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1st District Race
Snaking border to border along southern Minnesota’s counties, the First Congressional District has something of a split personality, predominantly agricultural across vast swaths of countryside even as it has a high-tech/medical innovation backbone in its regional centers. Long considered a Republican stronghold, it has become increasingly purple, especially in its larger cities. Evidence can be found in the fact that the DFL holds most of the state Senate seats in the district and in the 2006 election of freshman U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a Democrat who pulled off the biggest congressional upset in the state. This year, Republicans will be trying to regain the congressional seat from Walz. The GOP endorsed Dr. Brian Davis, a Mayo Clinic physician, and he defeated state Sen. Dick Day of Owatonna in the party primary election.
1st District Race stories from Star Tribune
- Editorial: Ellison fails part of routine ethics testCongressman should disclose cost of privately financed trip.
- Pelosi in Minneapolis to watch stimulus money at workIn a visit to Minneapolis, the U.S. House speaker said a Minneapolis education center for American Indians is an example of how to ensure long-term job growth.
- Editorial: Rail project needed to protect MayoPolitical leadership is welcome in ending bitter dispute.
- Pelosi is coming to raise cash for Walz
- Who's in and who's out for governor?
- Reroute could solve Mayo rail dispute
- Climate debate heating up for Minnesotans in Washington
- Ellison and Walz schmooze with the Obamas
- Putting the pork on Congress' pulldown menus
- 2010 EARMARK REQUESTS
The political players
Incumbent - Tim Walz (D)
Not that long ago, the prospect that Walz, 42, could knock off a well-funded, six-term Republican incumbent in a district that had sent only one other Democrat to Congress since 1900 indeed seemed about as likely as the day pigs take wing. Walz was one of 28 Democrats who beat a Republican incumbent - in this case someone untarnished by the GOP ethical woes. And he spent 24 years in the National Guard, rising to the rank of sergeant major. Read more...
Brian Davis (R)
The Mayo Clinic cancer doctor emerged from relative obscurity to claim the GOP endorsement over well-known state Rep. Randy Demmer, R-Hayfield. Davis, of Rochester, won on the first ballot despite a far slicker and more energetic presentation by Demmer’s campaign during the convention in March. Davis next squared off with better-known state Sen. Dick Day, R-Owatonna, in the GOP primary in September, and Davis won easily -- 67 percent to 33 percent. He opposes abortion, gay marriage, government-imposed standards for automobile mileage and a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Read more...
Gregory Mikkelson (I)
The Lake Crystal soybean and corn farmer has run three times for the U.S. House as a Green Party candidate, an Independence Party candidate and a Republican. This time he’s running with the Independence Party with a focus on curbing the national debt and government spending. He refused to address his stance on abortion, gay marriage and the environment, saying that government already has too much control and shouldn’t meddle in the daily lives of Americans. Read more...