UNDATED (The Reformer) – In March, Republicans in Minnesota’s 7thCongressional District chose Bret Bussman, a Browerville veteran with a slim political resume, to chair the party in the district.
Bussman ousted longtime 7th District chair Craig Bishop, a staffer for U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach, in a contest that far-right activist group Action 4 Liberty characterized as a “MASSIVE rebuke on the corrupt, anti-grassroots, and anti-liberty tactics CD7 has used to protect RINO politicians,” meaning, “Republicans in Name Only.”
Many of Bussman’s views have become commonplace on the fringes of the Republican party, including vaccine skepticism, election denial, January 6 revisionism and a general hostility toward established science.
But a Reformer review of Bussman’s social media accounts finds that he has espoused many outlandish conspiracy theories that go well beyond standard conservative activist fare.
He has posted about “satanic chemtrails” in the skies above Minnesota.
He has argued that the collapse of a World Trade Center building during the 9/11 terror attacks was the result of a “controlled demolition,” and that a “cruise missile,” rather than American Airlines Flight 77, struck the Pentagon that day.
He has shared multiple videos arguing that the moon landings were faked, and that more recent footage of astronauts aboard the International Space Station was faked as well.
He has shared with followers a video entitled “5 Reasons Why I BELIEVE in the Flat Earth (And You Should Too!),” as well as numerous other videos claiming that the earth is flat.
Bussman’s elevation to a leadership position is part of a statewide pattern that alarms longtime Republican activists: The party is allowing itself to be taken over by the fringe, lowering the odds of victory in future statewide elections.
“It’s bad for Republicans who want to win,” said Michael Brodkorb, former deputy chair of the Minnesota GOP who has vehemently opposed the party’s embrace of Donald Trump and figures like him, going so far as to publicly endorse Kamala Harris last year. “This is what happens when party leadership opens the gates of the insane asylum, and people come in off the streets and the inmates run it.”
Bussman’s Facebook posts demonstrate a longstanding interest in multiple extreme fringe theories. On May 8, 2023, he posted a video purporting to show “leaked footage of our flat earth from 1977,” showing an obviously computer-generated animation of a dim sun traversing flat icy terrain.
A year later he shared a video stating that a pilot “proved” the earth is flat because the sun and the moon were visible in the sky at the same time, a phenomenon which occurs on most days.
And on August 14, 2024, he posted the “5 Reasons Why” video about flat earth, which asks, among other things, that if the Earth is actually spinning, “why aren’t we all being flung out into space?”
Bussman has similarly posted multiple videos purporting to prove that the moon landings and other parts of the U.S. space program have been “faked.” He has shared video of an actor pretending to be film director Stanley Kubrick admitting that “he was responsible for faking the US Moon Program,” as well as a lengthy video claiming the landings were a “hoax” based on various false and spurious claims about film footage of them.
He has repeatedly suggested that a celestial structure called “the firmament” prevents space travel, which is a common trope among many flat-earthers.
Bussman’s conspiracy theorizing extends to world events like the 9/11 attacks as well. On March 22, 2024, he posted a conspiracy video and asked a skeptical follower “Have you seen the video of building 7 collapsing and the cruise missle [sic] hit the pentagon? I had a friend invomved [sic] in the clean up of the towers- no plane wreckage.” He has posted several other videos containing similar sentiments.
Reached by the Reformer for comment, Bussman did not deny that he was an adherent of any of the conspiracy theories that he posted about on his public Facebook profile. “You can print whatever you want,” he said. “I spent 20+ years in the Army defending that right, but if you do that, there would be no chance of me speaking with you in the future.”
The more moderate wing of the Minnesota Republican party has been attempting, mostly in vain, to keep people like Bussman away from the levers of power. Much of the energy propelling Bussman and similar candidates comes from Action 4 Liberty, a far-right group that has made a name for itself mostly by attacking elected Republicans for being insufficiently far right.
Brodkorb argues that the extent of the party’s extremism problem became clear in 2024, when it nominated Alex Jones acolyte Royce White to take on Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the U.S. Senate race, and Republicans in the 7th Congressional District refused to endorse Fischbach — one of the more conservative representatives in the entire U.S. House — for reelection. Fischbach nevertheless sailed to victory over her primary opponent by nearly 30 percentage points, a sign that the fringe elements taking over the party lack widespread support among GOP voters.
“Bussman has nothing on his resume that has ever shown that he can organize and win,” Brodkorb says. “That hurts Republicans statewide.”
A Republican victory in a statewide race, for instance, will require running up the margins in reliably conservative places like the 7thDistrict. Bussman’s inexperience and fringe beliefs make that much harder to do.
“Those views shut down conversations and alienate people inside the party,” Brodkorb said.
Bussman and his ilk will also likely alienate more moderate, independent voters in the suburbs and exurbs, which Republicans need if they are ever to overcome the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s numerical advantage, evidenced by the GOP’s two decade long losing streak.
Bussman, for his part, is critical of people who don’t “do their own research” and endorse the same conspiracy theories he does. A meme he posted to his Facebook profile in August 2024 argues that, “Never before in history have we had more access to facts, and never before have we had so much stupidity!”
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