House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is about to have another Republican member after Tuesday's special election for Minnesota's First Congressional District saw voters elect Republican Brad Finstad to serve out the remainder of late GOP Congressman Jim Hagedorn's term.
Finstad, a fourth generation Minnesota farmer and former U.S. Agriculture Department official, was leading Democrat Jeff Ettinger 59 percent to 39 percent at the time the race was called by Decision Desk HQ just before midnight on the East Coast.
Decision Desk HQ projects Brad Finstad (R) (@BradFinstad) is the winner of the special election for U.S. House District 1 in Minnesota.
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) August 10, 2022
Race call: 11:56pm EDT
More results here: https://t.co/PoeY6qD7tS
The victory for Finstad in the first special congressional election since the Dobbs decision came down and Roe v. Wade was overturned will lead to some significant tea leaf-reading ahead of November's general election.
It's also another boost to Republican momentum as party leaders look for successes to hype up — as was done with Republican Rep. Mayra Flores' June special election win in Texas' 34th Congressional District.
Election watchers noted Finstad's decisive victory that bested longstanding margins for GOP candidates in the counties that make up MN-01 and the quieting effect it had on Democrats who are in need of some tide-turning results ahead of November:
Finstad gets 70% in Nobles, 4% clear of Trump and better than any presidential R since 1920(!!!). That's assuming Nobles is indeed all in--turnout is notably low, although that may be due to the meatpacking county's large lower-turnout Latino population. #MN01
— RRH Elections (@RRHElections) August 10, 2022
Finstad up 14 points in MN01 (compared to R+3 in 2020) and Dem election Twitter has suddenly stopped dropping takes.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) August 10, 2022
In addition to the special election Tuesday in the First Congressional District, voters cast their ballots for their second primary in the district this year.
This week's primary set the field for November's general election and... it's a rematch. Brad Finstad handily defeated fellow Republican Jeremy Munson and will again face DFL nominee Jeff Ettinger who also bested his party opponents in the regular primary.
Live results from the First District primary are below: