Republicans are poised to hold on to their three congressional seats in Minnesota and successfully flipped a fourth, while Democrats fended off GOP challengers in key suburban districts.
Due to the volume of mail-in ballots and record Election Day turnout, state officials said “it will take a few days” to count all of the ballots in every race, but the results seem clear in most of the congressional races.
First District: Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R) vs. Dan Feehan (D)
Despite a string of late-breaking controversies, Hagedorn declared victory over Democrat Dan Feehan, whom Hagedorn beat in 2018 for the seat.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Hagedorn was leading Feehan 49% to 45% early Wednesday morning. Feehan was trailing by 11,884 votes.
Feehan, who narrowly lost to Hagedorn in 2018, was recently accused by his opponent of getting paid to run for Congress.
Second District: Rep. Angie Craig (D) vs. Tyler Kistner (R)
Craig declared victory Wednesday morning in her race against Kistner, winning 48% of the votes to Kistner’s 46%. However, an ongoing legal battle has cast a cloud over the results and Kistner’s campaign said it is waiting to see how many “ballots are still outstanding.”
The Second District race was upended in September after the death of Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Adams Weeks. State law says that if a major party candidate dies in the run-up to the election, the election should be postponed — in this case, until February 2021.
As a result, Craig went to court to keep the election in November and a federal judge granted her motion last month. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Kistner’s appeal last week, but his attorneys are scheduled to continue arguing his case in court. It’s unclear how that will affect Tuesday’s outcome.
Craig was first elected to the seat in 2018 after defeating incumbent Rep. Jason Lewis.
Third District: Rep. Dean Phillips (D) vs. Kendall Qualls (R)
Phillips, who is in his first term, cruised to victory Tuesday night over Qualls. The Republican challenger, however, outperformed former Rep. Erik Paulsen, who was unseated by Phillips in 2018.
With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Phillips won the race in a vote of 56% to 44%.
“I never dreamed of calling myself a candidate for Congress. But the great thing about our country is that where you start your life is not where you end up,” Qualls said in a statement.
Fourth District: Rep. Betty McCollum (D) vs. Gene Rechtzigel (R)
McCollum easily won an 11th term in Congress Tuesday night. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, she more than doubled Rechtzigel’s vote share.
Rechtzigel was not endorsed by the Minnesota GOP, but defeated party-endorsed Sia Lo in the August primary.
Fifth District: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) vs. Lacy Johnson (R)
As expected, the controversial Rep. Ilhan Omar won a second term in Congress Tuesday night, defeating Republican Lacy Johnson 64% to 26%.
In the Democratic stronghold of Minneapolis, Omar is much likelier to be unseated in a primary, but she just as easily won her August primary against Antone Melton-Meaux, who was thought to be a competitive opponent.
Sixth District: Rep. Tom Emmer (R) vs. Tawnja Zahradka (D)
Emmer scored the biggest margin of victory among Republicans Tuesday night, winning 66% to 34% over DFL challenger Tawnja Zahradka.
Emmer, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, will enter his fourth-term in the Sixth District, which he has represented since 2014 following the retirement of former Rep. Michele Bachmann.
Seventh District: Rep. Collin Peterson (D) vs. Michelle Fischbach (R)
In the one upset of the night, Republican Michelle Fischbach unseated Rep. Collin Peterson, ending his 30-year reign in the Seventh District. Fischbach won 54% of the vote to Peterson’s 40%.
Peterson was first elected to the seat in 1991 and currently serves as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. He is one of the only pro-life Democrats in the House and opposed the impeachment of President Donald Trump, who won the Seventh District by 30 points in 2016 and again in 2020.
Eighth District: Rep. Pete Stauber (R) vs. Quinn Nystrom (D)
Once considered a DFL safe haven, Republican Rep. Pete Stauber won a second term after easily defeating Democratic candidate Quinn Nystrom by 19 points.
“Humbled by the overwhelming support tonight and looking forward to two more years,” Stauber said in a statement. “My pledge to you, my constituents, remains the same: you will always know where I stand, I have your back at every turn, and I will keep fighting relentlessly for our way of life.”
U.S. Senate: Sen. Tina Smith (D) vs. Jason Lewis (R)
Sen. Tina Smith won her first full six-year term in the Senate over Republican challenger Jason Lewis, who outperformed Smith’s 2018 opponent and experienced a surge in the polls over the last two weeks of the campaign.
With 99% of precincts reporting, Smith defeated Lewis 49% to 43%. Smith was appointed to the seat by former Gov. Mark Dayton after former Sen. Al Franken resigned. She then won the 2018 special election to complete the remainder of Franken’s term.
View full results here.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
