GOP’s Finstad and DFL’s Bohman face off in southern Minnesota’s First District

Republican U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad is facing DFLer challenger Rachel Bohman to retain control of Minnesota’s First Congressional District on Tuesday.

Finstad, of New Ulm, is a fourth-generation farmer and first-term congressman who was the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s state director for rural development in Minnesota during the Trump administration.

He served in the Minnesota House from 2003 to 2009. He also spent time as executive director of the Center for Rural Policy and Development and in a leading role with the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association.

Bohman is a lawyer and former Rochester Township board member who also ran elections for Hennepin County. As elections director, she oversaw Hennepin County’s portion of the recount in the 2010 gubernatorial election. She briefly ran for Minnesota secretary of state in 2013 but dropped out of the race.

Before working for Hennepin County, Bohman held a similar position in Anoka County. She also worked in the secretary of state offices of DFLer Joan Growe and Republican Mary Kiffmeyer.

The First Congressional District covers southern Minnesota and is largely rural but includes Rochester, Austin, Mankato, Owatonna, Winona and Worthington. It’s historically been politically purple but has leaned Republican in recent years after DFL former U.S. Rep. Tim Walz ran for governor in 2018.

Republican Jim Hagedorn, who lost to Walz in 2014 and 2016, won the district in 2018. He held it for almost two terms before he died in early 2022. Finstad succeeded Hagedorn in a special election in August of that year.