Freeborn County Republicans will endorse their candidate for the District 27A seat on Saturday during a convention in Geneva.

Running for the Republican endorsement are Sibley Elementary School first-grade teacher Peggy Bennett and Hart Bros. Weaponry owner Milan Hart. Whoever is endorsed will go on to face incumbent District 27A Rep. Shannon Savick, DFL-Wells, in the November election.

The convention starts at 1 p.m. at the Geneva Community Center.

Bennett, who moved to Albert Lea in 1981, grew up in the Twin Cities area, but said she considers Albert Lea her home.

She has been teaching for 33 years and is running on the slogan of “People before Politics.”

“I feel a lot of what happens at the state level and the federal level, too, it seems that some people have forgotten they are representing the people,” Bennett said. “They make decisions without talking to people in the know here.”

Hart, who has lived just south of Albert Lea for about 40 years, is married to his wife, Elaine, and has two sons and four grandchildren.

He has owned Hart Bros. for almost that entire period and also worked at the now-closed foundry Progress Casting for 20 years.

“We need serious tax reductions in Minnesota and especially for independent businesses,” he said, when asked what his message is going into the convention. “We need to stop wasting money on laws that never get enforced.”