VASA, MINN. — Alex Eaton, a small business owner and Vasa resident, has entered the Democratic primary for Minnesota's First Congressional District, challenging DFL-endorsed candidate Jake Johnson ahead of the August 11 primary. The 1st District spans the entire southern border of Minnesota, from South Dakota to Wisconsin. The winner will advance to face Republican incumbent Brad Finstad in November.
With less than two months until the primary, Eaton is launching his campaign with something unusual: a promise to walk it. He is traveling 277 miles on foot across southern Minnesota — from Manley near the South Dakota border to La Crescent on the Mississippi River — documenting the journey in a video series and sitting down with voters of every party along the way.
This week, Eaton sets out on one of the journey's early legs, where he'll be door-knocking in Jackson. He plans to reach La Crescent by early August. New episodes will be released online as the walk unfolds, building toward a finish line that lands before the primary.
"I didn't want to study southern Minnesota from a campaign office. I wanted to walk through it, talk to people on their porches, on the street, in their yards, and have real conversations — the kind you can't have in a 30-second ad. So that's what this is. You're going to see it all, unfiltered."
What Eaton says he has heard, over and over, is that working families feel the system is rigged against people who work for a living. That anger, he argues, is magnified by something both parties share responsibility for: a failure to pass the kind of substantial policy that would actually change the financial standing of working families.
"People can't tell you what the Democratic Party stands for anymore, and that's on us. I'm asking Democrats, Independents, and Republicans to unify around four policies that would seismically change where working families stand financially."
Universal single-payer healthcare; eliminating federal income tax on the first $80K of household earnings ($40K for single filers); a $500/month universal basic income; and universal pre-K education.
Eaton frames the package as a fundamental change to the economic system — one that preserves a thriving, competitive capitalist economy while ensuring every American can earn a living that supports a family.
A Minneapolis native who now makes his home in Vasa, Eaton earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his MBA from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. With 14-plus years in his field, he owns and runs a small business based in the Twin Cities, employing more than 30 people.
To get the campaign off the ground, Eaton has committed $100K of his own money, and is building the fundraising operation a competitive general election will require.