Seven hours after Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a federal agent in Minneapolis, Don Westerhausen sent an email to his supporters.
The subject line read: “ICE murders another U.S. citizen.”
At the time the message was sent, the shooting was under active investigation and no official findings had been released.
At 5:07 p.m. Eastern Time, the chair of the St. Joseph County Democratic Party told his supporters why that killing meant they needed to donate to two local political campaigns.
“Now is the time to step up and support Amy Cressy for Prosecutor and Scott Ruszkowski for Sheriff. We hope you will join us in supporting them and the rest of our Democratic candidates this year.”
That was the endpoint of the email.
It began by declaring Pretti’s death a murder. In the body, Westerhausen alleged that Pretti had been beaten, punched, and kicked before being shot while on the ground.
He then widened the frame, referencing the killing of a Minnesota mother, the detention of a five-year-old child in Texas, and alleged racial profiling by ICE of off-duty law enforcement officers.
From there, Westerhausen turned the message into a political indictment.
“This is the chaotic, unconstitutional mayhem brought on by Donald Trump and his
MAGA sycophants like Sen. Todd Young, Sen. Jim Banks, and Rep. Rudy Yakym.”
He then escalated the message from condemnation to mobilization.
“If we are going to defeat Trump, we must also defeat his local apologists
and enablers by winning local campaigns here in St. Joseph County.”
Only after constructing that national narrative did he pivot to St. Joseph County.
He criticized a probate court judge. He attacked a Republican sheriff candidate. He faulted county Republicans who supported a dismissed lawsuit against Sheriff Bill Redman.
He framed those local disputes as proof that the same chaos he blamed on Trump had arrived in St. Joseph County.
And only after that sequence did he ask for money.
That was not advocacy. It was exploitation.
Westerhausen took a killing under investigation, stripped it of uncertainty, converted it into a partisan attack on Republicans, and then monetized it for two local campaigns.
That is not leadership. It is exactly the kind of political behavior that deepens outrage, accelerates polarization, and fuels the cycle of political violence he claims to be condemning.
Logan Foster
Logan Foster is the founder and editor of Redress South Bend, an independent news outlet covering local government, courts, and public institutions in South Bend and St. Joseph County, Indiana. He reports from primary documents: public records requests, court filings, state audit reports, and campaign finance disclosures. His reporting has examined city and school district payments made without competitive bidding, school board spending, and the records of candidates in county races. Redress South Bend obtained the South Bend Police Department's ShotSpotter coverage map after the department initially denied public access. The outlet is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Online News Association. Reach him at info@redresssouthbend.com
