Fischbach’s Dirty War on CD7: From 2020 Harassment to 2025 Coup
- Anonymous
- Apr 9
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 12
Michelle Fischbach isn’t just a career insider congresswoman - she’s the puppet master of a corrupt machine hell-bent on controlling Minnesota’s reddest district. CD7’s GOP leadership isn’t some ceremonial gig. It runs the US House endorsing convention that decides who gets the Party’s official nod and ballot access. Fischbach and her insiders know that whoever holds the Chair and Executive Committee controls the game - and seemingly they will lie, cheat, harass, and launch coups to keep it.
Flash back to May 2020. Amid the Zoom endorsing convention, Fischbach’s campaign manager and press secretary, Sam Winter, unleashed a harassment blitz on grassroots challenger Dave Hughes (the 2016 and 2018 Trump-endorsed nominee, a retired Air Force Major). Winter slammed Hughes’ home phone, cell, and family lines with over 300 calls in three weeks - 60 in one day alone - timed to interrupt Hughes’ county convention speeches. Calls even came at midnight. Hughes got a harassment restraining order. Winter was charged, pled guilty, and was quietly fired from the Fischbach campaign. This wasn’t a rogue staffer. It was the apparent Fischbach culture: crush conservatives who threaten her coronation.
Fast-forward to 2025. The grassroots finally struck back. In March, CD7 delegates booted Fischbach’s longtime paid staffer Craig Bishop, and elected principled conservative Bret Busmann as Chair. The Establishment was furious - Bussman promised fair, neutral conventions instead of handing Fischbach another rubber-stamp endorsement. So the RINOs did what they always do: rig the rules. The Fischbach-aligned Executive Committee (stacked with holdovers and unelected holdovers from Bishop’s era) created a super-majority, blocked Busmann’s qualified Treasurer appointments, violated Constitution and Bylaws rules left and right, and refused to seat properly elected Senate District Directors.
Then came the nuclear option. Eight months after the March 2025 CD7 Convention, they suddenly declared that Convention “illegitimate” - claiming Otter Tail County delegates (the same ones they disenfranchised in 2024 under then-MNGOP Chair David Hann, and CD7 Chair Craig Bishop ) shouldn’t have voted. No evidence of rigging. No complaints at the time. Just a manufactured excuse to nullify the grassroots’ will.
On December 11, 2025, a puppet committee - led by Tiffany Lesmeister-Knott (Liemaster-Knott), Jilann Axt, Gregg Kulberg, Daryl Thurn, Lisa Murphy, and Matthew Franzese - held an invalid secret-ballot “impeachment" meeting, voted to oust Busmann as CD7 Chair, and purportedly installed Lesmeister-Knott as the new CD7 Chair. MNGOP Chair Alex Plechash (who only won his job thanks to Busmann’s endorsement and votes) backstabbed Busmann and demanded he resign, claiming he was “causing chaos” for defending transparency and demanding that the Party follow state law and comply with MNGOP and CD7 Constitution and Bylaws.
Fischbach? Crickets. She hasn’t spoken to Busmann once since his election. Her puppets openly say she doesn’t recognize the officer elections from the CD7 Convention as legitimate. Sources confirm she’s pulling strings behind the scenes, while playing innocent. Sound familiar? Same apparent playbook as 2020.
Why the desperation? Because CD7 is ground zero for 2026. Dave Hughes is running again on a bold “cut government in half” platform. Grassroots are fed up with Fischbach’s town-hall dodging, and RINO script. A neutral Chair, like Busmann, could actually hold a fair endorsing convention instead of the insider farce that dragged on for eight ballots in 2020.
This isn’t about “party unity.” It’s a brazen power grab to protect Fischbach’s seat and silence America First conservatives. The same insiders who preach “unity” are now throwing out the delegates’ choice when it doesn’t deliver their queen FIschbach another coronation.
Retired Air Force Major Dave Hughes -
the real deal.
CD7 patriots elected Busmann fair and square. The official CD7 site still recognizes him as the legitimate Chair, and counties like Becker have rejected the coup as “lawless.” Lesmeister-Knott has been so toxic that despite her high profile in CD7 leadership she got crushed on the first ballot in her own SD15 Senate race weeks later. She was also voted off the Board of the Minnesota Association of Townships (MAT) for unethical behavior. Lesmeister-Knott reportedly communicated with the opposition party, who was in litigation against the MAT Board.
The fight isn’t over. Fischbach’s machine will keep attacking patriots because real conservatives are gaining more control to the keys of the endorsing process - and that terrifies the insiders who’ve treated CD7 like their personal fiefdom for years.
Ballot access is on the line. Grassroots delegates decided. The insiders are trying to steal it. Patriots in CD7 know exactly who the real threat is: Michelle Fischbach and her unethical insider coup.