Republican Dave Hughes is hoping the third time is the charm for him in Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District.

Hughes has faced off against long-time incumbent Democratic Congressman Collin Peterson in the past two elections, but both times he came up short. He lost by 5.1 percentage points in 2016 and by 4.2 percentage points in 2018.

“The reason I’m running a third time is because we did better on our second try than the first try, and although three other individuals have run against Collin twice in his term in Congress, they always did worse on their second effort, and so we found that the second effort where we narrowed the gap in the midst of a national Blue Wave, that that was encouraging and we learned a lot from that second effort, and so we’re gonna apply that to this run,” said Hughes.

Hughes hopes to secure the Republican Party endorsement this spring. He is one of five Republicans running in the district – Noel Collis, Michelle Fischbach, Joel Novak, and Jayesun Sherman are the other candidates seeking the endorsement.

“The fact that I’ve done this now for four years, that I built those relationships in all 38 counties of the district and I’ve been out and about for four years, none of these other competitors of mine, they’re starting from square one. None of them have done what I’ve done, and so it’s very encouraging, but the cautionary note for folks in my party is this: the votes that I’ve garnered and the progress that I’ve made these last four years, that’s not a generic Republican vote, that’s not an ‘R’ vote,” added Hughes.

Collin Peterson, who has held the 7th District seat since he was first elected in 1990, has not announced if he is seeking re-election.

By — Nathan Green