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Aaron Dean Farris is an American politician from the state of Minnesota. A Republican, he is the Chairman of the Minnesota First Congressional District Republican Party and a former member of the Albert Lea School Board. Farris's district as Chairman of the Minnesota First Congressional District Republican Party covers most of the southern third of the state and includes, Albert Lea, Austin, Mankato, Rochester, and Winona. Farris used to hold the record for being the youngest person ever elected in Minnesota history to a congressional district political party executive committee, having been elected at 17 years and 19 days old. This record was beaten by his successor as CD 1 Secretary, Cass Davis, who was elected when he was 16 years old. Farris does, however, hold the record for being elected the youngest Congressional District Party Chair in United States history.

Early life and education
Farris was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota in 2002, the son of Carol and Ron Farris. He was raised near Hawthorne Elementary School in Albert Lea and will graduate from Albert Lea High School in May of 2021. He is attending Rasmussen Business College to earn a degree in business. In 2020, he was named the Albert Lea Tribune junior citizen of the year. In 2021, Farris was inducted into Albert Lea High School's Wall of Inspiration.

Farris was elected to the Albert Lea High School student council on December 5th, 2018, and was re-elected in 2019 and 2020.

In 2019, Farris became a member of the Albert Lea School Board, representing the class of 2021. During his time on the School Board, he has had to console the loved ones of deceased students, helped to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, and handled controversial issues such as tobacco 21 legislation and school choice all while managing a complicated relationship with the school district superintendent Mike Funk that dramatically soured in Farris's final days as a school board member. In his final days, Farris successfully fought for an increase from 4 guests/graduate at the senior commencement ceremony to 6 guests/graduate, for no masks at the commencement ceremony, and gave the senior commencement address.

Early Activism
Farris has stated that he first became interested in politics at the age of seven when Tom Emmer ran for Governor of Minnesota in 2010. Farris then began to become more involved in 2012 when Kurt Bills challenged Senator Amy Klobuchar for the US Senate. By 2014, Farris was getting to know Republican party officials through his involvement and support of Mike McFadden who challenged Senator Al Franken and Jeff Johnson who challenged Governor Mark Dayton. In 2016, Farris was initially a supporter of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primaries, but then became an immediate supporter of eventual nominee Donald Trump, who went on to win the election. Farris has stated that he would have supported Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the 2008 Presidential election, and Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 2012 Presidential election.

MNGOP
After President Donald Trump's 2016 victory, Farris's entry into politics really began. Farris began to intern for Jeff Johnson's second campaign for Minnesota Governor against eventual winner Tim Walz in December of 2017. In the summer of 2018, Farris began to work for the Republican Party of Minnesota campaigning for Jim Newberger who was challenging Senator Klobuchar, Karin Housley who was challenging Senator Tina Smith, Jim Hagedorn who was running for Walz's open seat, Jeff Johnson who was running for Minnesota Governor, John Howe who was challenging Secretary of State Steve Simon, Pam Myhra who was running for Minnesota Auditor, Doug Wardlow who was running for Minnesota Attorney General, and others.

Freeborn County Secretary
After the 2018 Elections, many approached Farris to run for Secretary of the Freeborn County Republican party to replace retiring Secretary Carol Nelson. He was unanimously elected without facing any significant opposition on February 16, 2019 and served until February 16, 2021 when he was elevated to Vice Chairman of the Freeborn County GOP. As Secretary, he quadrupled the community influence of the party, tripled the party's annual fundraising numbers, and helped lead the party to the largest successes it's seen in Freeborn County in 70 years during the 2020 elections.

In May of 2019 Farris wrote an editorial column detailing his experiences of liberal indoctrination in his high school. Many consider this editorial to be the start and reason for Farris's rapid ascension through the ranks of the Republican party.

After former President Donald Trump's acquittal in his first impeachment trial, Farris spoke with the Albert Lea Tribune and said "This purely partisan impeachment, which began on the day Donald Trump won the 2016 election, has prevented Congress from working on the real issues affecting everyday Americans, wasted $32 million, put politics above the needs of the country and greatly increased the political division of American families."

