Southern Minnesota affordability, farm pressures tighten 1st District race

Well, campaign crunch time has arrived. One of the most interesting races still to be decided is in the first congressional district. Incumbent Congressman Brad Finstad is facing off against teacher Jake Johnson. Fox 9's Corn Hoggett is live in Rice County tonight for us. Corn, this district seems to be a lot closer than it was two years ago. Yeah, Randy and Kelsey, Finstad actually won this district by 17 percentage points back in 2024. But back then, President Trump was kind of the wind beneath his sails and this time around his association with the president may be one of the reasons he's lost ground. Minnesota's eight congressional races are running about as expected with one possible exception. Yeah I think the congressional district in the southern border of Minnesota and Iowa is the most competitive. Congressman Brad Finstad is running for a third full term after sailing into office with double digit wins in 2022 and 2024. The polling indicates his grip on the seat may be slipping. We're seeing all the issues that are playing nationally against Republicans playing in the first congressional district. Dr. Larry Jacobs says affordability issues have hit hard for people in southern Minnesota, especially on farms struggling through higher prices caused by tariffs and the war in Iran. Jake Johnson is a math teacher and a political newcomer. Finstad has tried to connect him to Tim Walz, who was the last DFL-er elected in the district. But he hasn't kept up with Johnson's push to do events in all 21 of the district's counties. And instead of trying to run away from President Trump, he's embraced a lot of the president's policies and asked voters to give them more time to play out. It makes sense. This is, after all, a Republican-leaning district. And Finstad wants to encourage those Republican voters to come out and support him. And this is also a rare race where the incumbent is getting outspent by the challenger Johnson with about a half million dollar advantage there. Although just in recent days, a couple of political action committees that are associated with GOP sides have injected about $400,000 into the Finstad campaign, which really just means that the closing arguments in this race are going to be loud. Live in Rice County, Corn Hoggett, Fox 9. No doubt about that.