Hagedorn re-enters race for Congress

The Republican candidate who lost the endorsement contest for the 1st Congressional District has reversed himself and is now challenging the endorsed candidate for the nomination.

Last month delegates to the GOP district convention in Albert Lea endorsed Aaron Miller to take on four-term incumbent DFLer Tim Walz in November.

At the time, Jim Hagedorn of Blue Earth said he'd abide by the endorsement and not run against Miller in a primary. But Hagedorn now says he's re-entering the race because Miller isn't campaigning hard enough.

"The one thing a challenger in a race like this has an advantage over an incumbent is time. The challenger has the opportunity to go around the district, get known, talk about the incumbent's record while the incumbent is in Washington doing the Congressional business. In this case, it's compeletely backwards," Hagedorn said.

Miller denies that accusation.

"It's a selfish act on his part. He was looking for any reason that he could to get back in the race, and it's disappointing because we were a unified party coming out of the convention," Miller said.

Miller, who says he believes humans evolved "with divine intervention" and who works for a biotech firm, drew national attention when he complained his daughter was being taught evolution in school.

He said he was illustrating government overreach.