Walz announces special election to fill seat of late Rep. Jim Hagedorn
A special election to fill the seat of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn will be held this summer.
Gov. Tim Walz Tuesday announced the special election for Minnesota's 1st Congressional District will be held on Aug. 9. The winner will fill the open seat, left vacant following Hagedorn's death last week. The 59-year-old Republican had been battling kidney cancer.
The filing period for the special election will be from March 1-15, meaning candidates will have to file with the Secretary of State's office during that time. A special primary, if it's needed, will be held May 24.
The special election will use the current map of Minnesota Congressional Districts — not the redrawn districts announced last week. Whoever wins the special election may only spend months in office. That person will need to run in the regular 2022 elections, which will be held Nov. 8 using the redrawn congressional map, if they want to stay in the seat for the next two-year term.
The current Congressional District map, left, compared to the new one that will be used starting in November.
As Dr. Eric Ostermeier with SmartPolitics points out, this will be the first special election for a Minnesota U.S. House seat since February of 1977. The state had held 175 U.S. House elections since then without needing a special election — the longest stretch in the nation.
