Republican congressional candidate Jim Hagedorn. Image by YouTube

By Aiden Pink September 12, 2018

A Republican congressional candidate and former blogger once wrote that former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman supported the Iraq War because Lieberman is Jewish.

Jim Hagedorn, the Republican nominee in Minnesota’s mostly-rural 1st District, had a history of making incendiary comments on his blog, “Mr. Conservative.” The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released a 100-page research book of Hagedorn’s most controversial statements.

““But Liberman’s [sic] passionate suppot [sic] for the war in Iraq and other Bush/Republican anti-terrorism policies pushed the independent Senator to adamantly buck his former party,” Hagedorn wrote in 2008. “Maybe the basic reason for Senator Lieberman’s change of heart is found in the simple slogan that he likely uses to warn of Saudi funded schools that teach Islamic hate. Justly Eradicate Wahhabism or America Risks Another Bombing.” The letters spelling out “Jew or Arab” were bolded in the original post.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Hagedorn also called the state of Washington’s U.S. senators “undeserving bimbos in tennis shoes,” said that a woman who accused a Republican congressman of sexual assault was “white trash,” pushed conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birthplace and once referred to a disabled veteran in a wheelchair who supported his opponent as a “half-soldier.”

Hagedorn had previously apologized for some of these comments when he unsuccessfully ran for the same congressional seat in 2014 and 2016. Despite Hagedorn’s known history, the National Republican Campaign Committee endorsed him. NRCC chairman Steve Stivers told the Christian Science Monitor that Hagedorn’s comments were “news to me.” An NRCC spokesperson later told the Daily Beast that Hagedorn’s remarks were “inappropriate.”

Political prognosticators predict a close race between Hagedorn and Democratic challenger Dan Feehan. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Tim Walz is running for governor.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount