歪歪漫画

BEMIDJI 鈥� Republican Bidal Duran will represent Minnesota House 2A after defeating Democratic-Farmer-Labor challenger Reed Olson in Tuesday鈥檚 election.

The final unofficial vote counts place Duran in the lead with 11,528, or 51.79%% of the votes cast, compared to Olson鈥檚 10,678, or 47.97%, making for a tight race.

鈥淚 think we ran a pretty good, clean race,鈥� Duran noted after his win. 鈥淥ne of the things I told the people right away was that I was going to make sure I had a clean race and I think the people came to the polls and saw that.鈥�

Duran is a former law enforcement officer and member of the U.S. Marine Corps. Following his victory in this year鈥檚 election, he鈥檒l begin his term as a state legislator in January.

Unofficial results currently show an evenly-divided House, with 67 DFL representatives and 67 Republicans, pending any recounts. The Minnesota House has been split just once before, in 1979.  

鈥淩ight now we actually have to figure out how we鈥檙e going to do this with a split legislation,鈥� Duran said. 鈥淲e actually have to work together on this which is going to be fantastic. I鈥檓 actually looking forward to it.鈥� 

Duran expressed his gratitude to those who cast their vote for him in the election. 

鈥淚 appreciate all the support. I wouldn鈥檛 be here if it wasn鈥檛 for the people who showed up to vote,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 very humbled by the amount of people who came out and showed support for us.鈥�

Olson, who hoped to flip the seat in the DFL's favor, is the executive director of the Nameless Coalition for the Homeless and a small business owner in Bemidji. He also previously served as a Beltrami County Commissioner and on the Bemidji City Council.

The seat was left open for a newcomer by Matt Grossell after he decided not to seek reelection.