Republican Brad Finstad has held Minnesota's 1st District seat in Congress since August 12, 2022, and on November 3, 2026 he is asking voters to return him. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act cleared the House on May 22, 2025 with not a vote to spare, 215 to 214, and his yes was one of the 215; he then voted for the final law, under which KFF projects Minnesota will receive $19.1 billion less in federal Medicaid funds across a decade, money that pays for care for 140,000 people in his district.
About Brad Finstad
- Full name
- Brad Finstad, Republican, entered in the House Clerk's member profiles under Minnesota's 1st District
- Current role
- Congressman for Minnesota's 1st District and a member of the House Agriculture, Armed Services and Small Business committees
- In office since
- Has represented Minnesota's 1st District since August 12, 2022
- Seeking
- Re-election to the 1st District seat, on the ballot November 3, 2026
- Key votes
- Adoption of H.Con.Res. 14, February 25, 2025, and concurrence in its final version, April 10, 2025; H.R. 1's passage in the House, May 22, 2025, and the final House vote on it, July 3, 2025; H.Res. 1156, a resolution commending the law, April 16, 2026
What Brad Finstad Is Responsible For
- Medicaid. Over ten years, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act strips $19.1 billion in federal Medicaid funding from Minnesota, KFF estimates, and state health officials expect about 140,000 Minnesotans to lose coverage. Finstad's yes was indispensable to the bill's 215-to-214 House passage on May 22, 2025, and he went on to vote for the final law on July 3.
- Medicaid work requirements and coverage. Medicaid expansion adults, 22,800 of them in Minnesota's 1st District, will have to log 80 hours a month of work or other activity under the law Finstad voted for, with states required to start the rule "no later than January 1, 2027," and KFF projects 170,000 more uninsured Minnesotans in 2034.
- Hospitals and rural health. Under the law Finstad voted for, rural Minnesota loses $4.3 billion in federal Medicaid spending over ten years by KFF's estimate, and KFF also lists Minnesota's hospital tax among the provider taxes the law's limits are expected to shrink.
- Food assistance. At least 18,000 Minnesotans were cut from SNAP in the law's first year, by the state auditor's count, under a law Finstad voted for that reduces SNAP by $187 billion through 2034, the biggest cut the program has ever taken, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found. His February 2025 vote also decided the budget plan that set a savings target of at least $230 billion for the Agriculture Committee, which oversees SNAP.
- Medicare. The law Finstad voted for ends Medicare eligibility for refugees, asylees and other lawfully present immigrants, a step KFF says Congress had never taken, and its tax changes leave the Medicare hospital fund serving Minnesota's 1,150,958 enrollees projected to be depleted in the second quarter of 2033, one quarter sooner than the prior forecast.
- Nursing homes. Of the 20,226 people in Minnesota nursing homes, 53% rely mainly on Medicaid, and the law Finstad voted for keeps the federal staffing standard for those homes unenforced through September 30, 2034.
- Social Security. Trust funds paying 158,838 Social Security beneficiaries in Minnesota's 1st District carry $168.6 billion in added net costs through 2034 because of the law Finstad voted for, Social Security's chief actuary estimates.
- The child tax credit. In Minnesota's 1st District, 26,000 children, 18%, fall short of the credit's full value under the law Finstad voted for because their families' earnings are too low, the Center on Poverty and Social Policy estimates, and a resolution he voted for in April 2026 praised the law's credit.
- Student loans. Moving from SAVE to the Repayment Assistance Plan, born in the House bill Finstad's vote decided, costs Minnesota borrowers $2,428 more a year on average, by the Center for American Progress's estimate.
- Taxes and the deficit. The top tenth of households gains $13,600 a year under the law while the lowest-income households lose about $1,200, Thomson Reuters reported from a Congressional Budget Office estimate, and the deficit room came from the April 2025 budget plan that Finstad's vote decided, which allowed up to $4.5 trillion in added deficits.
- Energy bills. Minnesota households could pay roughly $410 more a year for energy by 2035 because the law Finstad voted for repeals clean-energy tax credits, according to an Energy Innovation projection.
