Simonson, McEwen Race for State Senate Nomination

DULUTH, Minn.– One of the more interesting races Tuesday night is for the DFL State Senate District 7 seat.

Incumbent Erik Simonson, a more moderate democrat with nearly a decade in the legislature, is running against attorney Jen McEwen.

Simonson has the endorsement of Governor Tim Walz but McEwen has the endorsement of the DFL.

Simonson, who is currently in St. Paul for a special legislative session, says he’s feels voter turnout will be strong despite the pandemic.

“I feel really good about the fact that today’s a really great day and it looks like voter turnout will be strong,” said Simonson. “So hopefully we got our message out there that we’re still running and we want to continue working for Duluth.”

McEwen says she knows it will be a tough task to beat an incumbent like Simonson but she believes she and her team are in a good spot tonight.

“We knew that this is going to be an uphill battle and it’s going to be a lot of hard work and we’re going to have to really work from day one to build a broad coalition to bring as many people in,” said McEwen.

Whichever DFL candidate wins the primary tonight will go on to face republican candidate Donna Bergstrom, who ran and lost against Simonson in 2016.