Rep. Michele Bachmann, former Republican presidential candidate and founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the House, has some competition for her Minnesota congressional seat. A St. Cloud lawyer, who said the Occupy movement motivated her to enter the race, is seeking to challenge Ms. Bachmann in the fall.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R., Minn.) addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Feb. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“I feel this is a real opportunity for a candidate to raise the economic issues that the Occupy movement is talking about,” Democratic-Farm-Labor Party candidate Anne Nolan told the St. Cloud Times.

That motivated Mrs. Bachmann to do one of the things she does best: raise money. “Just hours ago, press reports broke the news that a self-identified Occupy Wall Street supporter and ‘community activist’ will challenge me for re-election to Congress,” she wrote in a Friday email to supporters. “Announcing her candidacy, my opponent claimed she was inspired to challenge me by Occupy Wall Street. Do you really need to know any more?”

Mrs. Bachmann, running for a fourth term, went on to make her pitch for an “emergency contribution to help me defend against my Occupy Wall Street opponent.”

Mrs. Bachmann easily won her 2010 re-election bid in what turned out to be one of the most expensive House races in the country. For that contest, she raised more than $13 million. There’s a twist this year: The new congressional district map puts Mrs. Bachmann’s home in Stillwater in the fourth congressional district, now represented by Rep. Betty McCollum (D., Minn.). Mrs. Bachmann has said she will run in the sixth district, which she has represented for three terms, and has left open the possibility of moving into the remapped district.