Republican Nathan Nelson has won the special election to fill the district 11b seat in the Minnesota House.
Nelson ran against DFL candidate Tim Burkhardt for the seat. Nelson received 68.43% of the vote while Burkhardt only received 31.55% of the vote. Both candidates ran focused campaigns, but it appears that the support of GOP State Senator Jason Rarick and U.S. Representative Pete Stauber gave Nelson the edge over Burkhardt.
This election was held after Senator Jason Rarick left Minnesota’s House after he won the special election to fill a seat in the State Senate that was vacated by Tony Lourey. Gov. Tim Walz appointed Lourey as the Commissioner of Human Services.
During his speech on Tuesday, Nelson told supporters, "This has been incredibly humbling, the support I've gotten all through this process." He went onto to thank his wife for her work, "I've got to thank Suzanna. She's probably done more work on this campaign than all of you. She didn't really volunteer for it... a lot of what I have tonight is because of what she has done," Nelson said. He finished off his speech by telling voters that he is ready to head to the capitol to get to work.
Representative-election Nelson will be sworn in later this month.
Photo courtesy of Paul Raymond