WASHINGTON – GOP U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach will now have to contend with a primary challenge for her deeply red congressional seat.
GOP Rep. Michelle Fischbach facing primary challenge
Steve Boyd is running in the Republican primary for Minnesota's Seventh Congressional District.
October 4, 2023 at 3:32PM
Steve Boyd, a small-business owner from rural Kensington, Minn., announced his campaign earlier this week. In an interview with the Star Tribune, Boyd talked about "election integrity" and said he thinks that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost the election to Democrat Joe Biden.
Boyd, 38, also falsely cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccines have proven critical in helping people around the country.
"Some may consider me extreme," Boyd said. "That's fine. I don't consider myself extreme by any means."
Fischbach first won her western Minnesota congressional seat in the 2020 election by defeating longtime Democratic incumbent Collin Peterson. In the hours after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, she voted against certifying Biden's win in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Fischbach has gained stature in the House GOP by serving on the influential Rules Committee. Despite representing a farm-heavy district, Fischbach served for only one term on the Agriculture Committee and is no longer part of that House panel, now holding posts on Ways and Means along with the budget panel and Ethics Committee.
Attempts to reach Fischbach's campaign were unsuccessful, and the representative did not comment when asked earlier this week on Capitol Hill. Fischbach easily won a second term in the 2022 midterms by around 39 points. But the latest financial report shows that at the end of June, Fischbach's campaign had only around $87,000 in cash.
A news release on Boyd's campaign website describes him as "a Christian, conservative, husband and father of five who owns a turf management and mosquito control company serving residents of Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens, and Swift counties."
Boyd said he and Fischbach "probably agree in principle on most of the issues, I would suspect."
"And so where I come in is more being willing to lean into some of those potentially more controversial issues," Boyd said.
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