1978Flipped from DemocraticFinal resultsIncumbent defeated
1978 election for Minnesota House District 38B
Minnesota House of Representatives · Minnesota
Bill Peterson (R) won with 53.8% of the vote, defeating Lyle Abein (D) by 7.6 points, a seat Democrats won last time.
Bill PetersonRepublican · winner
53.8%5,338
Lyle AbeinDemocrat · incumbent
46.2%4,583
9,921 votes
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1978
Races before and after
Source: Harvard Dataverse / Carl KlarnerUpdated Sep 30, 2026, 7:29 AM ET