NEW ULM, Minn. — Newly elected Congressmen Brad Finstad departed from the family farm before dawn to catch a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Washington to be sworn in.  Finstad will serve 262 days – the remainder of the term of the late Jim Hagedorn. Finstad said he will get right to work and up-to-speed on bills in the House pipeline. He put it in a farm language way: “I have dirt under my fingernails. I’m a John Deere tractor-driving farmer that’s got his sleeves up and ready to get to work.” He also will be back and forth to southern Minnesota campaigning to keep the MN-1 seat in Congress in the November general election. He again will be facing retired Hormel executive Jeff Ettinger of Mankato. Ettinger lost Tuesday’s special MN-1 election to Finstad by two percentage points but won the primary the same day, as did Finstad, to run for a full term in November.

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