Hagedorn Beats Feehan In 1st District Race

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Republican Jim Hagedorn defeated Democrat Dan Feehan for the seat in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District.

The race was extremely close, with ballots still being counted well into Wednesday morning. Hagedorn received 1,311 more votes than Feehan.

"We gave voters a choice and told them that if they voted for me that I was going to work with Republicans and like minded Democrats, try to cooperate with the president and keep this country in the right direction," said Congressman-elect Hagedorn.

The 1st District seat is currently held by Democrat Tim Walz, who ran for governor instead of seeking re-election in the Republican-leaning district. On Tuesday night, Walz easily beat Republican Jeff Johnson for the state's top office.

In 2016, Hagedorn narrowly lost to Walz, by a margin less than a percentage point, despite the fact that President Donald Trump carried the district by a 15-point margin over Hillary Clinton.

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"Sometimes in a big district it takes awhile for the challenger to get his name across, and so it was kind of the persistence versus resistance in this race," said Hagedorn.

And although the margin of victory was just 1,311 votes, it still won't trigger an automatic state recount.