By
Voters in Minnesota’s 1st District will head to the polls Tuesday to elect a new member of Congress to replace the late GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn.
Former state Rep. Brad Finstad is competing against Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate Jeff Ettinger, a former CEO of Hormel Foods, to serve out the rest of Hagedorn's term. Hagedorn died in February after battling cancer.
Republicans are expected to have an advantage in the district. Trump won the district 10 points in 2020, per the Cook Political Report, which rates the special election Likely Republican.
Ettinger, who has self-funded his campaign, has outspent Finstad on the airwaves, per AdImpact, spending $508,000 on ads to Finstad's $323,000 since the May primary.
Ettinger has pitched himself as a political outsider who can work with both parties, saying in a recent TV ad, "I'll only take my orders from Minnesota."
Finstad meanwhile has touted his background as a farmer and tied Ettinger to President Joe Biden and national Democrats.
"We need a congressman who will say no to Biden’s agenda," Finstad said in a recent ad.
Both Finstad and Ettinger are also competing in Tuesday's primaries for a full term representing the newly drawn 1st District. Finstad is facing a last-ditch challenge on the right from state Rep. Jeremy Munson, who lost the special election primary by a few hundred votes.
