VASA, MINN. — Alex Eaton, Democratic congressional candidate and a small business owner in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, will host the first in a series of campaign events across Minnesota's 1st Congressional District. 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.
Eaton will meet with voters and talk about his policies and then head out to knock on doors and talk with voters about what's important to them.
Eaton 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.
"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."
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. With Democratic leaders unable to articulate a clear plan for the working class, he says, he is calling on voters across the political spectrum to join the campaign and "never stop until these four policies are passed."
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+ years in his field, he owns and runs a small business based in the Twin Cities, employing more than 30 people. This experience, he says, shaped his conviction that the economy works for those at the top while leaving working families behind.
Eaton says the decision to run grew out of frustration with his own party. Democrats, he argues, have been either unwilling or unable to take on the problems crushing the middle class: a broken and expensive health care system, a tax burden that falls hardest on families trying to climb into the middle class, the soaring cost of child care, and an economy increasingly rigged toward the wealthy.
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.
The walking series will launch later this week and blends footage from his journey across Minnesota with narration from his home in Vasa, telling one continuous story across several episodes that culminates with the August 11 primary. He has a growing library of campaign videos already online, including "Fraud and Where'd Our Money Go?" and "Why Are Minnesotans Driving to Mexico for Medicine?" New episodes will be posted throughout the walk. Voters can follow the journey at alexeaton.org and on social media at @alexeaton132 (YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, X).
Contact: Juan Rodriguez, Communications Director — juan@alexeaton.org — (507) 302-3340