Republican Brad Finstad won Tuesday’s special election for the Minnesota House seat held by GOP Congressman Jim Hagedorn before he died of cancer earlier this year, with a current lead of 51.1% to Dem Jeff Ettinger’s 46.9% which obviously sucks but it was a longshot no matter what.
However Dems should really like what they see in the not-yet final tally, which isn’t going to change much given over 95% of the count has been reported. Prior to the call, Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman wrote “Trump carried #MN01 54%-44% in 2020. So if Jeff Ettinger (D) were to finish within single digits of Brad Finstad (R) in tonight’s special election, it would be a good result for Dems. If Finstad’s margin is 5 pts or less, it would be a great result for Dems. We’ll see,” so by Wasserman’s estimate a 4.2% loss was indeed a great night. Dems in array.
Small bonus for “RINOs”: Finstad simultaneously won the Republicans primary for the November election for a full term, defeating some asshole backed by the Freedom Caucasians.