Despite only recently saying that he wouldn’t decide whether to seek re-election until next year, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson unambiguously told Roll Call on Thursday that he was running again. Peterson’s decision will be a relief to his party: Trump carried this rural northwest Minnesota seat 62-31, and it would be extremely hard to hold without him.
Still, the GOP is hoping they can unseat the longtime incumbent. Last cycle, Peterson only beat underfunded Republican Dave Hughes 52-47, and Hughes is running again. But Team Red may have a stronger candidate on tap, with state Rep. Tim Miller jumping in earlier this month. The GOP has only made one serious attempt to unseat Peterson in years, but the incumbent won 54-46 in 2014 even with the red wave crashing on the shores of the Red Lake Reservation (no, that metaphor doesn’t really work.) Peterson is an incredibly formidable incumbent, but Republicans know that once they finally win the 7th District, they’re likely to keep it for a long, long, long time.