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GOP endorses candidates in 4th and 5th districts
Both congressional hopefuls are long shots in the heavily DFL districts. Summary
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Attorney Ed Matthews defeated upstart John Meyer, 24, to win the Republican endorsement for the Fourth Congressional District seat Saturday in South St. Paul.
Some 189 delegates voted unanimously that Matthews, 34, would make the best candidate to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum in the fall election. McCollum is seeking her fifth term and captured nearly 70 percent of the vote in her last election in 2006.
The Fourth District seat has been controlled by the DFL for 60 years, since Eugene McCarthy was elected in 1948. The district includes St. Paul, all of Ramsey County and some suburbs in Washington and Dakota counties.
In the Fifth District, Republican delegates unanimously endorsed Barb Davis White, an ordained minister.
She got the nod to run against Rep. Keith Ellison, a freshman Democrat. White hopes to accomplish what no Republican has done for decades in the Fifth District -- defeat a Democratic incumbent.
Law review editor
Some delegates felt that the best chance they had at defeating McCollum was experience. Matthews received his law degree from William Mitchell College of Law and was executive editor of the William Mitchell Law Review. He is a commercial defense attorney with Fredrikson & Byron law firm in Minneapolis. In 2000, he sought, but did not win, the Republican Party endorsement for a legislative seat in Washington County.
He has said his priorities as the candidate for the Fourth District seat are to oppose congressional earmarking and to make the 2003 Bush tax cuts permanent. He also advocates replacing the current tax system with a flat tax and reducing the current corporate income tax, which he said would promote job creation and capital formation.
Meyer, treasurer of the Minnesota College Republicans and a Duluth native, has never run for political office and will graduate from college next month with a degree in political science and a minor in art history.
Meyer served in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Saudi Arabia for a year.
"I really look at this [election] as a great opportunity not only for myself, but for the people of the district to bring about a fresh voice, a newer voice, something unique to this race," Meyer had said prior to the vote.
John Ewoldt contributed to this report Allie Shah • AShah@startribune.com • 651-298-1550 Dee DePass • DDePass@startribune.com • 612-673-7725
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