Some Republican U.S Senate candidates had American flags in their hospitality suites at the Minnesota Republican Party state convention in St. Cloud. They all brought plenty of signs. Kurt Bills brought a giant campaign school bus.
The school teacher-turned U.S. Senate candidate emblazoned the bus with red-white-and-blue and his pledge to "take ECON 101 to Washington."
"I don't have a doubt that he's the kind of guy we want in Congress," said Nancy Massey, Bills' volunteer coordinator.
Massey folded campaign T-shirts a few feet away from the school bus, parked among tables and chairs for 300 visitors.
As she folded shirts, convention visitors peeked in. "Wow," one said. "A bus! Look, he's got a bus."
The hospitality suites provided the best chance for the candidates to meet and persuade more than 1,000 delegates who will ultimately select a GOP nominee to challenge U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat. Candidates and their families hosted breakfasts, had string quartets and passed out campaign shirts and stickers.
By lunchtime, candidates Pete Hegseth had Dan Severson had folded up their hospitality suites, shifting the food and resources to their respective "war rooms."
Severson's staffers were busy assembling fliers inside their war room, buzzing around with headset two-way radios.
![Three weeks ago, Octavio Rodriguez switched from making transmission parts to casting parts for hospital bed brake assemblies at Twin City Die Castings. ] GLEN STUBBE • glen.stubbe@startribune.com Thursday, April 9, 2020 How employee-owned Twin City Die Casting, which just laid off 40 production workers of its 250 employees in what was supposed to be a good year, is trying to accelerate its pivot to growing medical parts business for ventilators, hospital beds, etc as it copes with instan](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/WNZYKGTZ5IYMUCO3KI5TR3N7WI.jpg?&w=80&ar=1:1&fit=crop)
