The NARN Closer's playlist (special Saturday edition) - 8/22/2026

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In violent times, you shouldn't have to sell your soul.....

With my friend and NARN colleague Mitch Berg away on assignment, I will take the reins of today's edition of The Headliner. The 2-hour broadcast will get started at 1:00 PM Central Time. 

Right at 1:00, Tom Emmer, Congressman in Minnesota's Sixth Congressional District and House Majority Whip, will be on to discuss Gov. Tim Walz's executive order on mining, the 2026 midterms, etc. 

At 1:15, GOP candidate for MN Senate Bernie Perryman will join us via phone to discuss her campaign in SD 14 (St Cloud, Waite Park, St Augusta). 

Then in the second hour, I'll weigh in on Mike Lindell's offer to pay for a recount of ballots in the MNGOP primary for governor, one which he lost by 45,000 votes (nearly 11%). Plus, Gov. Walz is looking to his admin to help positively frame his legacy. 

So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.

 

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Alexa (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). If you're unable to tune in live, please check out my podcast page for the latest show post.

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page, where we also conduct a "Live Stream" of the broadcast.

Until then.....

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Walz's outgoing agenda: rehabbing his legacy

When Tim Walz was first elected governor of Minnesota in 2018, he came in as a "moderate," specifically a Democrat who could prevail in a predominately rural Congressional District. So his selection of far leftist Peggy Flanagan as his Lt Gov put a stamp on his slogan "One Minnesota." That is, the Walz-Flanagan ticket, in their minds, was a harmonious fusion of outstate living and urban lifestyle. 

When Walz was reelected in 2022, along with the DFL attaining a Senate majority to go along with the party maintaining control of the House, he felt uninhibited in letting his progressive freak flag fly. The 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions saw a radical far left agenda get jammed down the collective throats of Minnesotans. As such, Walz was the proggie rock star, appearing on MSNBC MS NOW and CNN to puff out his chest about how his state is the shinning beacon of freedom while also labeling Republicans as weirdos who don't mind their own business (ironic, considering he encouraged Minnesotans to snitch on their neighbors if they violated his "shelter in place" orders during the COVID-19 pandemic). And he was able to parlay that newfound fame into the nod as Kamala Harris's running mate on the 2024 Democrat ticket for President. 

Looking back, it was at that point when Walz peaked. 

Once the puff pieces of Walz possessing "big dad energy" came and went, the rhetorical kid glove treatment was replaced with harsh scrutiny. Serious questions started to emerge about his background, whether it was the details surrounding his departure from the military to his claims at being in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre to he and wife Gwen using invitro fertilization to have children. His dreadful performance in the Veep debate against JD Vance permanently dimmed the shine on his star. While that isn't the sole reason Harris lost the '24 election, Walz becoming a drag on the ticket couldn't be overcome. 

Upon returning to Minnesota without a DFL trifecta rubber stamp, Walz degraded into little more than a bitter hack who lashed out at anyone remotely tied to Donald Trump. He even decided to eschew his gubernatorial duties to engage in a series of townhalls to bitch and moan about Republicans and Elon Musk. He would also take pleasure in the decline of the stock price of Musk's company Tesla, a stock which was included in the portfolio of many employees of the state which he governs. 

What ultimately caused Walz to renege on his pledge to run for a third gubernatorial terms is the rampant defrauding of taxpayer dollars which have occurred largely during his tenure. It's bad enough that he OK'd the frittering away of an $18 billion budget surplus (in addition to tax increases) during the '23 session, but his admin seemed to be asleep at the switch as fraud scheme after fraud scheme continued to ramp up. 

It was obvious Walz basked in the glow of being the center of the prog universe 2-3 years ago, only to be humiliated over his attempt to explain away his feeble presence on the 2024 Dem POTUS ticket. So to now be an afterthought given Minnesota Democrats are focused on electing Amy Klobuchar to replace him, Walz has now resorted to desperate measures: guiding others in puffing up his credentials. 

From Blois Olson's Thursday edition of Morning Take. 

