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Race for Congress begins to heat up

FAIRMONT — Dan Feehan threw his hat in the DFL ring earlier this week, seeking his party’s endorsement for Minnesota’s First Congressional District seat currently held by Tim Walz.

The 34-year-old Mankato resident is no stranger to Washington, D.C., and the political circuit. From 2013-17, he served in the Obama administration under Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, eventually performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.

Feehan recently visited Fairmont to meet with voters and address the local Rotary Club. He explained how his background in service to others will help bridge the partisan fray in Congress.

“That’s my motivation, to try to be the opposite of that,” he said. “Anything I’ve ever accomplished in service is with people that don’t agree with each other. When you come together in service, you have to compromise. You have to talk to each other, and you have to understand each other’s perspective. You have to understand each other as people, and you have to understand the differences that exist.”

Feehan was born in St. Paul and grew up in Red Wing. He earned a bachelor’s degree in international politics from Georgetown University in 2005 and felt compelled to military service in the wake of 9/11.

He served in the U.S. Army from 2005-09, completing two tours in Iraq and earning the Bronze Star, the Army Commendation Medal with Valor and the Ranger Tab. He achieved the rank of captain.

In 2009, he met his wife, Amy, when he was teaching fifth- and sixth-grade math to low-income students in Gary, Ind. The couple has two sons, Conor, 6, and Declan, 3.

Feehan returned to school, receiving a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in 2013, after which he joined the Pentagon staff.

“I got a chance to make federal policy. It was absolutely an eye-opening experience,” he said. “I’ve seen some of the best ideas in the world not make it because they don’t know how to navigate politics and some not-so-great ideas make it because they do. It is the reality of the political system.”

So why would a young family man want to immerse himself in that political world?

“If not me, then who? If not now, then when?” Feehan said. “I feel much older than I am. I had some tough experiences. War at 23 — that ages you in a way that you just don’t know until you experience it.”

Military veterans, health care and economic opportunity are the top three issues Feehan has encountered as he talks to voters throughout the First Congressional District.

“The last couple of months, I’ve learned a lot,” he said. “People want economic opportunity, but a four-year degree is not the only pathway. That’s something I would work tirelessly on, to find training programs to get funded throughout the district.

He called health care “a right” and believes the current health care bills in Congress are “an enormous step backwards.” He wants a chance to restart the conversation on affordable health care for all.

Feehan points to his military service, experience as a Washington policymaker and his teaching stint as a solid springboard to his candidacy.

“Every group I’ve ever led — soldiers, students — I guarantee they didn’t 100 percent agree with my politics, but they agreed with my leadership,” he said. “They knew that I had their best interests at heart.”

Feehan joins a growing pool of candidates hoping to get the DFL endorsement. Several competitors across the district are considering a run, and four already have announced their candidacy: Former state Sen. Vicki Jensen of Owatonna, John Austinson of Eyota, Johnny Akzam of Rochester and Colin Minehart of Albert Lea.

On the Republican side, Republican Jim Hagedorn is once again trying to claim the seat, which he nearly won in 2016. Meanwhile Walz, who is serving his sixth term, is running for governor of Minnesota.

Feehan currently is writing and researching on the military as an adjunct senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security, an independent, bipartisan, nonprofit organization that develops national security and defense policies through fact-based research, ideas and analysis.

More information is available on his campaign website, www.danfeehan.com

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