CD7 Democrats endorse Erik Osberg for Congress after Otter Tail push

Erik Osberg’s push through Otter Tail County helped lift him to the Minnesota 7th Congressional District DFL endorsement, giving Democrats a candidate who has spent more than a year trying to recast the party’s message in one of the state’s most Republican regions.

Delegates endorsed Osberg at a district convention in Granite Falls on Saturday, April 25, 2026, one day after Republican incumbent Michelle Fischbach secured the GOP endorsement in Marshall. The parallel decisions set up another high-stakes race in a district that stretches across the western half of Minnesota, covers 38 counties in whole or part, and runs from the Canadian border toward Iowa.

Osberg, a Wadena resident and the Rural Rebound Initiative coordinator in Otter Tail County, launched his campaign on March 11, 2025. Since then, he has pressed the same message on the trail: visit every county, connect with voters face to face, and make rural Democrats sound like they understand rural life. He has said the campaign is about changing how Democrats are viewed outside the Twin Cities and about keeping the focus on agriculture, education and health care.

That pitch has been part of his organizing in Otter Tail County, where the county DFL held its own convention on April 11, 2026, ahead of the district gathering. For Osberg, the county has been more than a stop on the schedule. It has been a test of whether a Democrat can build a credible foothold in west-central Minnesota by leaning into local issues rather than national partisan labels.

The endorsement does not erase the district’s recent voting history. Fischbach defeated Democrat A. John Peters in 2024 by a margin of 70.45 percent to 29.44 percent, and she first won the seat in 2020 by upsetting longtime Democrat Collin Peterson. Still, Osberg has argued that even modest Democratic gains in CD7 would matter in a district this red, where turnout, organization and local message discipline can shape the size of the Republican edge.

After the endorsement, Osberg said he was “humbled and honored” by the support and said the campaign’s task now was to unite western Minnesota around restoring the district’s federal representation. The next major test comes with the primary on August 11, 2026, followed by the general election on November 3, 2026.