Gov. Tim Walz isn’t waiting for historians — or Minnesota voters — to write the first draft of his legacy. His administration is organizing an effort to help write it themselves.

An internal document from the Office of Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan encourages administration staff to write letters to the editor and op-eds about their work, describing them as an effective way to “secure the legacy of the Walz-Flanagan Administration.”

And this isn’t just a suggestion to write a few letters.

The document amounts to a legacy communications toolkit, providing staff with a writing formula, suggested themes, word-count recommendations and detailed submission information for newspapers across Minnesota — from the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press to the Duluth News Tribune, Rochester Post Bulletin, Mankato Free Press and St. Cloud Times. Not on the list, Forum Communications.

Staff are even instructed to send the administration links or copies of published pieces so it can “track our collective impact.”

That’s a revealing phrase.

It's pretty simple. If you feel the need to entice others to help shape your legacy, then perhaps you're keenly aware it's not going to be viewed favorably otherwise. 

Back to Olson. 

 

Walz is entering the period every long-serving governor eventually reaches: the transition from governing to being judged.

The administration apparently understands that political legacies don’t simply happen. They’re constructed through policies, speeches, newspaper stories — and, apparently, letters to the editor.

The interesting question isn’t whether Walz wants to protect his legacy. Every governor does.

It’s how aggressively his administration appears prepared to help write it.

Definitely giving off a vibe of thou protesting too much methinks. 

It's going to be interesting to see how Walz attempts to remain relevant. Guys like that are wholly incapable of retreating from public life. 

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How can we miss you if you don't go away?

This will be an exercise in futility, but it ain't my money. 

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Wednesday announced plans to pay for a private recount after losing the Minnesota Republican governor primary to House Speaker Lisa Demuth by 45,000 votes.

Lindell is seeking a statewide recount and audit of every ballot cast in the GOP primary. Around 414,000 voters took part in the Republican contest for governor.

The Minnesota Secretary of State estimates the recount will cost more than $825,000.

Demuth had more than 43% of the vote to Lindell’s more than 32%. GOP-endorsed Kendall Qualls had 21% of the vote, with the remaining votes shared by four other candidates.

While publicly funded voter recounts for governor’s races in Minnesota require the difference in votes between a winning and losing candidate to be less than one-quarter of a percent, or 0.25%, a candidate can personally finance what is known as a discretionary recount.

“One of the few good election laws Minnesota does have, is that as a candidate, I have the right to completely audit and hand count every ballot in the state, and I am going to exercise that right to full extent of the law,” Lindell said in a news release on his plan.

So once the results show that Demuth did indeed win the primary handily, what does Lindell do then? Does he continue to cling to a fantasy that the election was stolen from him, thus causing his supporters to distrust Minnesota's election system, resulting in depressing overall Republican turnout for the November general? That was the strategy of his pal Donald Trump in Georgia back in January of 2021, an exercise which cost the GOP a majority in the U.S. Senate.  

If Lindell's reaction to this recount (which will ultimately confirm his resounding defeat) is anything other than congratulating Demuth on her victory, it validates my belief that his main addiction has transitioned from crack to delusional attention whore. 

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Cancel this!

For the past few years, Nate Bargatze has been arguably the most well-known and successful standup comedian in the world. From sold out venues across the globe to wildly popular Netflix specials, Bargatze has been the proverbial King Midas. 

Because he's a down-to-earth, good ol' boy from Nashville who is part of a nuclear family, leftists approached him with knee-jerk skepticism. Even though he's never been remotely political in his act nor when conducting his podcast, progs were just lying in wait for Bargatze to "tip his hand" as a MAGA-ite. 

Sure enough, the left attempted to collect Bargatze's scalp when he attended the UFC event on the White House lawn on President Trump's 80th birthday. And he apparently committed a mortal sin by being photographed with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and wife Cheryl Hines. Y'see, in the collective mind of proggies, the wrong people being fans of your work is held against the artist, even if said artist doesn't show even tacit approval of a presidential administration. Regardless, in leftists' minds a betrayal has occurred and thus retribution in the form of cancellation must commence. 

