Former state legislator and Trump administration agriculture official Brad Finstad won a special election Tuesday in Minnesota’s 1st District to serve the remainder of the late Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn’s term.
Finstad, a Republican, had 51 percent to Democrat Jeff Ettinger’s 47 percent with an estimated 99 percent of the vote counted at 9:25 a.m. Wednesday when The Associated Press called the race.
On the same ballot, Finstad also won the GOP primary to run in November for a full term in the seat, defeating state Rep. Jeremy Munson, 76 percent to 24 percent. He will again face Ettinger, a former Hormel Foods executive, who won a three-candidate Democratic primary with 92 percent of the vote.
