A Cloquet High School social studies teacher just flipped a Republican-held seat in the Minnesota House, defeating two-term incumbent Jeff Dotseth by more than 11 percentage points in District 11A. Chris Swanson, who has taught at the high school since 2001, won the race by a 2,310-vote margin, according to one local tally of the results.
Swanson's win marks a reversal for a district that has leaned Republican in recent cycles, as reported by the Duluth News Tribune. District 11A covers all of Carlton County, the Fond du Lac Reservation portion of St. Louis County, and northern Pine County, an area where forestry, agriculture, a casino, and a relatively new meat processing plant anchor the local economy. Dotseth had held the seat since 2022, when he narrowly defeated DFL challenger Pete Radosevich with 51.4% of the vote, per the same outlet.
Swanson told the Duluth News Tribune that he decided to run for state office to tone down the rhetoric and work toward solutions, and he has described himself as someone able to speak to both sides of the aisle. He said one of the biggest issues facing residents of the district is the rising cost of living. Campaign season also meant a lot of shoe leather: Swanson estimates he personally knocked on up to 4,000 doors in the race, the paper reported.
A Door-Knocking Campaign Built on Local Roots
Before heading to the state capitol, Swanson had already built a public record in Cloquet. According to the Pine Knot News, he served as Ward 3 city councilor from 2019 through 2022 and was finishing an appointed Ward 1 term at the time of the election. That local-government experience, paired with his classroom career, gave him a built-in network of voters who already knew his name.
Among his stated priorities heading into office are bringing economic development funding back into the northern part of the state and ensuring fire and EMS services are appropriately funded, according to an election guide from KAXE. Affordability concerns dovetail with the funding gaps he says have hit northern Minnesota communities particularly hard.
A Decades-Long Political Shift in Carlton County
The result lands against the backdrop of a broader realignment in Carlton County, which Trump carried in 2024 by just 530 votes, less than three percentage points, per the Star Tribune. Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar still won the county with 54% of the vote that same year, the paper noted, underscoring how split the local electorate has become. Reports differ on just how close Dotseth's prior race against Radosevich actually was: the Star Tribune put that 2024 margin at about 1 percentage point, while Pine Knot News described Dotseth beating Radosevich by roughly 3 percent in both 2022 and 2024.
Dotseth's time in office was also shadowed by decades-old legal history. He was arrested in 2008 on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge and later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, according to the Star Tribune's review of court filings. Dotseth denied the allegations against him at the time.
Part of a Wider DFL Push Across the Northeast
Swanson's win fits into a larger pattern of Democratic gains across northeastern Minnesota this cycle. In a closely watched state Senate rematch, Grant Hauschild held his seat against Republican Andrea Zupancich by a 54-to-46 margin, according to MPR News — four years after he first won that seat by only 703 votes. Both parties poured well over $1 million in outside spending into that race, the outlet reported. In a separate contest, Democrat Aaron Schweiger flipped House District 3B, defeating Republican incumbent Natalie Zeleznikar with 53% of the vote.
Those local wins arrive as the DFL appears positioned to regain control of both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature, according to MinnPost. For Swanson, the broader statewide momentum is secondary to the message he says he carried door to door across Carlton County: a promise to lower the temperature and look for common ground in a region that has, by multiple measures, spent the last several years deeply divided at the ballot box.
