Dan Feehan, congressional candidate for Minnesota’s first district, was in Austin Tuesday afternoon to meet with city leaders to form connections that he says will be important should he be elected.

Feehan, who is running for the seat held by Rep. Tim Walz, who is running for Minnesota governor, said his main reason for visiting communities like Austin to connect.

“This week I’m focused on the partnerships with communities somebody who runs for Congress hopes to have should I be elected,” Feehan said before meeting with Austin Mayor Tom Stiehm, City Administrator Craig Clark and Councilwoman Janet Anderson at city hall.

In particular Feehan is hoping to touch base with communities like Austin on those policies and and subjects close to the hearts of people living there.

Among those items Feehan focused on were things like healthcare, wages and infrastructure including thing from roads to broadband internet.

“There are many different ways these things affect the quality of life in the 21st century economy,” Feehan said.

This thinking follows Walz, who Feehan said worked to establish those kinds of connections with southeast Minnesota. Feehan also added that these connections would go a long ways to help him as a leader going forward.

“A leader has to know what he’s talking about and know who to turn to when you don’t know,” Feehan added.

After coming off his first debate with opponent Jim Hagedorn, Feehan hoped his military service as well as his time as a teacher, can help him overcome the extreme partisan divide gripping American politics.

It’s that partisan divide that has Feehan worried and that he hopes to avoid if elected.

“It’s very partisan and that creates inaction,” he said. “In the military that’s one of the most damaging things you can have in a body of government. Public service is politics and politics is service.”

A major issue with the partisan divide, Feehan said, is that people tend to flow to the side that agrees with them. Feehan has a desire to cross the aisle and work with whomever he needs to to get the job done.

“I always went to someone who I knew would disagree with me,” Feehan said. “Two things would happen: I would get an idea what wasn’t as good and I would establish relationships.”

“The world we live in is a polarized world and I’m not sure that’s what people want,” he added.

A good way to help lead with the idea of bringing people together is something Feehan and his campaign have been doing in the form of Service Saturdays where they get out in communities, volunteering to work on projects.