As we've learned within the past decade of "cancel culture," those who are sought for cancelation over something trivial need not address it and thus just press forward with their lives as normal. And when a proverbial Leviathan like Bargatze presses on, this is the end result. 

Nate Bargatze Sets Guinness World Record for Most Tickets Sold for a Stand-Up Comedy Tour (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/Vcp7PvIm5f

— Variety (@Variety) August 15, 2026

Oof. Thoughts and prayers for the woke scolds. 

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Box Score of the Week

Washington Nationals at Philadelphia Athletics - July 22, 1923.

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There have been 20 pitchers in the history of Major League Baseball who have struck out at least 3,000 batters over their career. Washington's Walter Johnson became the first to achieve such a milestone by recording his 3,000th strikeout in that 1923 game in Philly. 

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The NARN Closer's playlist - 8/16/2026

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Why don't you cash in your chips, why don't you call it a loss......

There's a whole lotta Minnesota stuff to get to, so I'll do my best to squeeze in as much as I can on today's edition of my radio show The Closer. The 2-hour blitz will get started at 1:00 PM Central Time. 

I'll start the broadcast with a recap of the MN primary elections and how the statewide candidates chosen would seem to indicate that Republican voters are finally serious about winning a general! 

At 1:30, the Republican candidate in Minnesota's Second Congressional District Eric Pratt will stop by to discuss his candidacy. Given this is an open seat (Democrat Angie Craig is not seeking reelection) in a swing district, this is a rare opportunity for the GOP to flip a U.S. House seat this cycle. 

At 2:00, GOP candidate for MN State Senate Heidi Heino will stop by to tout her candidacy in SD 36, which includes such cities as White Bear Lake, Vadnais Heights, North Oaks and Lino Lakes. 

So please call (651) 289-4488 if you'd like to weigh in on any of the topics we plan on addressing.

 

You can listen live in the Twin Cities at AM 1280 or, if you're near downtown Minneapolis/West Metro area, 107.5 FM on your radio dial. In and out of the Minneapolis-St Paul area you can listen to the program on the Internet by clicking this link, or check us out via iheart radio as well as Amazon Alexa (just say "Alexa, play The Patriot Minneapolis"). If you're unable to tune in live, please check out my podcast page for the latest show post.

And if you're so inclined, follow along on Twitter at #NARNShow or "Like" our Facebook page, where we also conduct a "Live Stream" of the broadcast.

Until then.....

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Putting the "loser" in sore loser

Upon losing the MNGOP primary for US Senate, Adam Schwarze put out a rather passive-aggressive statement in the immediate aftermath.

pic.twitter.com/woaXiiYaaj

— Adam Schwarze (@AdamSchwarze) August 12, 2026

While there were no congratulations extended to winning candidate Michele Tafoya, Schwarze at least implied that Republicans need to unify when he emphasized the need for "a complete and total victory this November." So while his statement was left wanting, at least he didn't lash out given he was likely quite salty over his defeat. 

Unfortunately for Schwarze, his bitterness ultimately did get the best of him.

NEW: Republican Adam Schwarze appears to have deleted a tweet bashing Michele Tafoya after he lost to her by nearly 30 points in Tuesday's primary pic.twitter.com/e3e9ijzENx

— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) August 13, 2026

The insinuation of course is Tafoya is Option A in that scenario. At best, Schwarze is susceptible to out of context sound clips where Tafoya discusses these issues, and at worst he's a flat out liar. 

I had an opportunity to talk to Schwarze on last Sunday's broadcast. I appreciated his passion, even if he came off as kinda spazzy. And he spent more time denigrating Tafoya than touting his own background, so his animosity here is no surprise. 

You can glean a lot from a candidate in how they react to an election loss. While I am willing to extend Schwarze some grace in what was his first rodeo, his echoing Action 4 Larceny Liberty chanting points by suggesting there's no difference between a moderate Republican and the far, far, far left Peggy Flanagan will only harm any future endeavors into electoral politics. 

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