Bachmann Out
Michele Bachmann announced her retirement this morning, if you haven’t yet heard. This is the medium in which she did it:
And just like that, there is now an open seat congressional election set up for next November. In the most conservative district in the state.
Some names that immediately come to mind as possible Republican candidates; Tom Emmer, Amy Koch, Phil Krinkie. There are likely some current legislators who are interested in the seat as well and there promises to be a lot of action on the Republican side.
This also means that an Independence Party candidacy is all but a given, as open seat races are the ones they most heavily target.
The last time there was an open seat election for this seat, in 2006, these were the results.
| Independence | JOHN PAUL BINKOWSKI | 23557 | 7.80 |  |
| Republican | MICHELE BACHMANN | 151248 | 50.05 | |
| Democratic-Farmer-Labor | PATTY WETTERLING | 127144 | 42.07 | |
2006 was a wave year for Democrats and Patty Wetterling was on her second run for congress. And this was before the district was redrawn in 2011 to include even more Republicans.
This might be one of those rare situations where the battle against the incumbent would have been preferable to an open seat campaign.
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