Jennifer Carnahan, widow of Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.), announced Monday she'll be running for her late husband's House seat in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, Minnesota's Park Rapids Enterprise reports.
Hagedorn died of kidney cancer in February. He was 59.
"Though my heart is still heavy after Jim's passing, the encouragement I have received from throughout southern Minnesota has inspired me to carry on his legacy by running to complete the remainder of his term," Carnahan said in a statement, per Fox News. "In the final weeks before his passing, Jim told me to keep forging ahead, to keep reaching my dreams, and to win this seat."
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Previously, "Carnahan was elected to a third two-year term as state GOP chair," only to resign after federal prosecutors filed sex trafficking charges against a donor to which she had close ties, writes Park Rapids Enterprise.
She is now the 16th individual to announce their candidacy for the upcoming special election, the primary for which will be held on May 24, with an election on Aug. 9. At least eight other Republicans have entered the race, per Park Rapids Enterprise.
At the time, it's unclear if Carnahan will run in the general election in November.
"Like [former] President Trump, I am a businesswoman and fighter," the new candidate continued in her statement. "Here in Minnesota, I disrupted the status quo and brought the Republican Party back to relevance. Now, I ask for the support of southern Minnesota to do the same in Washington."
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