For the second time in as many elections in the hotly contested Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional district, the GOP-backed would-be spoiler candidate running on the Legal Marijuana Now ticket has died just a few weeks before facing voters, adding to returning Republican challenger Tyler Kistner’s headaches in his rematch against incumbent Dem Congresswoman Angie Craig, WCCO reports.

Legal Marijuana Now Party candidate Paula Overby died of heart complications Wednesday, according to her family, a little over two years after 2020 MN-2 Legal Marijuana Party nominee Adam Weeks died of a fentanyl overdose. Overby had helped sink Craig’s 2016 bid for the seat, taking 28,869 votes while Republican Jason Lewis squeaked by Craig with a 6,655 vote win. Craig then won the 2018 rematch – without Overby on the ballot – by more than 18,000 votes. Following Weeks’s death in 2020, which came after he told a friend Republicans had paid him $15,000 to run and then unofficially withdrew (while still remaining on the ballot), Craig won a lawsuit her campaign had filed to prevent the election from being postponed as required by state law in the event of a candidate’s death under 79 days before the vote. The Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday declared the 2022 election will proceed as scheduled in absence of a federal court order, an unlikely prospect as the Kistner campaign’s appeal of the 2020 case was rejected pretty quickly.

The Marine Corps veteran Kistner was clearly devastated by the loss of a key tactical force multiplier, something he’s never experienced on the battlefield because he’s never served on a battlefield. “This is a very sad day for Minnesota’s Second District. Paula Overby cared deeply about our state, and the principles she believed in. It was an honor to have gotten to know Paula throughout this campaign. My thoughts and prayers go out to Paula’s family and friends during this difficult time,” Kistner said Wednesday, obviously deeply saddened by the waste of time and money invested in propping up Overby to siphon votes from Craig. May he find solace in the fact that Overby will remain on the ballot just as Weeks did. He drew 24,000 votes from people who didn’t know he was dead.