Klobuchar, Johnson make one last election stop in Fairmont
Trending
FAIRMONT - With the election just seven days away, Democratic nominee for Governor, Amy Klobuchar, and Democratic nominee for the First Congressional District, Jake Johnson, made their last visit to the Martin County area in Fairmont on Sunday.
The event was originally set up as a door-knocking event on Saturday, but Martin County DFL Chair Karen McConnell said both the Klobuchar and Johnson campaigns reached out, and the event was switched to Sunday.
Johnson said his and Klobuchar's campaigns brainstormed where to do an event in the home stretch of the election, and Fairmont won out.
"It’s where I launched my campaign last April," he said. "It’s been a really good place where we have seen growth in our support and our numbers. We knew that there is a bubbling-up energy in Fairmont. When I threw it out to the senators, they were game; they were excited."
Compared to previous election cycles, McConnell said this year Fairmont has drawn more attention.
"We’re usually not on the get out the vote radar with the congressional candidates," she said. "Jake has always prioritized Fairmont."
After joining locals for a door-knocking session, Johnson and Klobuchar spoke to a group McConnell and Johnson estimated as around 100 people.
As for what they wanted to prioritize on their last visit, one of the big issues Johnson mentioned was costs.
"Everything is too expensive," he said. "We have an administration that continues to support an Iran war, continues to support the tariffs, continues to rip money out of rural healthcare. Those are policies that need to end."
Another area Johnson and Klobuchar drew attention to at all levels is corruption.
"At the federal level we see corruption with insider trading, no term limits and at the state level, we see fraud," Johnson said. "I think Senator Klobuchar has been very clear; I’ve been clear as well. The fraud that has happened in Minnesota is completely unacceptable. We need an open investigation. We need to get our money back. Anybody who broke the law needs to go to prison, and we need to make sure that this never happens again."
Looking over elections as a whole, McConnell said this year may have even higher turnout than normal.
"I think the turnout is going to be really high in Fairmont because of the very competitive mayor and city council races too, which I think will get more people out to vote."
With the election a week away, Johnson, who has visited Fairmont multiple times since he started his campaign here in April 2025, said the town played a key role because Democrats have forgotten places like Fairmont for too long.
"The policies that come out of St. Paul don’t reflect the values that we have in Fairmont. It was really important for me and our campaign not only to launch our campaign in Fairmont, an agricultural hub, a place that people call home, very proud of their community, but that we keep going back and we keep the conversation going. We continue to hear about the plant closures at 3M. We continue to hear about the struggles that people are facing within the Ag community."