The following article by Simone Pathé was posted on the Roll Call website January 4, 2018:
New Minnesota senator will face voters in November special election
Tina Smith just got here. And now she has 10 months to try to keep her new job as Minnesota’s junior senator.
She’ll face voters in a November special election to fill out former Democratic-Farmer-Labor Sen. Al Franken’s term. It’s an incredibly condensed timeline for what could be a competitive race in a state Hillary Clinton won by less than 2 points in 2016.
Smith starts with the disadvantages of incumbency — having a day job one thousand miles away from home — without all of the advantages. Her Democratic peers up for re-election this year will have had a full two-year cycle to put together a campaign, not to mention at least six years in the Senate to fundraise and build a brand.
“The focus has been on putting the core infrastructure in place that can support a campaign, scaling very fast,” a close adviser to Smith and her campaign said Wednesday.
Watch: Pence Swears in Democratic Sens. Jones and Smith
View the post here.