A special election will be held to fill the remainder of the late Jim Hagedorn’s term in Congress. (Aaron Lavinsky, STAR TRIBUNE file/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Past and present legislators, a former state party chair and local business and community leaders are among the 20 candidates running in a special election to replace the late U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn.

By Tuesday afternoon shortly before the 5 p.m. filing deadline, 20 candidates had registered with the Minnesota Secretary of State's office to run in a special election in Minnesota's sprawling First District in Congress. The seat opened up in February, following Hagedorn's death after a long battle with kidney cancer.

"They were unfortunate circumstances," said Matt Benda, an Albert Lea attorney who filed as a Republican in the race. "To lose somebody of the caliber of Jim Hagedorn is really, really tough. He was a fighter for this part of the state, which is really unique. We have really strong agriculture, small business and a world class healthcare system."

The First District stretches across Minnesota's entire southern border with Iowa and includes large swaths of rural farmland as well as regional centers such as Winona, Mankato and Rochester, home of the Mayo Clinic.

Eight Democrats, 10 Republicans, one candidate running under the Legal Marijuana Now Party banner and a Grassroots-Legalize Cannabis Party candidate have filed to run for the seat. The winners in a special primary election on May 24 will advance to the Aug. 9 special election.

Two current southern Minnesota Republican legislators, Reps. Jeremy Munson and Nels Pierson, are running in the primary, along with former GOP Rep. Brad Finstad, who served three terms in the House representing Brown and Watonwan counties before retiring in 2008.

Hagedorn's wife and former Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan also jumped into the race Monday, hoping to shed baggage from her tumultuous tenure leading the party and continue her husband's work in Congress.

On the Democratic side, candidates include former Hormel Foods CEO Jeff Ettinger, former political consultant Sarah Brakebill-Hacke and former U.S. Senate candidate Richard Painter, an ethics lawyer who worked for the George W. Bush administration. Candice Deal-Bartell, the founder and director of Cultivate Mankato Child Development and Resource Center, also filed Tuesday as a DFL candidate.

The district has been a target of both parties over the last several election cycles, but Dan Feehan, the DFL-endorsed candidate in 2018 and 2020, declined to run again for the seat in the special election. The district backed Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Joe Biden by more than 10 percentage points in the 2020 presidential election.

The winner of the August election will serve through January, finishing the remainder of Hagedorn's second term in Congress. Another election will be held in November under the new court-drawn boundaries of the First District, which were released in February as part of the once-a-decade redistricting process.

Staff writer Hunter Woodall contributed to this report.