Jill Abahsain

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Jill Abahsain

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 8, 2022

Contact

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Jill Abahsain (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Minnesota's 7th Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.

Abahsain completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Elections

2022

See also: Minnesota's 7th Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Minnesota District 7

Incumbent Michelle Fischbach defeated Jill Abahsain and Travis Johnson in the general election for U.S. House Minnesota District 7 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Fischbach (R)	66.9	204,766
		Jill Abahsain (D)	27.6	84,455
		Travis Johnson (Legal Marijuana Now Party)	5.4	16,421
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	224

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 305,866
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 7

Jill Abahsain defeated Alycia Gruenhagen in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 7 on August 9, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jill Abahsain	59.0	14,352
		Alycia Gruenhagen	41.0	9,972

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 24,324
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Mark Lindquist (D)
• Reed Olson (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 7

Incumbent Michelle Fischbach advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 7 on August 9, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Michelle Fischbach	100.0	59,429

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 59,429
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Annette Watson (R)

Legal Marijuana Now Party primary election

Legal Marijuana Now Party primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 7

Travis Johnson advanced from the Legal Marijuana Now Party primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 7 on August 9, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Travis Johnson	100.0	509

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 509
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

2020

See also: Minnesota State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for Minnesota State Senate District 12

Incumbent Torrey Westrom defeated Jill Abahsain in the general election for Minnesota State Senate District 12 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Torrey Westrom (R)	74.4	33,436
		Jill Abahsain (D)	25.5	11,467
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	29

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 44,932
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

The Democratic primary election was canceled. Jill Abahsain advanced from the Democratic primary for Minnesota State Senate District 12.

Republican primary election

The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent Torrey Westrom advanced from the Republican primary for Minnesota State Senate District 12.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jill Abahsain completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Abahsain's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Jill Abahsain believes that a campaign for Congress is a job interview. The voters of western Minnesota's 7th Congressional District are the hiring managers and the HR team – and Jill is an eager applicant for the job.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Jill will support innovative projects for rural health care delivery such as mobile health units and well-coordinated patient transportation options. Moreover, attractive initiatives must be developed to attract more primary care physicians and specialists to our rural areas.
• Student enrollment drives public school funding, so the fewer students enrolled in a district, the less the funding. Rural school districts can average from 20-50% less funding that urban districts. To address this critical inequity, we need to development funding structures that which mitigate lower rural population so that children across America, rural and urban, obtain quality education.
• Our farmers, our families and our nation depends on keeping the farm bill intact as it has been for decades. As your Representative, Jill would vote to renew the farm bill and protect our family farmers.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

- A clean energy future and a healthy climate.

- Meaningful investments in community infrastructure, including affordable housing, utility systems, transportation, and broadband.
- Safe communities and a fair justice system

- Ensuring thriving family farms and family-supporting local jobs

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

Abahsain's campaign website stated the following:

