Rep. Betty McCollum facing May Xiong in rematch for 4th District seat
MINNEAPOLIS — Longtime DFL Rep. Betty McCollum is squaring off against Republican May Lor Xiong for the 4th Congressional District seat in a rematch from the 2022 election.
McCollum easily beat out Xiong with 67.7% of the vote in 2022. Xiong was the first Hmong Republican in the country to win a primary for a U.S. House seat. Minnesota is home to more than 80,000 Hmong people, one of the largest populations in the country. Data show more than half of the state's Hmong population live in Ramsey County, which is in the 4th District.
McCollum has held the 4th Congressional District seat since 2000.
The 4th District includes Minnesota's capital city of St. Paul and suburbs in Ramsey and Washington counties. In 2022, the district had a population of 709,000 with a median age of around 36, according to Data USA. There were over four times more White residents in the district than any other race or ethnicity in 2022.
The candidates
Prior to Congress, McCollum served seven years in the Minnesota House from 1993 to 2000. Before that, she was a city council member for North St. Paul.
McCollum is the mother of two adult children and lives in St. Paul. She currently serves on the U.S. House Appropriations Committee, the Defense Subcommittee and the Interior-Environment Subcommittee.
Xiong was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and spent eight years there before immigrating to the United States. She has four kids, two of which have served in the military. Xiong served as a teacher in the St. Paul school district for 20 years. She beat out Gene Rechtzigel in the August primary.
Key issues
Xiong lists as her top priorities: inflation, education, securing the border, protecting and restoring Title IX, and restoring the country's credibility around the world in an effort to stop wars.
McCollum's top priorities include getting federal funding for the district, protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid for seniors and people with disabilities and providing access to affordable, quality healthcare for all Minnesotans.
