Strong voter turnout was seen throughout Wright County for the 2026 elections.
While some 19 thousand local residents chose to cast an early ballot, there was reportedly an impressive turnout on Election Day as well.
While many of the region’s GOP state and federal lawmakers won easy re-election, most of the major races on the mid-term ballot followed suit with other parts of the country that went to the Democrats.
6th District U-S Congressman Tom Emmer won easy re-election as did Wright County GOP State House and Senate members including State Senator Michael Holmstrom, Jr, State Senator Eric Lucero, and State Representatives Joe McDonald, Marion Rarick, and Walter Hudson.
Most of the major state office races saw the GOP candidates jump out to an early lead, only to see DFL’ers surge ahead to election victories.
In the race for Minnesota Governor, Amy Klobuchar surged to a late victory over Republican Lisa Demuth. Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan followed a similar pattern and watched her vote count surpass Republican Michele Tafoya in the U-S Senate race. Incumbent Attorney General Keith Ellison rallied to victory over GOP challenger Ron Schutz. Minnesota Secretary of State, DFL’er Steve Simon surged to victory over Republican Tad Jude, and Democrat Zach Filipovich defeated former GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen for State Auditor. The Minnesota DFL victories mirrored many areas of the country where voters created a so-called “blue wave” that saw the Democrats take control of both the U-S House and Senate.
Locally, voters enacted some big changes on the Wright County Board of Commissioners where two incumbents were defeated in Tuesday’s vote. In Commissioner District 4, Drew Scherber defeated incumbent Commissioner Nadine Schoen. KRWC’s Kendell Kubasch talked with Scherber about his victory…
“….extremely honored and humbled and incredibly grateful for the support that I have received from all the precincts in District 4. I got into this seeking a little bit of change at the County Board level. People listened to that and I’m really proud of the people that helped me as well. We tried to get everywhere that there were people. I just like talking to people. Some agreed with me and some didn’t and that’s ok. I’ve always learned that you disagree respectfully with people….and at the end of the day, you just get along with people the best you can, right?”
In District 3, challenger Ryan Dunlap defeated incumbent Commissioner Jeanne Holland. We’ll hear parts of an election night discussion with the new Commissioner-elect in the coming days.
In District 1, former County Commissioner Christine Husom of Buffalo was elected to the board after a four-year absence, defeating Roger Strege. Husom previously spent 10-years on the County Board, and says the job and the responsibilities of a Commissioner continue to grow with Wright County…
“No question about it. We’re not just a small county anymore, we continue to grow and are the fastest growing county in Minnesota. So that presents more challenges every year. Lots of decisions to make.”
Husom says there is no end to the surprises that come up to challenge the board…
“…you just don’t know until you get into the office about what’s going to arrive. I mean, you have things like the data center, you’ve got the Star Link receptors, and you’ve got the Flock cameras that have been controversial, so that’s just three examples of things that pop up that you don’t know until they happen.”
In other important county races, Chief Deputy Sheriff Matt Treichler won the Sheriff’s race by a comfortable margin over Rob Mossman. We’ll hear some election night comments from the Sheriff-elect in news later this week.
There were few surprises in the local city, township and school board races across the county. Check www.krwc1360.com for complete election results in all races. Click the election results tab on the home page, then click on any or all of your races of interest.
