Former U.S. Congressman Tom Hagedorn, left, with his son, Congressman Jim Hagedorn, when the younger Hagedorn first took office in 2019. A special election will be held to replace Hagedorn, who died last week.

A special election will be held to fill the First District Congressional seat formerly held by Republican Jim Hagedorn of Blue Earth.

Hagedorn died on Thursday evening, Feb. 17, in Rochester. He had been battling kidney cancer for the past several years. He was 59 years old.

The special election will be held on the same date as the Statewide Primary Election this year, on Aug. 9.

Candidates for the special election can file between March 1 and March 15. If more than one candidate files for election, there will be a primary election on May 24 in order to narrow the candidates to just one per party.

The special election will use the current boundaries of the First Congressional District. The person elected will fill out the remaining time of Congressman Hagedorn’s term, which ends in January, 2023.

However, during the General Election in November, a person will be elected to a new two-year term to represent the new First Congressional District, which has somewhat different boundaries than the current one.

That person’s term will begin in January of 2023. It is possible the same person who is elected to fill out Rep. Hagedorn’s term will then also be elected to the full two-year term in November, which will begin in January 2023.

Hagedorn was in his second two-year term as the First District Congressman. He had run three times before winning the House seat for the first time 2018.

He first ran in 2010 but failed to get the Republican nomination. He ran again in 2014 but lost to incumbent Congressman Tim Walz. He narrowly lost to Walz again in 2016. In 2018 he narrowly defeated Democrat Dan Feehan, and defeated Feehan again in 2020.

Hagedorn had been born in Blue Earth in 1962, and spent much of his youth both on the family farm near Truman, and in Washington DC while his father, Tom Hagedorn, served as the Second District Congressman from Minnesota beginning in 1974.

He attended George Mason University and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government and politics. In 1984 he was a legislative assistant to Congressman Arlan Stangeland. He also spent time as a congressional affairs officer for two U.S. Department of the Treasury agencies.

In 2018, Hagedorn married Jennifer Carnahan. He has been living in Blue Earth for more than 10 years and was a member of the Blue Earth Lions Club and attended church at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Blue Earth.