In Minnesota’s deep red 7th District, Otter Tail County GOP feuds over pretty much everything
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The Republican and Democratic parties are each showing signs of unity in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s departure from the presidential race.
But unity is harder to find in Otter Tail County, a deep red pocket of northwest Minnesota. Republicans here are at odds over just about everything, like candidates, principles and procedures. The feud pits traditional area Republicans against a more conservative, activist faction of the local GOP.
There have been yelling matches and reported physical aggression. The state Republican Party has even stepped in to try to mediate.
Laura Merickel of the city of Ottertail is on the side of the establishment Republicans.
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Merickel’s family has deep connections to the Republican party. Her father was a state legislator. Merickel is treasurer of the Otter Tail County GOP and she and her husband are significant GOP donors.
“It’s dangerous to use the term ’moderate’ or ’compromise’ right now,” said Merickel. “Maybe you agree on five percent or something. So you move five percent together. It doesn’t mean you have to sell your soul, or that you’re a sellout.”
The two feuding sides of the GOP in Otter Tail County can’t even really agree on what divides them and when, exactly, the schisms appeared.
In general, the activists say their concerns about party principles, endorsed candidates and procedures are being ignored by party leaders.
“Parties are supposed to be built around principles and ideals,” said Andy Bradrick, the former Otter Tail County GOP chair.
He’s on the side of the activists and said Minnesota’s establishment Republicans are more focused on winning than on values. Candidates, he said, have strayed from core conservative principles like religious freedom, small government and abortion restrictions.
Nathan Miller, who is also an activist, agrees.
“There’s this illusion, this mirage that if we just get left far enough, we’re going to win, win, win, win, win, then we’re going to be able to implement what we really want to do,” he said. “Time and time again, how many times have national Republicans held a majority and what have they accomplished?”
Miller ran unsuccessfully two years ago as a more conservative alternative to the area’s conservative state senator.
He said last year, party leadership punished him for his run by barring him and about 30 other activists from the local convention.
“There was praying and singing of the national anthem in the hallway until they called the sheriff on us,” he said.
‘We have to win an election’
Feeling undermined by the GOP establishment and party leaders comes up a lot among the activists in Otter Tail County.
One dustup concerned who gets to represent the party at local and state conventions. The activists retaliated in part by hosting their own unsanctioned convention in April.
And they’ve persuaded at least one incumbent legislator from the area that they are in the right.
Rep. Jeff Backer, R-Browns Valley, said he’s concerned with how party leadership appears to be stifling dissent. He said it reminds him of being bullied as a kid, when he suffered from speech and writing challenges.
“I was the butt of the class, all the way up to high school,” he said. “I support the underdog. I am always supporting the people whose voices need to be heard.”
Laura Merickel’s son, Harry, who is also deeply involved in Republican politics, said local party leaders have tried to hear the activists’ concerns.
But their debates have devolved into fights about principles instead of winning seats.
He said the party needs to come together if it wants to get conservatives in office.
“How are we going to fundraise? How are we going to elect Republicans?” he asked. “At some point, we have to go win an election.”
Merickel is frustrated that the activists are rejecting conservative stalwarts, like U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach in Minnesota’s Seventh Congressional District, who is among the most conservative members of Congress.
The activists have instead backed even more conservative newcomers.
“I get the frustration of the status quo,” Merickel said. “If that’s the goal — changing the status quo — how are we accomplishing that by replacing one of the most conservative members of Congress with somebody else?”
‘Good people are not running for office’
Most of this strife has been playing out among area Republicans.
But the conflict is leaking into the daily business of local government, according to Fergus Falls Mayor Ben Schierer.
Schierer’s office is non-partisan; he’s worked with officials of all political stripes.
On a tour of town, he pointed to a splash pad, where young kids were playing in streams of water. He said the splash pad should have been an uncontroversial project. But it was hard fought in these polarized times.
“It was really challenging,” he said. “There were people that were against this from the beginning.”
Schierer said that’s been a common theme during his eight years as mayor. He’s had to break ties on the city council more times than he can remember to move projects forward.
The splash pad finally came together with donations from the community.
Schierer is worried new developments will continue to stall at the city council. But he’s more concerned about the bigger effects of polarization.
“Because of the situation we’re in, the division, and the polarization, good people are not running for local office,” he said. “And that’s the biggest danger.”
‘Don’t get so personal’
This is a rare area of agreement within the Otter Tail County GOP, too. Both sides say people might not get involved in local politics if these divisions persist. Bradrick and members of the Merickel family are particularly concerned about low enthusiasm for politics among younger conservatives in the area.
But neither side of the Otter Tail GOP divide seems ready to budge. Both continue to rack up a long list of grievances, slights and examples of feeling dismissed by the other side.
Laura Merickel said that given the vitriol of the last few years, she’s struggling to figure out how to build bridges even though she knows everyone needs to move forward.
She often thinks about what her dad, Cal Larson, would do. He was a Republican legislator known for being able to make compromises.
“Be accepting of the fact that maybe not everybody always agrees with you, me included. Have some grace for a difference of opinion, a difference of approach,” she said. “And for goodness’s sake, don’t get so personal.”