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Statewide Republican Gubernatorial challenger Scott Jensen and Matt Birk will square off against Minnesota DFL Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Penny Flanagan in the general election. Both were big winners in their primaries to set the stage for what should be an interesting November general election.
Cook County Auditor/ Treasurer Brady Powers said 40.61 percent of locally registered voters turned up at the polls to cast their ballots. That meant that 1,671 residents voted out of 4115 registered voters.
“Forty to fifty percent (turnout) is typical for a primary with no local races on the ballot,” noted Powers.
Powers said the county’s internet was down, so he couldn’t provide vote totals for the candidates at press time.
Throughout the district, Republican Senate District 3 candidate Andrea Zupancich easily defeated Kelsey Johnson’s 5,762 votes to 2,581. Zupancich, the Mayor from Babbitt, will face Hermantown City Counselor DFL primary winner Grant Hauschild in the general election. Hauschild secured the unanimous endorsement from his party in May for the Minnesota Senate District 3 DFL race. Hauschild received 7,235 votes in the primary, 988 coming from Cook County, while Zupancich got 358.
Hauschild and Zapancich are competing to fill the seat long held by retiring Senator Tom Bakk (I-Cook), who has endorsed Zupancich.
Republican Incumbent U.S. Rep Pete Stauber, a former Hermantown City Councilor, St. Louis County Board member and Duluth Police Officer, received 91 percent of Republican ballots to nine percent for his challenger, Harry Welty. Stauber got 51,404 votes to Welty’s 5,074 votes. Stauber received 469 votes in Cook County.
Meanwhile, Stauber’s DFL challenger Jen Schultz of Duluth received 86 percent of the DFL vote. Schultz tallied 38,536 votes to 6,199 votes for John Munter of Warba. Jen is a former Minnesota state legislator and currently a UMD economics professor. Schultz received 975 votes in Cook County.
In the primary for Attorney General, Jim Schultz received 18,253 votes to Doug Wardlow’s 9,752 votes to win the Republican race. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Incumbent Attorney General Keith Ellison crushed Bill Dahn 45,450 to 4,165 to move on to the general election.
Ely Mayor Roger J. Skraba won the Republican primary in House District 3A. In the general election, he will face DFL incumbent Rob Ecklund of International Falls. Ecklund picked up 1020 votes in Cook County, more than triple the number received by Skraba.
In the race to see who will become the next Secretary of State, Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Steve Simon and Republican Kim Crockett both easily won their primary races and will meet in the general election.
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