Minnesota’s U.S. House delegation is loaded with newbies. Five of the eight members are in their first terms, and some of them are in very competitive election contests this year.
The U.S. House elections not only decide who represents you in Congress but also which party — Democrats or Republicans — controls the chamber where laws are made and money is raised and spent.
Here’s a look at the races:
1ST DISTRICT
The contest in Minnesota’s congressional district that extends along the Iowa border from Wisconsin to South Dakota is a rematch between first-term Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn of Blue Earth and Democratic challenger Dan Feehan of North Mankato. Hagedorn won the seat vacated by now-Gov. Tim Walz in 2018 by just 0.4 percentage points.
Hagedorn, 58, is a conservative and outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, who carried the district by 15 points in 2016.
He started his career as a congressional aide and later was a Treasury Department official. He currently serves on the House agriculture and small business committees. He is married to Minnesota Republican Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan.
Feehan, 38, takes liberal positions on such issues as abortion, health care and gun control but said he’d be an “independent voice in Washington.” He earned a bachelor’s degree at Georgetown and a master’s degree at Harvard. He joined the Army and served two combat tours in Iraq, and then spent two years as a teacher before becoming an assistant secretary of defense at the Pentagon. After finishing his term in the Obama administration, he and his family returned to Minnesota, where he worked with the Farmers Union.
Last week, Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a campaign ranking organization, changed its rating for the district from “leans Republican” to “toss-up.”
2ND DISTRICT
We know that Marine veteran Tyler Kistner is running against first-term Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in the south suburban 2nd District election. We just don’t know when.
The election date is up in the air after Craig filed a lawsuit last week to keep the vote on Nov. 3, as originally scheduled. When a third candidate for the seat died last month, a state law kicked in that postponed the election until Feb. 9. Now a court will decide when voters can cast ballots.
Kistner, 37, was born in St. Louis Park and earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree in international studies from New England College. He was a Marine special operations officer for nine years before he was honorably discharged earlier this year. He and his wife and daughter live in Prior Lake.
A strong supporter of Trump and his law-and-order message, Kistner is running as a conservative who opposes tax increases, backs gun owners’ rights, and calls for defunding Planned Parenthood and ending late-term abortions. “We need a government to do what Democrats never wanted to do: just stay out of the way,” he said.
Craig campaigns as a moderate Democrat, touting her success in passing bipartisan legislation. Last summer, she introduced a bill to extend paycheck protection program loans for small businesses by five weeks. Trump later signed it into law, her second bill ratified by the president. She serves on the agriculture, small business and transportation and infrastructure committees.
The congresswoman first ran for the seat in 2016, narrowly losing to former conservative talk show host Jason Lewis. In a rematch in 2018, she defeated Lewis by 5.6 percentage points, becoming the first openly lesbian mother in Congress and the first woman elected in the 2nd District. She and her wife have four sons and live in Eagan.
Craig, 48, was born in Arkansas and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Memphis. She started her professional career as a newspaper reporter, and then worked her way up in business…
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