First Name Surfaces as Possible GOP Front-Runner for Al Franken's Senate Seat

By Jason Hopkins January 3, 2018 at 9:54am

With Al Franken’s resignation from the Senate now effective, a familiar Minnesota politician is openly considering a run to replace him.

Michelle Bachmann, who represented Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District for eight years and ran for president in 2012, is seriously mulling a campaign for Franken’s old seat — which will be up for grabs in the 2018 midterm elections.

Speaking to televangelist Jim Bakker in a recent interview, the former Republican congresswoman expressed her thoughts on whether to throw her hat in the ring.

“I’ve had people contact me and urge me to run for that Senate seat. The only reason I would run is for the ability to take these principles into the United States Senate and to be able to advocate for these principles,” Bachmann said, referring to biblical ethics and her strong Christian beliefs.

“The question is, ‘should it be me? Should it be now?’ But there’s also costs, there’s a price you pay,” the former congresswoman said of the toll it takes to run for political office.

“And the price is bigger than ever because the swamp is so toxic.”

Bachmann went on to deride the influence of money in politics, stating that wealthy candidates can sustain the barrage of costly campaign attacks and that not many average Americans like her are working on Capitol Hill.

The former congresswoman also touted the role she played in the 2012 GOP primary, suggesting that her strong position against Obamacare shifted her colleagues to the right on health care.

Bachmann is well known for her religious beliefs and the role it plays in her politics. She, along with her husband, fasted and prayed for three days before deciding to run for Congress in 2006, according to The U.K. Guardian.

She said she is currently asking God whether to run for Franken’s seat.

Plagued by mounting accusations of sexual misconduct, which included allegations by seven different women, Franken announced in late 2017 that he would be vacating his Senate seat.

His resignation became effective Tuesday.

Fortunately for Senate Democrats, the governor of Minnesota, Mark Dayton, is a member of their party — meaning he’d be appointing another Democrat before voters ultimately decide who fills the remainder of Franken’s term.

Dayton has appointed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to the seat and will be sworn into office on Wednesday.

Franken won re-election in 2014, meaning whoever wins this year’s election to succeed him will have to face voters yet again in 2020.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is also running for re-election in 2018, giving Republicans two separate opportunities to capture a Senate seat in a state that has historically voted blue, but trending red.

Minnesota, a mid-western state that hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential nominee since Richard Nixon in 1972, voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by the smallest of margins — only 1.5 percentage point. The large partisan swing flipped historically blue areas over to the Republicans’ column, giving the Minnesota GOP big reason to believe the state is in play in 2018.

“Absolutely, we’re very focused on targeting those districts to expand our majority,” Chris Martin, regional press secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee, previously stated to The Western Journal.

Marin was speaking of congressional races flipped by Trump which include the northeastern part of Minnesota, where working-class voters heavily favored the Republican nominee over Hillary Clinton.

As for Bachmann, she has not made an official decision but will be praying for what to do in the coming weeks.

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