Jake’s campaign in MN-01 continues to be featured in national, state, and local news.

As Jake’s campaign for Congress continues to gain momentum, recent reporting in the New York Times, KARE 11, and Faribault Daily News highlighted Johnson’s bipartisan, problem-solving approach to lowering costs, offering a clear contrast to Rep. Brad Finstad’s extreme ideological record in Congress.

Read the key takeaways:  

New York Times: How the ICE Raids Turned Minnesota Politics Upside Down

• “Several top state and federal offices are up for grabs amid a period of crisis with few if any precedents in the state’s history. [...] the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Minnesota’s Republican-held, heavily rural First District to its list of 2026 targets, citing internal polls showing a narrowing contest.”

• A “well-funded, poorly trained militia” — Jake describing ICE’s activities in the context of what has happened in Minnesota.

• “I don’t see [abolishing ICE] as the best way of moving forward” — Jake quoted in response to proposals to abolish ICE.

KARE 11: Democratic Hopeful Jake Johnson & Republican State Senator Jeremy Miller | On the Record

Key quotes from Jake include:

• “What I think we need are people in Congress who are willing to work with people across party lines. Republicans, Democrats, Independents need to work together to meaningfully deliver for the people in southern Minnesota and across this country.”

• “Our congressman got elected in 2024 with a promise that he would make things cheaper for people. Then he got elected and he did things that were exactly opposed to that.”

• What I’m hearing from farmers, and it doesn’t matter what party they’re from, what part of the district they’re from, they do not like the tariffs, they’re a bad deal. Our farmers pay checkoff dollars and they’ve paid them for generations to build up export markers.”

• “I think both parties need to take a look at the loss of faith in our democratic institutions. I would push very hard for banning members of Congress from buying and selling stocks. Nobody should be getting rich going to Congress. We also need term limits so we don’t have lifetime politicians consolidating power at our expense.”

Faribault Daily News: DFL roundtable in Faribault draws farmers, candidates

• “The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party hosted a roundtable on April 15 in Faribault featuring farmers and political candidates. Key topics discussed at the DFL event included farm subsidies, concerns regarding costs to raise livestock and health care.”

• Jake highlighted what gives him optimism, despite so many people’s pessimism at this moment: “I get to travel across 21 counties in southern Minnesota and talk to people. There are people down on America and down on Minnesota, and I can tell you that the people that I’ve talked to know that it can be better and are tired of settling for less. However, there are a ton of people in Minnesota who are willing to do things politically and in their communities in an effort to make improvements that maybe they haven’t done before, and those kinds of people give me hope.”