All eight Minnesota congressional districts have chosen their GOP endorsed Republican congressional canidate for the 2020 elections.
Presently, only Minnesota’s first, sixth and eighth districts are Republican controlled, however an ambitious set of candidates have set their minds to changing this come November. The two most recently announced GOP endorsements occurred in the second and eighth districts with the of Tyler Kistner and Michelle Fischbach respectively becoming the official Republican frontrunners.
Kistner is a special forces veteran and self-described “outsider” conservative who has not previously held office. He stands for states’ rights, Second Amendment rights, limited economic regulation, America-first trade policy and against abortion, according to his campaign website.
In order to win office, Kistner will have to defeat incumbent Democrat Angie Craig who has held office since 2019 when she defeated Republican Jason Lewis by just 2% to become the first openly lesbian mother in US Congress. Prior to holding office, Craig worked as a journalist. She believes in gun control, government involvement in healthcare and a gambit of other liberal causes, per her campaign website.
Fischbach served as Minnesota’s 49th Lieutenant Governor under Mark Dayton after his original liberal Lieutenant, Tina Smith, resigned to run for US Senate. Prior to this promotion, Fischbach served as the first female president of the Minnesota Senate.
Much like Kistner, she believes in secure borders, the Second Amendment, and the need to support farmers along with other conservative causes, per her campaign website. In order to win office, she will need to defeat Minnesota’s longest serving currently seated congressman, Collin Peterson who first took office in 1991.
Peterson has served on and off as the Chairman of the US House Committee on Agriculture during his lengthy time in office.
One critical edge Fischbach may have over Peterson is the fact she is endorsed by President Donald Trump. Voters in her district strongly favors Trump, who carried it by 31 percentage points in 2016, according to the Pioneer Press.
The Minnesota College Republicans have compiled a list of all the endorsed Republican candidates’ Twitter accounts.
Congratulations to the candidates for Congress who have been endorsed by the @mngop!
CD1: @JimHagedornMN
CD2: @KistnerCongress
CD3: @KendallQuallsMN
CD4: https://t.co/oxlwheQaWk
CD5: @LacyJohnsonMN
CD6: @tomemmer
CD7: @FischbachMN7
CD8: @PeteStauber— Minnesota College Republicans (@MNCRs) May 2, 2020
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
