(The Center Square) — Polls opened at 7 a.m. CT Tuesday for a special primary election to fill the First Congressional District seat in southern Minnesota.
The seat was left open by former Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died of cancer in February.
The top candidates will face off in a special election on Aug. 9, 2022.
Republicans endorsed no candidates, despite Hagedorn’s widow and former Minnesota Republican Chair Jennifer Carnahan, state Rep. Jeremy Munson, and at least eight others crowding the race.
Munson broke from the main GOP caucus in 2019. Carnahan resigned last year after the FBI charged a close contact and major party donor, Anthony Lazzaro, 30, with six counts of human sex trafficking a minor between May 2020 and December 2020.
Carnahan has raised $403,765, Munson has raised $363,120, and the DFL- endorsed Hormel Foods CEO Jeffrey Ettinger has raised $423,337.
Polls close at 8 p.m. Minnesotans can find their polling location here.