MINNEAPOLIS — St. Louis County Commissioner Pete Stauber used his official county email account to request opposition research from the National Republican Congressional Committee as he geared up his campaign for the U.S. House seat from northeastern Minnesota, emails released under court order Tuesday show.

The county released the 22 emails after the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party sued for access to them, arguing that they were public data under the state’s open records law. District Judge Stoney Hiljus signed an order Monday for the county to turn them over.

Stauber faces Democrat Joe Radinovich and Independence Party candidate Skip Sandman in a race that’s considered one of the GOP’s best chances in the country to flip a House seat now held by a Democrat. The race has already attracted over $8.6 million in outside spending.

The emails show that Stauber requested opposition research on Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan in August 2017, ahead of a congressional field hearing in Duluth on veterans’ health care issues. Stauber wrote that he needed “Nolan’s anti-Veteran votes” so he could get people to attend.

Stauber made that request before Nolan announced in February that he would drop out of the race and retire. He also traded messages last December with the NRCC’s regional press secretary, Maddie Anderson, discussing how they might use Nolan’s support for internet neutrality against him.