My husband and I both want to see Franken gone next election and putting up candidates who can’t win a general election won’t get it done. Mr. Brodkorb, you’ve covered Carlson quite a bit and have said Republicans need a strong and capable candidate to defeat Franken. I hope you’ll consider backing this young patriot if he runs again, and encourage him to do so if you speak to him. Thank you. – Jenny

@Jenny, Carlson’s solid, as a Vietnam Marine vet I voted for him also. Grunt Marine with a Masters and Gopher alum, and a good dad can’t go wrong. I see it being between him and Hegseth possibly, hopefully Hegseth goes for Governor and Carlson for Senate, that would be ideal, we don’t need them battling each other.

If I had to vote for one or the other I’d take Carlson, Pete’s great but a GOP mouthpiece who backed down with Bills and he had the biggest purse he should have contested endorsement. We need leaders in Washington who will stand up for what they believe regardless of what the power brokers tell them to do. Carlson obviously will fight no matter what and he put up numbers in this election against the odds imagine if he had party support to fight Big Al.

I don’t see Pete like that, thankful for his service but he’s an Ivy League Republican too concerned with getting on the next Fox and Friends where Carlson’s a Minnesota guy who will get city and Dem votes and fight to the death, that’s what Marines do. But most importantly, I think he can actually win.

It was too bad Carlson never got a debate, I wanted to watch him go at Kurt Bills. If we had a decent candidate for Senate this time Romney would have been here earlier and put something into this state, having Bills on the ticket was a killer and everyone will see that tomorrow. What a waste but at least it was for Amy, we can’t make the same mistakes against Franken!

Although we moved to the Western TC now, we still followed Carlson from facebook and twitter and were pleased to see him take on Kurt Bills in the primary. For the second time in our lives, we both voted Republican. I see Pete Hegseth and Dan Severson mentioned in the comments who never made it to a ballot this year, but I don’t see Mr. Carlson mentioned in your analysis who with minimal resources nearly grabbed 40% of the state vote, and singlehandidly brought Bills down to 51% with the best tv ads I’ve seen ran this year. You mention there needs to be new candidates who run new campaigns, and I don’t see anyone doing that better than Carlson.

If Republicans really want to win in 2014 against Senator Franken and not take another loss as is well established in your article, they should look to support and push forward Mr. Carlson. Especially in this environment, and with Conservatives putting their money on divisive social issues, the only way we see a Republican winning against Franken or Dayton is if there is a Republican who can appeal to more than just the same old conservative base.

After what you predict tomorrow happens Mr. Brodkorb, it should be clear that we need new voices who can bring in new voters. We both feel let down by the President and are willing to look at new candidates and solutions, but the GOP just keeps putting up the same tired candidates that keep losing races.

We are voting to give Romney a chance, and I’m voting for Amy, although my husband says he’s writing in Carlson because he’s disgusted with Amy and Bills. I hope David Carlson runs against Al Franken in the next election and has the support, we want Franken gone but outside of Carlson I don’t see anyone that will win our houses vote or any of our friends. Either way the commercials are over tomorrow… Get out and vote Minnesota!