As Jack Tomczak wrote on Facebook on Saturday:

Racist and sexist Republican party of Minnesota elects woman and black guy into leadership.

It’s true.  The MNGOP State Central Committee elected Keith Downey as chair, re-elected Kelly Fenton as Deputy, and Chris Fields as secretary.

Some of the races were, themselves, vastly more interesting than normal.  Fenton beat Ron-Paul-camp activist Corey Sax.  I’ve locked horns with Sax not a few times, but the guy had some useful ideas for “marketing” the MNGOP that the party could do much worse than look into.  I hope Sax takes his cue from the many “builder” Liberty supporters who’ve stayed involved in the MNGOP, and have improved it – if frustratingly incrementally – over this past year.

The Secretary race was difficult, pitting as it did two fantastic candidates.  Ryan Love is one of the GOP’s sharper tacks, one its most incisive Tweeps, and one of the more notably excellent activists.  He ran up against former CD5 candidate Chris Fields, who ran a spectacular campaign against Keith Ellison last year, and has only stepped up his game since then.  Fields ran straight into the teeth of the DFL’s GOTV tsunami, but…well, more on that later this week.   The only pity is that they both didn’t win.

Of course, the new leadership – and the entire party – faces a stern challenge.  After a year of grueling work, sparse donations and activist fatigue, the party is still over a million-and-a-half in debt.  The task at hand – decrease the out-go, increase the income, and start making the party a contender on the state level – is herculean.

More about that in the coming week.

Anyway – congratulations Keith, Kelly and Chris.  And good luck.