Standing outside her Litchfield campaign office one recent Sunday afternoon, Michelle Fischbach promised two dozen supporters that she would do what no Republican has accomplished in three decades: defeat Collin Peterson.
The former lieutenant governor and longtime state lawmaker from Paynesville turned to a well-worn strategy Republicans have tried to unseat the conservative Blue Dog Democrat and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee: She brought up House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, both magnets of derision from the right.
"This election is a turning point for the country," Fischbach said, borrowing some of President Donald Trump's signature catchphrases in promising to "fire" Pelosi and Peterson.
Back on a campaign trail after an unsuccessful stint as Tim Pawlenty's 2018 gubernatorial running mate, Fischbach is making her pitch in national terms to flip the sprawling Seventh Congressional District in western Minnesota. A prize recruit for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Fischbach is aiming to win a district that delivered a resounding victory for Trump in 2016 while also sending Peterson back to Congress.
The conservative rural district is widely viewed as the GOP's top pickup opportunity in 2020: Multiple national election trackers have judged the race as a tossup for much of the past year, even though Peterson has held the seat since 1991.
In an unusual matchup of competing conservative credentials, Fischbach's pitch is that it is time the district be represented by someone in a party more in line with the president that voters overwhelmingly backed four years ago. She also has used Peterson's longevity against him.
"I guess I was under the impression that congressional seats were not held for a lifetime," Fischbach said in an interview. "And so it is important to always get new people in and new blood and new ideas, new information."
Boasting an endorsement by Trump, Fischbach has not shied from borrowing the president's rhetoric and painting the race as a stark choice between two polar opposites.