Grassroots conservatives in Otter Tail County (OTC) have been through the political wringer for years with the RINO Establishment making one failed attempt after another to ban and oust conservative delegates. Local Patriots have refused to give up and have continued in their battle to reclaim the Republican Party. 

In OTC’s recent GOP BPOU convention, local conservatives won the vast majority of delegate positions for the CD7 and State conventions! OTC Patriots say they won 30/35 of the available delegate positions, see their graphic below:

This is a HUGE victory for the Grassroots! Sources tell A4L that bold, unapologetic Constitutional conservatives like Merle and Carol Hexum received some of the most votes and earned top delegate spots while RINOs like lunatic Tommy Merickel couldn’t win a delegate position at all!

Like other conservatives in OTC, the Hexums were banned from attending CD7 conventions that they were delegates to. In 2024, they and other OTC conservatives received major attention at the GOP State Convention as they fought to have their delegate status restored while wearing brightly colored yellow t-shirts. While the vote to accept the MNGOP credentials report was narrowly passed, Royce White won the U.S. Senate endorsement in commanding fashion and OTC conservatives flooded the stage with Royce thanks to White's then campaign associate Tom Madden.

Now, the very conservatives who were shut out of the process are back in the driver’s seat!

OTC has the largest delegation to the CD7 convention and they have been shut out of the process because the Establishment fears they will endorse a conservative challenger against RINO Michelle Fischbach. In 2024, businessman Steve Boyd impressively withheld the GOP endorsement from Fischbach by winning grassroots support for his candidacy even though many OTC delegates were blocked from voting and participating in the convention.

Now in 2026, Fischbach faces an even more formidable challenge for the GOP endorsement in U.S. Air Force veteran Major Dave Hughes.

Picture provided from Hughes' campaign website

Hughes is a 21-year Air Force combat pilot, officer, and veteran according to his campaign website bio and has strong name recognition in CD7 as their two time GOP nominee for U.S. Congress. While the district previously elected Democrat Collin Peterson, it is now Minnesota’s reddest, most reliably conservative Congressional district in the state. Hughes also has the support and endorsement of Steve Boyd, showing that his candidacy is coalescing grassroots Republicans.

As the former GOP nominee, Dave Hughes earned President Trump’s endorsement in 2018 and has remained tapped-in with America First conservatives in Minnesota from his local BPOU on up. While President Trump has chosen to support incumbent RINOs to gain favor with them, many conservatives would prefer to elect Patriots who actually believe in the America First agenda. Career politician Michelle Fischbach has been in office for nearly 3 decades and is serving the interests of the DC Swamp far more than she is serving the interests of her constituents.

CD7 conservatives are already fired up because their elected Chair, Bret Bussman, was unjustly ousted from his post. A4L reported extensively on Michelle Fischbach puppets' corrupt scheme to overthrow the delegates' choice of Bussman for CD7 Chair. The RINOs illegitimately stacked the deck against Bussman in the CD7 Executive Committee and used bogus arguments to remove him that were very reminessant of federal Democrats' ridiculous impeachment efforts against President Trump. Though Bussman fought and refused to concede, the RINOs ousted him and installed crooked Tiffany Liemaster-Knott. While RINO Michelle Fischbach tried to play dumb about her cronies illegitimately removing Bussman as Chair, grassroots conservatives in CD7 know exactly what is going on.

OTC delegates may also be excited to support Wendy Phillips' Secretary of State candidacy. Phillips was previously the CD1 Committeewoman for the MNGOP State Executive Committee but was unjustly removed from her position by corrupt David Hann cronies after she chaired OTC's convention after the party tried to strip the local conservatives of their delegate status. Since Phillips stood up for grassroots conservatives and the election integrity movement, the Establishment painted a target on her back. Phillips has come back swinging and will likely have the backing of many OTC Republicans who shared moments with her like group prayers and singing of the song "God Bless America".

Action 4 Liberty will continue to be on the forefront of the MN conservative movement because we prioritize the interests of the grassroots over the Establishment. A4L will continue providing Patriots with cutting-edge, bold, liberty-based reporting that cannot be found anywhere else.