Congressional District Secretary
In December of 2019, Spencer Krier announced his resignation as Secretary of the Minnesota First Congressional District Republican party to take a job as operations manager of the Republican party of Minnesota. Shortly after, a "draft Farris" campaign began, and soon after that Farris announced his candidacy. Farris was unanimously elected in a special election without facing any major opposition becoming the youngest person in US history to be elected to a Congressional District political party executive committee position. During Farris's tenure, Republicans in the first district re-elected Congressman Jim Hagedorn, flipped Senate District 27 by electing Gene Dornink ; retaining control of the Minnesota Senate, and filliped two Minnesota House seats by electing Patricia Mueller and Susan Akland. Farris served as Secretary from January 13, 2020 to March 16, 2021.

After the 2020 elections, Farris spoke with KIMT News for an election recap, where Farris was quotted as being "ecstatic" about the results in southern Minnesota, and said "we won a lot of races we didn't think we would win".

Freeborn County Vice Chairman
Farris was unanimously elected Vice Chairman of the Freeborn County Republican Party on February 16, 2021. Farris stated while campaigning that his goal as the Vice Chairman would be to grow the party's influence on social media and in the community, and make Freeborn County's municipal office holders overwhelmingly Republican. Farris stated that his method of accomplishing these goals would be to continue upon his successes from his tenure as Secretary.

Farris was renewed for a second term as Chairman of the Special Events Committee, and appointed to a first term as Chairman of the Candidate Search Committee by Chairman Robert Hoffman.

Congressional District Deputy Chairman
On January 13, 2021, Farris announced his candidacy for Deputy Chair of the Minnesota First Congressional District Republican Party. At the time, the position was held by Gary Steuart, who was appointed by Chairman Jerod Spilman after the resignation of Deputy Chairman Jason Reiland, and who was serving consecutively as the State Executive Representative. Immediately upon his appointment, Acting Deputy Chairman Steuart announced that he would not seek election to the position at the 2021 Convention.

Farris campaigned on bringing more young people into the GOP, putting more focus into municipal elections, and improving upon the Republican victories in the district. Farris traveled to campaign at the virtual and in-person conventions of 17 out of the district's 21 counties, missing Cottonwood, Nobles, Olmsted, and Winona counties. Farris was elected in a 96-4 vote along with the other executive committee officer candidates.

As Deputy Chairman, Farris was given voting privileges at the 2021 MNGOP Spring State Central Meeting, meaning he would be able to vote for the next Chair, Deputy Chair, and Secretary of the Republican Party of Minnesota. Farris announced his endorsements of Incumbent Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan for re-election to a third term, Incumbent Deputy Chairman Carlton Crawford for re-election to a full term, and the challenger to Secretary Dave Pascoe, Bev Snow.

Farris' tenure as Deputy Chair has been plagued by a poor and deteriorating relationship with Chairman Jerod Spilman. It is alleged by many in the party that Spilman has great paranoia about Farris "being stronger than him". It is known that none of the CD officers have great relationships with Spilman because he believes they are "Farris loyalists" and would side with Farris over him if a disagreement were to take place.

MNGOP Carnahan-Lazzaro Scandal
On August 12th, 2021, Anton "Tony" Lazzaro, a close friend of then-MNGOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan was indicted on several counts related to sex trafficking of minors. In the fallout, it was alleged that Carnahan had knowledge of the sex trafficking, that Farris' predecessor as CD 1 Secretary, Spencer Krier, had engaged in unwanted sexual advances with numerous women, that Carnahan presided over a toxic work environment, and that MNGOP insiders such as Farris knew about Lazzaro's activities well before they became public. Carnahan was condemned by numerous County Republican parties (however none in Farris' CD), the Minnesota College Republicans, the Minnesota Young Republicans, as well as numerous Minnesota legislators such as Representatives Cal Bahr, Steve Drazkowski, Tim Miller, Jeremy Munson, Senators Michelle Benson, Roger Chamberlain, Julia Coleman, and former Senator and candidate for Governor Scott Jensen. Despite intense pressure for Farris to call for Carnahan's resignation, he made little to no comment on the scandal. On August 20th, Carnahan was forced to step down as Chair.

