A former Republican Representative of District 5A held a kick-off event for his 2020 campaign. Matt Bliss announced that he’s running for the Minnesota House seat tonight at the Beltrami County Republican Headquarters.

Bliss is running for the seat that is currently occupied by Democratic Representative John Persell. Bliss was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2017. In 2018, he ran for re-election and lost to Persell by 11 votes. Bliss says he wants to go back to St. Paul and work for the people in the northern region.

“I’m a northern Minnesota boy, I’ve lived here for more than 20 years. My family’s been in the area more than 100 years and this place is just near and dear to my heart. I’m a fiscal conservative, I believe that we need to help folks when they are in trouble, but we also need to make sure that the money is spent wisely,” Bliss said.

Bliss will be fundraising and doing more events for his campaign in the upcoming days.

By — Malaak Khattab

News Reporter