Voters across northern Minnesota hit the polls in special primary election to replace Justin Eichorn

Voters headed to the polls in northern Minnesota on Tuesday in a special primary to replace Republican state Sen. Justin Eichorn, who resigned last month after his arrest in an underage prostitution sting.

The GOP field is crowded in this solidly conservative district, including former Minnesota GOP Party Chair and Nisswa Mayor Jennifer Carnahan; Keri Heintzeman, the former district director for President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign; and Josh Gazelka, the son of former Senate leader Paul Gazelka.

Former Breezy Point Mayor Angel Zierden, Army veteran Steve Cotariu, businessman John Howe, conservative activist Doug Kern and former House candidate Matthew Zinda are also running in the special primary race.

Senate District 6 covers portions of Crow Wing, Cass and Itasca counties. Eichorn defeated his DFL challenger in 2022 by 27 percentage points.

Denise Slipy, an environmental health professional and first responder from Breezy Point, is the only DFL candidate in the race and will move on automatically to the April 29 special election.

All but one of the candidates to replace Eichorn hail from Crow Wing County. Despite this, several voters in Pequot Lakes on Tuesday afternoon said they backed Howe, who is from Itasca County.

“He’s a veteran. He’s well established,” said Bonnie Olson, 76, a retired realtor from Pequot Lakes after casting her ballot for Howe.

“It was hard to choose. But [Howe] was up there all by himself, and he... seemed to cover all the bases,” said Janet Jones, 75, a retired nurse. “I’d like to see the mineral rights preserved and timber and all that. We need to get going in this country, the young people need jobs.”

Bob Jones, 80, said he knows Rep. Josh Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, whose wife is running for the vacant senate seat, but he said that it’s OK to mix it up with someone different.

Jane Ryan, 61, of Nisswa, said she didn’t have time to research many of the other candidates. But she knows Keri Heintzeman and likes her family.

“Let’s face it, this happened really quick,” she said at City Hall. “As soon as I heard that she was running, I thought, yeah.”

Nisswa city clerk Kiki Lindberry said turnout was low, which is typical for primary elections, but Tuesday was even slower because she said not as many people knew about the special primary race.

At Breezy Point’s only polling place in the police station, they were nearing 300 voters by 5 p.m. Jason Steinberg, 22, who works at the resort, said he voted for Zierden, the town’s former mayor, per the advice of his parents.

“They said Angel made the most sense in their opinion. And I look up to my parents and kind of followed their vote.”

Eichorn, the father of four from Grand Rapids, resigned in the fallout of federal charges accusing him of attempting to solicit sex from a 17-year-old girl. The Minnesota Senate is narrowly divided 34-32 pending results of the special election on April 29.

The Senate District 6 race is the third special election to be held in Minnesota so far this year. A late-January special election was held to fill a Minneapolis Senate seat after DFL Sen. Kari Dziedzic died from ovarian cancer.

Another special election in March filled a Roseville-area House seat that had become vacant after a Democrat was ruled ineligible to serve because he failed to meet residency requirements.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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