- Jobs. The energy provisions of the law Finstad voted for mean, in Energy Innovation's projection, that "Workers suffer 760,000 lost jobs by 2030."
- Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood went a year without federal Medicaid payments under the law Finstad voted for, and it reported the closing of nearly 30 of its health centers that year, with Medicaid visits down 25%, more than 250,000 visits.
- Immigration enforcement money. With Finstad's vote, the law put $170.7 billion into immigration and border enforcement, the American Immigration Council says, and by March 2026 "nearly 70,000 people are in ICE detention, the highest number in several years," NPR reported.
- The consumer bureau. Under the law Finstad voted for, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding ceiling nearly halved, from 12% to 6.5% of a Federal Reserve benchmark, or about $446 million in fiscal 2025 instead of $823 million, as estimated by the Congressional Research Service.
- Silencer and short-barreled gun registration. Buyers of silencers and of rifles and shotguns with short barrels no longer owe a $200 federal tax because of the law Finstad voted for, and once a court ruled that the repeal undercut their registration, the ATF stopped requiring it on October 9, 2026.
How This Page on Brad Finstad Is Sourced
Each vote cited here links to the official roll call kept by the Clerk of the House, starting with the one that passed H.R. 1 in May 2025. Minnesota and 1st District numbers link to the dataset or report they come from, among them KFF's district Medicaid enrollment data and the Social Security Administration's congressional district statistics, while national estimates link to sources such as the Congressional Budget Office, and this page was last updated on October 27, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions About Brad Finstad
What is Brad Finstad's record under Trump?
Under Trump, Brad Finstad cast yes votes on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's budget plans, its rules, its House passage and its final passage, and seven of those votes were decisive, including the 215-to-214 House passage and both 2025 budget resolutions, and his yes also went to the final law. KFF estimates Minnesota will lose $19.1 billion in federal Medicaid funding over a decade, and the law also cuts SNAP by $187 billion nationally and, by the chief actuary's estimate, piles $168.6 billion onto Social Security's net costs. In April 2026 he cast another vote, this one for a resolution praising it.
Would the Big Beautiful Bill have failed in the House without Brad Finstad's vote?
Yes, on May 22, 2025: Brad Finstad was among the 215 who passed the House version against 214, so his no would have meant defeat. His yes was just as necessary on the two budget resolution tallies of 2025, February's 217 to 215 and April's 216 to 214.
Who in southern Minnesota's 1st District is affected by Brad Finstad's votes?
In Minnesota's 1st District, Brad Finstad's votes reach 140,000 people on Medicaid, 60,700 of them children, along with 158,838 Social Security recipients and 26,000 children whose parents' incomes leave them short of the whole child tax credit, by the Columbia poverty center's estimate.
How much federal Medicaid funding is Minnesota losing because of Brad Finstad's votes?
KFF's estimate for the law Brad Finstad voted for is $19.1 billion over ten years, with a range from $14.3 billion to $23.9 billion, equal to 15% of Minnesota's expected federal Medicaid dollars. Of that, $4.3 billion comes out of rural Minnesota, and the state Department of Human Services projects a $200 million yearly federal funding loss from the work requirement alone.
What does the SNAP cost shift Brad Finstad voted for cost Minnesota?
Under the law Brad Finstad voted for, Minnesota has paid 75 percent of SNAP's administrative costs since October 2026, and in fiscal 2028 its 2025 error rate of 12.58 percent could put it on the hook for about $130 million in benefit costs, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates. The Minnesota Reformer put the state's projected share at around $250 million over two years, before the added administrative costs.
What did Brad Finstad vote for in April 2026?
Brad Finstad voted on April 16, 2026 for H.Res. 1156, a resolution calling the law the "Working Families Tax Cuts" and claiming it hands a 15 percent tax cut to the lowest-earning 40 percent of Americans. By the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy's analysis, "For the poorest fifth of Americans, the average tax change from OBBBA is a small tax increase."
Last updated: 2026-10-27