By David Montgomery

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Donald Trump’s electoral wave crashed over rural Minnesota Wednesday, imperiling two Democratic congressmen everyone thought safe.

In the southern Minnesota 1st Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Tim Walz narrowly defeated Republican Jim Hagedorn — who he beat by 10 percentage points in 2014.

Walz received 169,116 votes (50.33 percent) to Hagedorn’s 166,603 (49.59 percent).

Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson narrowly held off a surprisingly close challenge from Republican Dave Hughes in the western Minnesota 7th Congressional District.

Meanwhile Republican Rep. Erik Paulsen fought off a challenge from Democratic state Sen. Terri Bonoff in Minnesota’s 3rd District Tuesday, while battles in the south-suburban 2nd District and northwestern Minnesota 8th District remained undecided into the early morning.

With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Peterson had 52.46 percent of the vote to Hughes’ 47.43 percent. The 7th District has long been Republican-leaning despite Peterson’s success, but it shifted heavily to the right this year. Republican Donald Trump was winning by more than 30 points in a district that Republican Mitt Romney won by 10 points in 2012.

Walz, who has represented the 1st District since 2007, appeared to be hurt by the presidential race: Trump was leading Democrat Hillary Clinton by around 15 points in the 1st District. Four years ago Democrat Barack Obama won the district by 1 percentage point over Republican Mitt Romney.

Democrats had hoped the strong anti-Donald Trump sentiment in the 3rd District would drag Paulsen down with it. But Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump by only 10 points, not the landslide Bonoff needed.

Paulsen collected 56.7 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Bonoff, a lead of 53,839 votes.

Three incumbent lawmakers in safer districts also won comfortably:

•Rep. Betty McCollum, a Democrat representing the east-metro 4th Congressional District.

•Rep. Keith Ellison, a Democrat representing the west-metro 5th Congressional District.

•Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican representing the exurban 6th Congressional District.

In the south-suburban 2nd Congressional District, Republican Jason Lewis was leading Democrat Angie Craig early Wednesday morning with many votes yet uncounted.

With 52 percent of precincts reporting, Lewis had 50 percent of the vote to 41.7 percent for Craig. But Dakota Counties, the biggest vote center in the district, had not reported any results as of 1 a.m.

A Craig campaign statement said there were too many votes yet to be counted to make any decisions.

“We are confident that when all of the results are reported, Angie Craig will be the next Member of Congress from Minnesota’s Second District,” the Craig campaign said.

In the 8th District, Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan led Republican Stewart Mills 50.75 percent to 49.03 percent with 86 percent of precincts reporting.

Craig was favored in 2nd District

Craig was believed to have the edge in the 2nd District, having led in recent polls and significantly outspent Lewis over the whole campaign. But the 2nd District was held by Republican John Kline for 14 years before his retirement this year and national Republicans spent millions of dollars in the hopes of keeping it red.

The bitter campaign was dominated in large part by Lewis, a former talk radio host whose history of inflammatory on-air statements gave Democrats plenty of ammunition for attack ads. Lewis said those attacks were unfair by taking his remarks out of context.

In return, Republicans criticized Craig as too liberal for the district, citing her support for the Affordable Care Act among other Democratic initiatives.

A KSTP/SurveyUSA poll in mid-October found Craig with a 5-point lead, and Clinton leading Trump in the district by 8 points. But with 52 percent of precincts reporting on Election Night, Trump was up by 10 points in the 2nd District.

3rd District: Paulsen beats Bonoff

The 3rd District race featured two candidates running as pro-business moderates.

Bonoff played up her moderate record from the Legislature and tried to tie Paulsen to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who is extremely unpopular in the district.

Paulsen distanced himself from Trump, cast himself as a pragmatic lawmaker, and painted Bonoff as a big-spending liberal.

8th District: Nolan vs: Mills

The 8th District saw a rematch between Democratic Rep. Rick Nolan and Republican challenger Stewart Mills. Among the most expensive races in the country, the 8th District saw about $24 million in total spending, much from outside groups.

Nolan and his allies focused on economic issues and argued that the millionaire Mills was out of touch with the 8th District’s working-class character. Mills and his backers criticized Nolan over foreign policy and health care and tied him to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, seen as unpopular in the 8th.