Minnesota Republicans say they have the best chance in years of defeating 12-term incumbent Collin Peterson, the Democrat leader on the House Agriculture Committee. Peterson’s district in western Minnesota leans Republican and an internal poll for GOP candidate Torrey Westrom, a state senator, show him trailing Peterson by 3 points in late May, says Roll Call. “This is the strongest run at Collin Peterson that’s ever been made,” said Keith Downey, Minnesota Republican chairman, in the Roll Call story. Westrom is better-financed than other recent GOP hopefuls.
“We’re paying attention,” Peterson told Roll Call in an interview. A “blue dog'” Democrat, Peterson has twice as much cash in the bank as Westrom. Roll Call says Democratic sources say Peterson has a larger lead than shown in the Westrom poll. And voters have years of contact with the guitar-playing Peterson, who strongly defended dairy farmers and sugar-beet growers – two major elements in his district – during the protracted negotiations for the 2014 farm law.
Some analysts say Westrom’s best chance for election to the House will come whenever Peterson, 70, decides to retire.