Election Results At Last

The Results at last- a second update on local election results: just after 3 am on the day after the nation elected Donald J. Trump to the highest office in the country. Voters looking for results in Minnesota however, would wait nearly 2 hours beyond that announcement due to delays in learning the tabulations in Dakota County. The unofficial talley reported by the Dakota County Website begins with city races in Hastings with 4 wards choosing city council members. In Ward 1, a seat vacated by Tony Alongi will go to Tina Folch, elected over challenger Bryan Alpaugh with a total of 1569 votes to 910 votes cast for Alpaugh. In Ward 2, Incumbant Joe Balsanek will retain his council seat with 1386 votes cast in his win over challenger Adam Estenson who received 1098 votes. Moving to Ward 3, incumbent Tony Nelson was defeated by a 1601 to 1263 margin by candidate Lisa Leifeld. And in Ward 4 Incumbent Danna Elling Schultz received 1170 votes versus challenger Trevor Lund who received 1582 votes to unseat Schultz for that race.
A correction as well for the results of the hotly contested Congressional Seat for the 2nd District. Former Talk Radio personality Jason Lewis bested Democratic challenger businesswoman Angie Craig with a 2 percent margin in a contest that was lopsided in funding support, the Lewis campaign spending 664,000 to Craig’s 2.1 million while and Independence Candidate Paula Overby finished a distant third. The Senate Race for District 54 was won by Democrat endorsed Dan Schoen with 8,075 votes against first time candidate Leilani Homestadt who received just 7228 of the votes cast in the bid for the seat previously held by Katie Sieben. The contest for the House seat, held for more than 14 years by Denny McNamara will go to Tony Jurgens who recieved 6717 votes versus his opponent Don Slaten who received 5304. These numbers were provided by the Dakota County election site and will not be official until canvassed on Thursday. Stay tuned to KDWA for our local reaction from the candidates and local residents on the choices made in this historic election.