First-term Rep. Jim Hagedorn faces Democrat Daniel Feehan in rematch to represent Minnesota's 1st Congressional District
AP Photo/Jim Mone, File
- First-term Rep. Jim Hagedorn will face Democrat Dan Feehan in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District.
- The two candidates previously competed against each other in the 2018 midterms, where Hagedorn defeated Feehan by just 0.4 percentage points.
- The district is located along Minnesota's southern border, and flipped from backing former President Barack Obama in 2012 to voting for President Trump in 2016.
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First-term Rep. Jim Hagedorn looks to defend his new seat against Democratic challenger Dan Feehan in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District.
The two candidates previously faced off in 2018, where Hagedorn defeated Feehan by just 0.4 percentage points.
The candidates
Hagedorn, the son of former Minnesota Rep. Tom Hagedorn, is the former Director for Legislative and Public Affairs for the Financial Management Service for the U.S. Treasury.
He has run to represent the district in every election year since 2010 except for 2012, finally succeeding in his narrow 2018 victory over Feehan in the open race to replace now-Governor Tim Walz. Minnesota's 1st District was one of the few to flip from Democratic to Republican hands in the Democratic wave year of 2018.
From 2002 to 2008, Hagedorn ran an online blog, Mr. Conservative, which included remarks that became a subject of controversy in his election campaign.
"Over the years, I wrote political commentary … and poked fun at national politicians," Hagedorn said to the Star Tribune in 2014. "This is old stuff that's been out there for years."
In Congress, Hagedorn serves on the powerful Committee on Agriculture and the Committee on Small Business. Hagedorn has been fighting kidney cancer for almost his entire first term in Congress, and says that his experience with cancer treatment "has moved him to prioritize policies to facilitate development of biopharmaceutical cures to treat people with serious diseases" and "protect access to southern Minnesota's world class medical care."
Feehan is a U.S. Army veteran who served in two separate combat tours in Iraq. After returning from overseas, Feehan went on to serve as the assistant secretary of defense for the U.S. Department of Defense.
Feehan is running his campaign a platform of expanding affordable healthcare and lowering prescription drug costs, strengthening the country's agricultural economy, and protecting Social Security and Medicare.
The district
Minnesota's 1st Congressional District runs alongside the state's southern border, and includes both cities and rural farmland. The district is home to the major cities of Rochester, Mankato, Blue Earth, and New Ulm.
The district flipped from narrowly backing former President Barack Obama by 1.4 percentage points in 2012 to voting for President Donald Trump by a substantial margin in 2016. During the 2016 presidential election, the district voted for Trump over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in a 53-38 percent split of the vote, according to Daily Kos.
The money race
Minnesota's 1st District is one of the few races where the challenger has substantially outraised the incumbent. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Feehan has raised about $2.3 million, close to $600,000 more than Hagedorn. Hagedorn, however, has slightly outspent Feehan so far.
Feehan also has a substantial cash on hand advantage over the Republican incumbent. Feehan has $1.78 million cash on hand compared to Hagedorn's $949,000.
What experts say
The race between Hagedorn and Feehan is rated as "tilts Republican" by Inside Elections and "leans Republican" according to The Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.