Alexandria School Board and Miller-Rasmusson race heat up primary

ALEXANDRIA — A total of 4,782 Douglas County residents voted in the primary election Tuesday. Another 1,026 turned in absentee or early ballots, raising the total to 5,808.

That’s down a little from the 2018 primary that drew 6,220 votes after two Douglas County Board races were contested.

A big part of the 2022 primary were two Alexandria School Board races that drew three or more candidates, which triggered a primary.

The winners for position 3 were Shawn Reilly, who collected 1,880 votes or 41.89% of the total, and Lynne Lommen who received 1,442 votes or 32.13%. They will both be on the ballot in the Nov. 8 general election.

Other position 3 candidates were Joel Novak with 645 votes or 14.37% and Greg Odell with 521 votes or 11.61% of the total.

In the position 4 race, incumbent Sandy Susag picked up 2,240 votes or 49.79% of the total, followed by Laura Knudsen with 1,744 votes or 38.76%. They will be on the ballot in November.

A third candidate for position 4, Dennis Conn, who withdrew from the race too late to remove his name on the ballot, received 515 votes or 11.45%.

In a Republican primary race in Minnesota Senate District 9, Douglas County voters bucked the trend of other precincts in the district. They favored the non-endorsed candidate, Nathan Miller of Battle Lake, over Jordan Rasmusson of Fergus Falls.

Miller, with his campaign catch phrase, “It’s Miller Time,” received 685 votes in Douglas County or 58.05% of the vote, over the GOP-endorsed Rasmusson, who picked up 495 votes or 41.95%.

Miller won some precincts in the county by a 2:1 ratio or more, including the city of Brandon (47-23), city of Evansville (52-15), Evansville Township (34-9), Lund Township (49-11), Millerville Township (36-8) Solem Township (22-9) and Urness Township (34-8).

District-wide, however, Rasmusson won by 3 percentage points, edging Miller with 5,738 votes or 51.59% to Miller’s 5,385 votes or 48.41%.

Rasmussen will now be on the November ballot against the DFL-endorsed candidate, Cornel Walker of Fergus Falls.

In the primary race for U.S. Representative District 7, DFLers in Douglas County heavily supported Jill Abahsain over Alycia Gruenhagen, giving her 1,117 votes or 62.93% of the vote to Gruenhagen’s 658 votes or 37.07%. District-wide, Abahsain received 59.01% of the vote.

Other races were mostly landslides. Here are the results in Douglas County compared to the statewide results (in parenthesis):

• Governor, Republican – Scott Jensen 3,257 votes or 91.85% (89.31% statewide) over Joyce Lynne Lacey and Bob Carney.
• Governor, DFL – Tim Walz 1,923 votes or 96.05% (96.53%) over Ole Savior.
• Secretary of State, Republican – Kim Crocket 1,987 votes or 61.03% (63.15%) over Erik van Mechelen.
• Secretary of State, DFL – Steve Simon 1,146 votes or 63.53% (72.51%) over Steve Carlson.
• Attorney General, Republican – Jim Schultz 1,560 votes or 46.32% (52.51%) over Doug Wardlow and Sharon Anderson.
• Attorney General, DFL – Keith Ellison 1,692 votes or 87.22% (89.35%) over Bill Dahn.