Jake Johnson declares victory in potentially huge upset in MN’s 1st Congressional District

Jake Johnson, a former high school math teacher who campaigned on lowering costs and working-class concerns, held a razor-thin lead in unofficial results early Wednesday against Republican U.S. Rep. Brad Finstad, in what would be a major upset in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District. 

The difference between the two candidates is just over 300 votes out of more than 325,000 cast, which means a recount is likely.

Johnson would be the first Democrat to represent the southern Minnesota district since Gov. Tim Walz left Congress in 2019.  

“I’m ready to get to work bringing down costs, taking on corruption and investing in small towns across southern Minnesota. Whether you voted for me or not, I work for you now,” Johnson said in a statement early Wednesday.

The win would mark a significant shift in a district that President Donald Trump carried by nearly 12 percentage points in 2024. 

The district runs the length of southern Minnesota from Wisconsin to South Dakota and includes Rochester, Mankato, Winona and many rural communities. 

Johnson, 43, built his campaign around affordability, drawing on his own experience growing up in a working-class family in Stewartville. 

Before he left his job to campaign full time, Johnson was a math teacher of 20 years at Rochester Public Schools. 

Over the summer, Johnson traveled nearly 20,000 miles across all 21 counties in the district in a beat-up minivan, holding town halls to meet with voters in person. In October, he announced a “Receipts Tour,” collecting residents’ receipts to document rising costs and pledging to bring them to Washington if elected.  

His election underscores a changing district: Rochester is growing quickly with highly skilled immigrants and other highly educated workers for the Mayo Clinic and the ecosystem that’s grown up around it. They lean Democratic and showed their growing electoral power this year.

Finstad, 50, a fourth-generation farmer from New Ulm, won the seat in a 2022 special election. He went on to win the general election that year by more than 11 percentage points, and again in 2024 by 17 points. 

In Congress, he has largely worked in agricultural policy, pushing for legislation to expand crop insurance and reduce costs for farmers. 

Throughout the campaign, Johnson worked to draw a sharp contrast between his own 21-county town hall tour and Finstad’s low-profile, TV-dependent campaign, arguing Finstad had become out of touch with his constituents. 

Johnson will enter Congress as Democrats take control of the House after a generational victory that saw the party carrying districts in deep red areas across the South and Midwest.

Johnson has criticized tariffs that raise prices for farmers and everyday people and opposed cuts to programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. 

He has also called for a moratorium on data centers and an end to the war in Iran.

Johnson has pledged to continue holding his town halls in every county, in every term he serves in Congress.