UNITED STATES Representative Jim Hagedorn of Minnesota died on February 17, 2022, leaving a vacancy in Minnesota’s First Congressional District.
Hagedorn won his seat in the 2018 cycle and is survived by his wife Jennifer Carnahan.
Who is late US Rep Jim Hagedorn’s wife?
Representative Hagedorn and Carnahan married in 2018.
Carnahan had served as the chairwoman of the Republican Party of Minnesota from 2017 until she resigned in disgrace.
Carnahan was closely associated with Republican donor and operative Anton Lazzaro, who was charged with ten counts of child sex-trafficking.
Reporting by Minnesota Public Radio found Carnahan likely cast the deciding ballot in a vote that determined whether she would receive her $38,000 severance package.
Rumors swirling among the Minnesota press indicate Carnahan may run for her late husband’s seat.
Who was US Rep Jim Hagedorn?
Jim Hagedorn’s father Tom was a US Congressman representing Minnesota’s 2nd District for nearly ten years.
Jim followed his father’s footsteps into Congress, but not before suffering two close defeats to incumbent Congressman Tim Walz in 2014 and 2016.
Walz vacated his seat when he ran for and won the Minnesota governorship–leaving Hagedorn running for an open seat in his third bid for Congress in 2018.
Hagedorn pulled off a victory in a disastrous midterm cycle for House Republicans.
His first win came by a margin of just 1,315 votes.
Hagedorn’s incumbency proved useful and in the 2020 cycle, he was re-elected by over 10,000 votes.
Filings with the Federal Election Commission indicate Hagedorn’s 2020 campaign raised over $2million, with the largest contributions coming from the Republican Super PAC Take Back the House 2022.
Hagedorn was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2019; he was 59 and battling stage 4 cancer at the time of his death.
How many Congresspeople have died of Covid-19?
Covid-19 has claimed the lives of nearly 1million Americans.
Several politicians, including then-President Donald Trump, have been diagnosed but recovered.
Congressman-elect Luke Letlow died of Covid-19 five days before taking office on December 29, 2020.
Texas Republican Ron Wright became the first sitting Congressman to die of Covid-19 on February 7, 2021.
Hagedorn had tested positive for Covid-19 in January 2022, but his family has not expressly stated that it caused his death as of February 18, 2022.
