Southeast Minnesota primary results show shift toward DFL in 1st District
ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) — One week after Minnesota’s primary election, local results in the 1st Congressional District race show a shift in support toward the DFL compared to 2024.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Brad Finstad is seeking his third term. High school math teacher Jake Johnson is his DFL challenger.
Finstad won the GOP primary with more than 90% of the vote. Johnson won the DFL primary with nearly 82% of the vote. Statewide, Finstad received about 3,200 more votes than Johnson in the primary contest.
The 1st District includes 21 counties, 10 of which are in the KTTC viewing area — Dodge, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Olmsted, Mower, Steele, Wabasha and Winona. In that 10-county region, final results show a roughly 1,500-vote difference in favor of Johnson. That amounts to about 49% local support for Finstad and about 51% for Johnson.
Looking at primary party votes as a whole in the 10-county region, about 53% of southeast Minnesota voters backed DFL 1st District c…