
Rochester, MN — March 11, 2022 — Today, State Representative Nels Pierson, III, announced his candidacy for the First Congressional District (CD) Republican Special Primary Election and General Election for the upcoming 118th Congress. According to state law, the Special Election is being held on May 24, 2022, to fulfill the remainder of the Honorable Jim Hagedorn’s term, who passed away in February.
Nels Pierson is a lifelong resident of the 1st CD and has the breadth of life experience working with people across many industries needed to represent CD 1 in Washington, D.C. Growing up near Butterfield in the west, graduating from college in the center, and raising a family in Rochester in the east, Nels has a firm understanding of the day-to- day realities faced by his neighbors throughout the 1st Congressional District.
“The citizens in the counties, cities, and townships of the old and the new 1st Congressional District are my family, friends, neighbors, and I’ve known them well,” said Nels Pierson. “As a state legislator, I’ve worked in a collaborative way to pass the priorities of southern Minnesota. Similarly, as president of a construction company, I’ve worked with developers and builders to find solutions to get jobs done,” said Nels. “In helping people find solutions that last, I’ve made their priorities my priorities.”
“Solving problems are not easy, quick, or perfect, but I hope my constituents and neighbors in the First Congressional District know that I work to make government work for them and not against them. It would be an honor to expand my ability to work on their behalf in the halls of Congress.”
“In entering this race for Congress, I ask the people of CD1 for their consideration and vote in the May Primary 24 and again in the special election and general election primary on August 9,” he said.
Pierson is the son of a dairy farmer and a school teacher. He spent summers working on the family dairy farm and a manufacturing assembly line in the western part of the district so that he could earn a bachelor’s degree from Gustavus Adolphus College, in St. Peter, Minnesota, in the district’s center. After graduation, he moved east, where he met his wife Nicole, an architectural designer in Rochester, MN.
They have been married for over 20 years and have five children through birth and adoption. After years of redeveloping building properties, he most recently became President of AB Systems, a commercial construction company based in Rochester, MN, that designs, builds, & renovates buildings.
In 2014, he won his first race to serve the voters in House District 26B comprising 14 of Olmsted County’s 18 townships. During his time in the Legislature, he has served on Committees for Agriculture Finance, Agriculture Policy, Capital Investment, and Health and Human Services Finance Committees, including the Human Services Finance and Policy and Behavioral Health Policy Division, and the Legislative Audit Commission.
To follow Nels’s campaign for Congress, please visit Nels.com.
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