Two favorites won primaries for a pair of Minnesota Senate seats heading for a special election in November.
Republican Michael Holmstrom Jr. won with more than 73% of votes against Rachel Davis and Bradley Kurtz in the safely red Senate District 29, which covers Buffalo, Monticello and Annandale. He will go on to face Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate Louis McNutt for the opportunity to succeed the late GOP Sen. Bruce Anderson, who died last month at age 75.
“We are wildly excited,” Holmstrom said. “We hit 1,500 doors, we made hundreds of phone calls. We’re excited to be out in the community, talking to people about their values.”
Meanwhile, in a battle between two DFL state representatives, Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger won 82% of votes over Ethan Cha, according to unofficial results posted by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office for the Senate District 47 seat, which covers Woodbury. Hemmingsen-Jaeger will now face Republican Dwight Dorau to succeed former DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell, who was convicted last month of two felonies for breaking into her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home.
“Very excited, very proud and very excited that we had a good turnout, especially for a special election in an off-year,” Hemmingsen-Jaeger said of the result Tuesday night. “Looking forward to continuing on with the race in November.”
Both Holmstrom and Hemmingsen-Jaeger won their party’s endorsements.
District 29 is safely red, with Anderson defeating his 2022 DFL challenger by about 36 percentage points.
Democrats are favored to hold on to the Woodbury seat, which Mitchell won by 17 percentage points in 2022. But Republicans believe they have a chance to flip it after Mitchell’s burglary conviction.
