Minnesota’s Seventh Congressional District turned red last week.
With a small but decisive majority of the votes, former state senator Michelle Fischbach, a Republican, unseated Blue Dog conservative Democrat Collin Peterson. The district covers western Minnesota from the northern border nearly to the southern border, and central portions of the state, including McLeod and Meeker counties.
“I am honored to have the outpouring of support from Minnesota families across #mn07,” Fischbach said in a tweet early Wednesday morning. “I am grateful for the backing and am excited to hit the ground running in Washington to work on behalf of MN.”
Flipping the district, which Peterson has held since 1991, became a priority for the GOP following narrowing margins in the past few election cycles and popular support for President Donald Trump in 2016.
For several elections, Peterson won re-election with a wide gap between him and his rivals. Torrey Westrom brought the race within 10 percentage points in 2014, and Dave Hughes brought the difference to five percentage points in 2016 and 2018.
Although results are considered preliminary until after canvassing is finished, it appears Fischbach defeated Peterson by a healthy 14-point margin.
Peterson was considered instrumental in the crafting of farm bills and ran as a strong supporter of agriculture in Minnesota and across the country. He served as chairman of the Agricultural Committee from 2007 to 2011, and again from 2018 to 2020 when Democrats regained the House of Representatives.
In advertisements and campaign events, Fischbach painted Peterson as too close to liberal Democrats. At a campaign stop in Glencoe late September, Fischbach also said she would support making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, and she wanted to bolster trade schools.
“We worked hard and we outraised Collin, and we got our message out, and that’s what it took,” Fischbach said in a KTGO radio interview early Nov. 4. “It took the money, and the staff people and the organization to get that message out. And people finally were able to understand what Collin was really about. I think with President Trump on the ticket it was a great way to make that message stronger.”
A statement sent to the media Wednesday morning from Peterson’s campaign said, “I’d like to thank the people of the Seventh District for their support over the years. Serving them in Washington, D.C., has been a great honor, and I respect their decision to move in a different direction. We ran a strong and positive campaign, but with the president winning this district by 30 points again, and the millions in outside money that was spent to attack me, the partisan tilt of this district was just too much to overcome.”