After Carnahan's ouster, the State Central Committee met in Hopkins on October 2nd to elect a new Chair. The two primary candidates for the election were businessman Jerry Dettinger and former Minnesota Senate Minority Leader David Hann. Farris disclosed right before the meeting that he would be supporting Hann, and was "hopeful that the party can leave Hopkins more unified than when we entered". After three rounds of balloting, Hann was declared the winner and appointed 2018 GOP nominee for Minnesota Lieutenant Governor, Donna Bergstrom, to be the new MNGOP Deputy Chair.

Congressional District Chairman (2022-2023)
On January 10, 2022, Farris announced his candidacy for Chair of the Minnesota First Congressional District Republican Party. On February 17, 2022, close Farris ally and mentor Congressman Jim Hagedorn passed away after a battle with kidney cancer. Farris traveled to Washington, DC for Hagedorn's funeral. It was speculated that Farris would withdraw from the Chair race after Hagedorn's death, as Farris had previously stated that Hagedorn had asked him to run and a big reason Farris was seeking the Chairmanship was to increase the Party's helpfulness and support for Hagedorn. After Hagedorn's death, a total of 10 Republicans filed to run for the seat, including former Trump agriculture Director Brad Finstad, State Representative Jeremy Munson, and Hagedorn's widow and former MNGOP Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan. Farris did not make an endorsement in the race, and remained neutral as the Party did not make an endorsement at the same Convention Farris was elected Chair at.

Farris was elected Chair on April 23, 2022 after 102 days of campaigning for the position with 82% (251 votes) against three-year incumbent Jerod Spilman's 18% (55 votes). The first few months of his chairmanship was consumed by the Republican primary for the special election to fill the remainder of Hagedorn's term. Farris continued to maintain his neutrality, but it became increasingly obvious as the election approached that Farris had mutual distaste for candidates Matt Benda and Jeremy Munson. Finstad won the primary on May 24, 2022 with 38.12% of the vote compared to Munson's 36.93%. All other candidates were under 10%. The Thursday after the primary on May 26,2022, the CD 1 MNGOP, under Farris's leadership held an endorsing Convention for the August primary election for the November regular election and endorsed Finstad by voice acclamation. On the last day of filing, despite multiple statements saying they would not run in the August primary, Benda and Munson filed for the election. Benda withdrew two days later, but Munson remained on the ballot without providing any public explanation for why he was running. Farris stated there had been no communication from either candidate to himself or the Party on their intentions.

Under Farris' leadership, all the Republican Party endorsed candidates won their primaries on August 9th. Finstad defeated Munson 76%-24%, Jim Schultz won the Attorney General primary defeating Doug Wardlow, Gene Dornink defeated Lisa Hanson, Gary Dahms defeated Larvita McFarguhar, Bill Weber defeated Brad Hutchison, Marj Fogelman defeated Jayesun Sherman, and Greg Davids defeated Laura Thorson. On the same night, Finstad defeated Democrat Jeff Ettinger to win the special election to fill the remainder of Hagedorn's term 50.7%-46.8%. Finstad was sworn in on August 12th, 2022. In the Party's press release folllowing the results, Farris said "the Republican Party in Minnesota's First Congressional District is stronger than it has been since the early 2000s, and tonight's results across the district show that" and "now that our primaries have concluded and the Democrats have seen the strength of our Party and the enthusiasm of our voters, they will hold nothing back in the coming months. We must do the same. It's time to buckle down, get to work, and show the Democrats no mercy at the ballot box".

Congressional District Chairman (2023-2025)
In 2023, Farris was challenged for the chairmanship by Phillip Parrish, who had unsuccessfully ran for governor, secretary of state, congress, county commissioner, and Republican Party of Minnesota chair. Farris campaigned on touting the strong Republican results in the first district in 2022 under his leadership, and promised to deliver even more victories if re-elected to a second term. Parrish campaigned by accusing Farris of being corrupt, and embracing conflicts of interest between his role as chairman and his employment with Congressman Brad Finstad as a caseworker specilizing in veterans issues.

Farris was re-elected to a second term as chair on April 1, 2023.