Rep. John Poston, R-Lake Shore, was cruising to another term in the Minnesota House with 14,010 votes (74.09%) to DFLer Alex Hering’s 4,874 (25.77%) as of 4 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4.
Politics got unusually heated — for central Minnesota — in the contest between Poston and Hering, with the latter providing most of the fireworks when he accused Poston of negligence and partisan gamesmanship during the COVID-19 crisis. For his part, Poston denied Hering’s accusations had any credence and said Hering was ignorant of the state of affairs down in St. Paul to make such claims.
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Those accusations stand in stark contrast to how Poston has presented himself — an even-keeled, pragmatic politician with an aversion to partisan infighting from both sides of the aisle. For his part, Hering framed his second run for the seat in terms of addressing people’s material needs, a change in governing philosophy that would speak to rural Minnesotans’ wants and needs to achieve prosperity.
Going into Election Day, the seat had been firmly in Poston’s camp for years, with dominant wins over Hering in 2018 with 11,376 to 5,021 (or 69.3% to 30.6%), and 13,304 over 6,078 (or 68.64% to 31.36%) when he triumphed over Megg Litts in 2016. Previously, Republican Mark Anderson cruised to comfortable wins in 2014 and 2012 as well, never dipping below 58%.
