Otter Tail County (OTC) grassroots patriots have taken the brunt of unfair political practices to keep RINO Establishment forces in control. While this intra-party conflict exists throughout our state, duly-elected delegates of OTC are in a category of their own while fighting corruption.

OTC Patriots have been banned from participating in the following conventions: 2023 CD7, 2023 OTC, 2024 OTC, 2024 CD7, 2024 State conventions. Now they are being banned from the 2025 OTC and CD7 conventions again! According to local Patriots, 62 OTC Republicans were targeted and allegedly received one of the two emails disqualifying them from participating in these conventions! See below:

As you see above, the email comes from CD7 Deputy Chair RINO Tiffany Lesmeister-Knott. OTC should be allowed to operate on its own without other party units interfering and manipulating the delegation however, the MNGOP State Exec. Committee unfortunately voted unanimously to give control of the OTC convention to RINO CD7 leadership. You will also note above that RINO party lawyer Reid LeBeau used cease and desist threats against five of the ten BPOU Exec. Board members last year for simply fighting corruption in their BPOU and now they are banned for that same reason!

Considering CD7’s RINO control, which has included their bans of duly-elected OTC delegates from previous conventions, they are obviously not a neutral source to solve this issue. In addition, CD7 Chair Craig Bishop is a paid staffer for Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach which is a massive conflict of interest, which became extremely evident as conservative Steve Boyd challenged her for the GOP endorsement last year and his OTC supporters were banned from participating! 

Like in previous conventions, CD7 is using 2022 delegate lists instead of 2024 lists. This is faulty from the jump but to make matters worse, OTC locals tell A4L that OTC Chair RINO Vance Bachmann admitted to adding names of people who did not attend the caucus on the 2022 list! This means the Establishment is stacking the deck by removing Patriots and replacing them with liberal RINOs!

Reportedly, individuals who filled out forms during the 2024 caucus documents and forms exactly the same as others have received different emails from CD7 (meaning some have been allowed to participate while others are not). We must also bear in mind that OTC delegates were presented with additional crony forms that were not in line with the documents required by the MNGOP Constitution and bylaws. 

With all of the surrounding corruption, the OTC Convention has now been postponed! While it was scheduled to take place this Saturday, March 8th, it has tentatively been rescheduled for March 22nd. Considering the CD7 convention will take place on Saturday, March 29th, time is of the essence! If OTC is not allowed to meet before that date, they would not have ANY duly-elected representation for the CD7 convention or the spots are given up to RINOs.

The CD7 convention will also hold high-stakes leadership elections, which includes the CD7 Chair race between Mr. Conflict of Interest Craig Bishop and grassroots conservative Bret Bussman. As a BPOU Chair, previous MNGOP Chair candidate, and former GOP endorsed Senate candidate, Bussman’s candidacy could yield support. If OTC delegates are blocked from voting on key leadership races, the Establishment is given a massive advantage.

Sources tell A4L that a certain number of the 62 or so people who received an email banning their participation have since been re-allowed to participate but there will still be dozens of disenfranchised Patriots.

One disenfranchised OTC Patriot and duly-elected delegate, Eric Hanson, expressed some of the frustrations that he and other grassroots conservatives have been forced to endure. This came in the form of a response to a MNGOP fundraising mailer, which hopefully will reach the party leadership and force an intervention. See below:

Action 4 Liberty will continue to give a voice to the grassroots conservative of Otter Tail County that have been trampled on by the Establishment. The “Party of Election Integrity” must ensure election integrity within their own party business because conservatives are fed up with being dismissed and disenfranchised. Grassroots conservatives must be heard loud and clear, the corruption must end now!