“	Rural Healthcare Healthcare in America is a failing system. There is no acceptable reason for the richest nation in the history of the world to rank 18th among developed countries. Rural healthcare fails at an unparalleled level, further compounding an already an egregious violation of human rights. The Rural Health Disparities Overview reports on a number of these violations. 1) "There are higher rates of uninsured individuals residing in rural or nonmetro counties compared to their counterparts in urban or metro counties." 2) "Healthcare workforce shortages are prevalent throughout rural America." 3) "Specialty and subspecialty healthcare services are less likely to be available in rural areas and are less likely to include specialized and highly sophisticated or high-intensity care. This exacerbates problems for rural patients seeking specialized care who are faced with traveling significant distances for treatment." 4) "Reliable transportation to care can also be a barrier for rural residents due to long distances, poor road conditions, and the limited availability of public transportation options in rural areas." It's easy to brush these off as statistics. At the root of these statements lies an ominous fact. Rural people get less care and it spells a loss of life. These facts are politicized and blamed on those who receive poor care. The people of rural Minnesota are not lazy. Working harder is not the answer. It is not the result of anything that Minnesotans have done wrong. Anyone who would try to convice you otherwise is not representing you. When we elect Jill Abahsain to represent the 7th district of Minnesota, we have elected to live longer, fuller lives. Minnesota, and the nation, deserve better. Healthcare is a human right. It is time to recognize this fact universally. Child Care and Preschool Rural Education Rural people aren't as educated as urban people. If it struck a nerve when you read it, then you understood it correctly. It struck a nerve for me when I wrote it. People in the areas that provide the country with its most important commodities, don't have the access that they need. There was a time when we lead the world in learning. As a result, we became the most prosperous nation the Earth has ever seen. We built railroads and highways. We innovated and invented. Most importantly, we built a strong middle class in the heartland and the people of small town America could pay all of their bills. The first step to removing a peoples' control of their own future is to end critical thinking. There has not yet been complete success in this endeavor, but it's on the rise. Coming generations won't even know that there is a problem if we don't take action now. According to statistics available at ers.usda.gov, 21% of rural Americans over 25 have a bachelors degree. That same demographic in urban areas has 35% of it's population with the same level of education. Bachelors degree median income in 2021 was $52,000 per year. For hischool grads, that's only $29,000. This doesn't even account for those who didn't finish high school. I've found that the easiest way to lose readers is to do math. We're about to do some anyway. .21 x $52,000 = $10,920 .79 x $29,000 = $22,910 $10,920 + 22,910 = $33,830 per person in rural areas .35 x $52,000 = $18,200 .65 x $29,000 = $18,850 $18,200 + $18,850 = $37,050 per person in urban areas $37,050 - $33,830 = $3,220 7th district population = 666,735 666,735 x $3,220 = $2,146,886,700 Rural education is getting better. It still doesn't measure up and it's time to fix that. Is it worth it to you to educate all of our children? Do you think that two-billion dollars would help the 7th distric economy? Can we afford to not invest in our childrens' futures? Please show your work. Jill Abahsain stands with the facts, even when they aren't pleasant. Jill stands with education because she stands with our children's' futures. Protecting the Farm Bill The Farm Bill: Key Components to a Thriving Minnesota Title 1 covers commodities. It provides price support and pays the bills for farmers across the country. Without it, when crops are harvested the prices drop like a rock. When the supply is high, the value drops. Title 1 keeps this more stable. It ensures that you can pay the bills. Title 2 keeps land usable. If we salt the soil, we can't grow crops. We saw a disaster of poor land management during the dust bowl. Over grazing, poor rotation, and over-fertilization all contribute to crop failure. Conserving your farm and the surrounding land are imperative. Title 3 keeps us viable on the world stage. Competing with underdeveloped countries that have low quality and cheap products requires subsidies. It keeps your bottom line higher and America competitive. Title 4 is supplemental nutrition. Every time we use $1 to feed those in need, we add $1.67 to our economy. An enormous part of this lands directly in the pockets of America's farmers. It amounts to 1.8% of taxes and allows family farms to continue to pay the bills. Title 5 extends credit where credit is needed. Every family farm has had a bad year. Sometimes these occur back to back. The federal programs that provide loans in these cases are essential. Title 6 builds rural economies. Rural economic development is needed to build an economy that aids financial growth in Minnesota's 7th District. Title 7 keeps us up to date. Minnesota's farmers will never lose their grit. We are Minnesota Strong. The research portion is about innovation. Any edge we can get in protecting our land and producing our crops, helps to ensure that the next generation can thrive. Title 8 keeps our land viable. The soil washes away when it's not anchored. The forest is directly responsible for keeping our land from being barren. If we neglect to be good stewartds, soon we have nothing left. Title 9 opens the energy market. When we develop biofuels, we open a new avenue for sale, there are greater opportunities for proffit. Developing new revenue streams lifts farmers across the country. Title 10 is to improve horticulture. Certifications, infrastructure and research fuel the advantages of the next generation of farmers. Learning and applying that knowledge creates an environment where our children can succeed. Title 11 prevents total loss. The crop insurance title provides money to farmers to insure their crops. It helps cover losses in yeild and whole farm loss. Title 12 is miscellanious. It lives here if a different title didn't cover it. These are the parts of the bill. They provide a living to our hard working farmers, the energy producers that supply them, and the communities that grew up around them. It is job producing legislation and empowers rural Minnesota. Protecting this bill and the people who have built their lives in the 7th District are Jill Abahsain's top priority. We can not allow Fischbach to bankrupt our communities by decimation of the Farm Bill. Protect your farm and your future in the voting booth on November 8th.	”
—Jill Abahsain's campaign website (2022)

2020

Jill Abahsain did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

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2022 Elections

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Candidate

U.S. House Minnesota District 7

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Footnotes

[show]

Minnesota's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Amy Klobuchar (D)

Tina Smith (D)

Representatives

District 1

Brad Finstad (R)

District 2

Angie Craig (D)

District 3

Kelly Morrison (D)

District 4

Betty McCollum (D)

District 5

Ilhan Omar (D)

District 6

Tom Emmer (R)

District 7

Michelle Fischbach (R)

District 8

Pete Stauber (R)

Democratic Party (6)

Republican Party (4)