Hogenson casts one of ten Electoral College ballots for Minnesota

Minnesota’s electoral votes were cast at the state capitol on December 17: By virtue of representing the state’s first congressional district, Waseca’s Deb Hogenson was the first to announce her vote.

There was a great deal of ceremony and a sense of reverence for being part of a historic process, but there was no suspense.

“The electors are morally and legally bound to vote for the candidate chosen by the state’s popular vote,” explains Hogenson. “We take an oath.”

Based on its population, the state of Minnesota has 10 of the 538 national electoral votes which, as specified in the U.S. Constitution, determine the winners of national presidential elections. According to the Office of the Federal Register, each state determines how its electoral votes are assigned: Nearly all require all their electors to vote for the candidates who win the statewide public election.

Those circumstances, says Hogenson, make being an elector a largely symbolic role. Still, she mentions, “I’m deeply honored to have been selected. I had tears in my eyes when I was nominated.”

Hogenson was chosen as one of the DFL electors during the party’s statewide convention this past summer. She explains the practice is, both major parties choose 10 electors. Whichever party’s candidate wins the state, those electors are the ones to cast the official votes.

The ballots are transported to Washington D.C. where the U.S. Congress certifies and counts them early in January, then announces the official winner of the national election. Until that announcement takes place, she points out, the constitution does not recognize the winning candidate as the next national president.

Hogenson is the current leader of the Waseca County DFL party. She has lived in Waseca since 2016, when she and her husband of nearly 50 years, Doug Bauman, retired from their farm operation in the vicinity of Worthington and moved to the area to be closer to family.

Hogenson reveals her interest in politics began in the 1970s when, as a college student, she attended her first caucus. She and Bauman went on to be highly active in the Minnesota DFL party, including holding a kick-off picnic at their farm for the campaign which eventually won Tim Waltz his 12-year seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hogenson says the picnic developed into an annual event which Waltz continued to take part in.

When Bauman died in 2023, Waltz attended his funeral.

Over time, Hogenson reveals, she and Bauman served many roles with the state DFL party. She is a past director of the state committee and a past chair of the state’s first congressional district DFL: the district covers the southernmost part of the state from the eastern to the western border.