Walz Barely Wins, GOP May Have Taken Control of Legislature

St Paul, MN (KROC AM News) - Minnesota’s Congressional makeup hasn’t changed as a result of Tuesday’s election but there will be a new face.

One of the biggest surprises may have been in the First District, which includes southeastern Minnesota.  Democratic incumbent Tim Walz barely beat Republican Jim Hagedorn in a race that many experts did not think would be that close.  Walz ended up winning by about 2,500 votes.

In the Second District, Republican Jason Lewis was leading Democrat Angie Craig by about 8,000 votes with only a few precincts left to count. He will take the seat that had been held by Republican John Kline.That was one of three highly visible Congressional races in the state.

Another was in northeast Minnesota where 8th District Democrat Rick Nolan has won his third straight term in a very expensive rematch with Republican Stewart Mills but the margin of victory was only about 2,100 votes.

In the other big race, the end result showed there really wasn't much of a contest. Third District Republican Erik Paulsen scored an easy victory over Democrat Terri Bonoff.  

The state’s other four incumbents were also re-elected by comfortable margins.

Here are the results.

It appears the Minnesota House will remain under the control of Republicans for the next two years. It also looks like Republicans may have recaptured the state Senate as several Democratic incumbents were defeated. One was Democrat Vicki Jensen of Owatonna, who lost to Republican John Jasinski.

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