November 8, 2016 (2016-11-08) 2018 → 5 3 50.23% 46.73% | 5 3 1,434,590 1,334,686 Start date November 8, 2016 | |
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The 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Minnesota were held on November 8, 2016, to elect the eight U.S. Representatives from the state of Minnesota, one from each of the state's eight congressional districts. The elections coincided with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections. The primaries were held on August 9.
Contents
District 1
Democrat Tim Walz of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party defeated Republican Jim Hagedorn to retain his seat.
Candidates
Candidates
District 2
Republican John Kline has represented Minnesota's second district since 2003, but announced that he would not seek re-election in 2016.
Jason Lewis won the district's Republican primary, defeating opponents Matthew Erickson, John Howe, and Darlene Miller. Democrat Angela Craig, who served as vice president of global human resources for St. Jude Medical, resigned her position in January 2015 to challenge Lewis. Mary Lawrence, a doctor, also ran as a Democrat but dropped out before the primary.
Election Projection stated that when Kline decided not to run in 2016, the district "immediately went from relatively safe to very competitive". According to the Cook Political Report, the district has a rating of R+2, "almost perfectly" "purple".
Commentators wrote that the election was "likely to be one of the most-watched congressional races in the country," (MinnPost), "expected to be one of the most competitive in the country", according to Roll Call newspaper, and "seen as a prime target for Democrats to flip" according to The Atlantic.
Area left-wing weekly City Pages described the campaign as resembling the 2016 presidential campaign, calling Lewis "an entrepreneur and media personality, whose blunt rhetoric is refreshingly honest to some, simply offensive to others", and describing Craig as "a tough female leader with moderate positions, ties to big business, and a penchant for pantsuits".
In May 2016, the Rothenberg and Gonzales Political Report changed its rating of the race from "pure tossup" to "tossup/tilt Democratic," with political analyst Nathan Gonzales writing that Craig "is probably to the left of the district in her ideology, but she has a good story to tell, is raising considerable money (she had $1.3 million in the bank at the end of March) and is solid as a candidate." As of May 2016, Election Projection predicted "Angela Craig by 4.7%". Other political prognosticators rated the race "Republican Toss-up" (Charlie Cook), and "pure" toss-up (Larry Sabato's "Crystal Ball"), according to MinnPost.
Lewis ended up defeating Craig by several thousand votes in the November election.
Candidates
Candidates
District 3
Republican Erik Paulsen retained his seat, comfortably defeating DFL State Senator Terri Bonoff.
District 4
Democrat Betty McCollum retained her seat over Republican challenger Greg Ryan.
Candidates
Candidates
District 5
Democrat Keith Ellison retained his seat, comfortably defeating Republican Frank Nelson Drake and a third party challenger.
Republican primary
Democratic primary
District 6
First term incumbent Republican Tom Emmer defeated DFL candidate David Snyder.
Candidates
Candidates
District 7
Democrat Collin Peterson retained his seat, defeating Republican challenger Dave Hughes.
Republican primary
Democratic primary
District 8
Democrat Rick Nolan retained his seat, defeating Republican Stewart Mills III in the 2016 election. It was Nolan's second victory over Mills, who unsuccessfully challenged Nolan in the 2014 election.
Though Nolan's margain of victory in 2016 (2,009 votes) was too large to trigger a publicly funded automatic recount, Mills, as of late November 2016, has said that he plans to request and pay for a hand recount of all votes cast in the eighth district, as is his right under law. Mills plans to cover the cost of the recount—just over $100,000— himself. According to the Minneapolis Start Tribune, Minnesota has not seen a recount in a race for the House of Representatives since the year 2000, when election day totals in Minnesota's 2nd congressional district fell within the half percentage point threshold, thus triggering a state funded recount. It is not known if Mills's request for a privately funded recount has precedent in Minnesota's electoral history, at least as it pertains to elections for the House of Representatives.