HERMANTOWN — U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber will return to Washington for a fifth term.
The incumbent Republican Congressman defeated DFL candidate Trina Swanson in the 8th Congressional District race. Both candidates are from Hermantown.
The Associated Press called the race at 1:11 a.m. with 92% of votes in.
Stauber easily won general elections in 2020, 2022 and 2024 after a somewhat close race for the open seat in 2018 following the retirement of the late Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan. This year, he defeated Swanson by a slightly narrower margin.
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Stauber is a former police officer and college hockey player who previously served on the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners and the Hermantown City Council.
Recently, he was a notably strong opponent of Gov. Tim Walz executive order banning nonferrous mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters.
Swanson is a former federal worker who left the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service after being given orders by the Trump administration she said she believed compromised her integrity.
Minnesota's 8th Congressional District spans much of Northern Minnesota, including the Arrowhead; Brainerd lakes area; Beltrami, Clearwater, Mahnomen and Lake of the Woods counties; and part of Becker and Hubbard counties and includes all of seven of Minnesota's Ojibwe reservations.
Stauber will begin his next two-year term in January.
