NISSWA — Nisswa Mayor Jennifer Carnahan on Monday, March 24, announced she would run for the state Senate District 6 seat to help Republicans bring a strong conservative voice to St. Paul and to fight for families in the district.
This comes after state Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, announced his resignation Thursday, March 20, and was charged in U.S. District Court with a felony count of soliciting a minor following his arrest Monday, March 17, in a sting operation by the Bloomington Police Department.
“Since 2016, I have been deeply engaged in Republican politics across Minnesota, witnessing firsthand the harmful effects of Democratic policies on our state," Carnahan said in an emailed announcement.
"Serving as chairwoman of the Republican Party of Minnesota for four-and-a-half years and now as mayor of Nisswa has only strengthened my commitment to advocating for our families, communities, and a stronger future for Minnesota," she said.
Carnahan was elected in November to a first mayoral term, serving Nisswa for the past nearly three months in that post.
"Throughout my campaign for mayor, I listened to residents’ concerns — rising costs, burdensome regulations and the need for strong, fiscally conservative leadership. These challenges don’t stop at Nisswa’s borders," she said in her announcement.
"Running for the Minnesota Senate wasn’t something I planned on, but I’ve been encouraged and asked by many to run because the people in our area are tired of the same career politicians who come out of the woodwork and make big promises, but then forget about us," she said.
"I’m running because we need one of us in the office. Someone who knows what it’s like to run a small business, take care of their family, has to work hard every single day to get ahead, and still worry about things like the cost of groceries, gas and energy bills," she said.
Carnahan owns two stores in Nisswa: Primrose Park in Nisswa Square and Buffalo Plaid on Main Street in Nisswa, which she recently bought. She’s been part of the business community for the last decade, serving on the Nisswa Downtown Council and previously the Brainerd Lakes Chamber Government Relations Committee.
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She said as chairwoman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, she was on the front lines every day, standing strong with President Trump and GOP leaders to fight back against the radical left to defend the country and state.
She was elected as the first minority to head the state's Republican Party in 2017. Under her tenure, she said Minnesota Republicans flipped three U.S. House seats from blue to red, held their majority in the Minnesota State Senate and paid off the party’s long-standing legacy debt, allowing them to invest in a statewide field program during the 2020 election cycle.
Carnahan resigned as the party chair in 2021, and both sides filed lawsuits against each other that were later dropped.
She said she was honored to serve on a White House commission under President Trump’s first administration and remains fully committed to the America First movement.
She is the widow of the late U.S. Congressman Jim Hagedorn, who died in February 2022 after battling kidney cancer. Carnahan ran for his congressional seat, finishing third in a Republican primary.
In her release, Carnahan said the day she was born she was found abandoned on the back doorstep of a rural hospital in South Korea next to a garbage dumpster. Five months later her parents, John and Cindra Carnahan, adopted her and she became a Minnesotan and proud American.
Her family has been in the Brainerd lakes area for multiple generations, which started when her late grandfather, Earl Behning, who served in the U.S. Navy, and grandmother, Sue Behning, bought property on Lake Hubert more than 50 years ago.
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Her parents met when they both worked at Camp Lincoln as college students.
Carnahan also worked in marketing and strategy for Fortune 500 global firms, including General Mills, McDonald's Corporation and Ecolab.
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