- GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn died Thursday night after a battle with kidney cancer.
- His wife, former Minnesota GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan, wrote on Facebook that Hagedorn “lived his dream by serving others.”
- A son of a former congressman, Hagedorn was first elected in 2018.
GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota passed away on Thursday night following a months-long fight with cancer, his wife said in a statement Friday morning.
“Jim loved our country and loved representing the people of southern Minnesota. Every moment of every day he lived his dream by serving others,” former Minnesota GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan wrote on Facebook.
Carnahan said Hagedorn “passed away peacefully.” He revealed last July that he had been diagnosed with kidney cancer.
Born in Blue Earth, Minnesota, Hagedorn first came to Congress in 1984 as a staffer for Minnesota Republican congressman Arlan Ingehart. In 1991, Hagedorn began to work for the US Treasury Department before setting his eyes on becoming a member himself. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress three times before breaking through in 2018, a bright spot in a difficult year for the GOP, by flipping a seat previously held by Democrats.
Hagedorn was the son of former congressman Rep. Tom Hagedorn, who also represented Minnesota.
“I’m humbled by this opportunity, having seen firsthand my dad do it,” Hagedorn told the Star Tribune in 2019, shortly after starting his first term on the hill.
Carnahan said there was “no stronger conservative” in the state than Hagedorn.
“While nothing can accurately prepare you for the unimaginable pain, intense sorrow, suffocating grief and seemingly never-ending emptiness that engulfs the entire body, soul and spirit when your forever love passes away; at least we can smile knowing Jim is smiling from heaven encouraging us to keep chasing our dreams, loving unconditionally and fighting for the country,” Carnahan wrote.
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