry to manufacture division and fear for political gain,” said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. “Unfortunately, Jim Hagedorn has aligned himself with the worst elements of the Republican Party. Our new ad sends the message to Minnesota voters that if you want to vote for a country where everyone is safe and everyone belongs, Hagedorn isn’t your guy.”
“Hagedorn won his race in 2018 by barely 1,300 votes after running an ad laden with antisemitic tropes to attack his opponent,” added Cotler. “The fact that his race is now a toss-up shows that the more voters get to know about Hagedorn, the less they like him -- and we hope this ad tips the balance to give Minnesotans a congressman they can be proud of.”
Bend the Arc’s previous ad, which was released on Tuesday targeting Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for bringing a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union, has gotten nearly half a million views on Twitter alone in the two days since it was posted.
Some the facts about Hagedorn which the new ad mentions include the following:
- In 2018, ads for Hagedorn used antisemitic and racist imagery to attack his opponent.
- After the memorial service for Jewish Senator Paul Wellstone, Hagedorn joked that the venue needed to be “fumigated.”
- Hagedorn was the only Minnesota representative to vote against removing Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol.
- He said that people who support equality for Black lives are “at war” with “western culture,” parroting talking points from the white nationalist “Proud Boys.”
- He flew to Minnesota after being exposed to COVID, breaking airline restrictions and knowingly risking the lives of other passengers.
- He referred to the phrase “the only good Indian is a dead Indian” as “wisdom.” Seriously.
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action’s “Vote Out Fear” voter contact program is mobilizing volunteers to hit 1.5 million voter contact attempts to persuade Jewish and swing state voters to vote for Biden and down-ballot Democrats in Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, using persuasion language around antisemitism and white nationalism that voters wouldn’t otherwise hear from other campaigns or GOTV efforts. The “Vote Out Fear” voter contact effort and digital ads program are part of Bend the Arc: Jewish Action’s “We Rise As One” campaign, a national mobilization of Jews and allies across the country rising up in solidarity to push white nationalism out of the halls of power.
Bend the Arc: Jewish Action is uniting a movement of tens of thousands of progressive Jews across the country who are fighting for justice and equality for all. We are the only national Jewish organization focused exclusively on social change in the United States.
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