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Primary Election 2026: Minnesota Governor & Lieutenant Governor

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This is one of those posts that feels low-stakes because let’s be honest here: Amy Klobuchar is going to win the DFL primary. However, she’s going to do it without my vote, so I do need to figure out who to vote for instead. (Editing to add: someone on Bluesky complained about people who thought Hillary Clinton had it in the bag and they could cast a protest vote. My friends, this is a primary. A primary is a fine time to cast a protest vote.)

On the DFL ballot:

Mohammad Wazwaz and Murad Alshloo
Po Vang and Mark Frascone
Ole “Viking” Savior and Ashley “Skol” Johnson
Bill E Gates J.R. and Leah Harris
Thomas Evenstad and Jason Haarsager
Kobey J Layne and Paul Ference
Amy Klobuchar and Ben Schierer

Mohammad Wazwaz and Murad Alshlool

Mohammad’s site offers a deeply generic platform (“Increase healthcare access in rural and underserved areas” is one bullet point. “Cut red tape for small business owners and startups across Minnesota.” Everything on his platform is like this. I wanted to joke about how it’s so generic he might have stolen it from Amy, but that’s unfair to Amy, who has some actual specific proposals on her site.)

One of my biggest concerns about Amy is a deep distrust that she’ll stand up for vulnerable groups such as trans people and immigrants. The bullet points on Mohammed’s site are as follows: “Protect immigrant families and create pathways to economic participation; Ensure equal access to education, healthcare, and legal services; Stand against discrimination in all its forms.” (He is not himself an immigrant, nor were his parents, per his website.)

His site says he’s a “business owner, community leader, and advocate for working families,” but with zero specifics (what kind of business does he own? what has he led people to accomplish? what sorts of advocacy has he done?) When I went hunting for more info I found a lot of Mohammed Wazwazes but I think they were all other people. Anyway: he’s a potential alternative to Amy but if the message you wish to send with your vote is “be more progressive” or “stand up for trans people,” Kobey Layne is a better alternative.

Po Vang and Mark Frascone

I’m genuinely not even sure how to characterize Po. He’s very anti-Israel and anti-ICE. One of his proposals is a “Super Anti-Ice Castle Law”: he wants to pass “ironclad Castle Doctrine laws so families and immigrants can legally defend their homes against Trump’s ICE raids and unlawful federal intrusions.” He self-identifies as a cripple and his site says “vote for the cripple, not for the retards” (he also uses this as a catchphrase on his social media). He’s a huge crypto fan and wants to give Minnesotans cryptocurrency “to start building real wealth.” Over on his Twitter he re-tweets a lot of absolutely unhinged right wing commentators and also posted identifying himself as MAHA (RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” pseudoscience/antivax movement) and accusing Israel of assassinating Charlie Kirk.

I’m not going to vote for him.

Ole “Viking” Savior and Ashley “Skol” Johnson

Ole has been a perennial candidate since the mid-1980s. Probably the high point of his career was in 2010, when he was allowed to briefly address the 2010 DFL State Convention and made a pitch for changing the mascot from a donkey to a unicorn. If you really want to know more about this guy you can find a whole lot of random stuff here (under “Additional Information”) but none of it is information about policy proposals or political views. I’m not going to vote for him.

Bill E Gates J.R. and Leah Harris

Bill E. Gates is not to be confused with the other, more famous Bill Gates, who is not currently running for governor of Minnesota. This Bill Gates describes himself as a centrist, has a 78-page PDF of his “governing platform” that manages to be filled with eye-glazing detail and yet offers zero specifics of stuff he wants to do, and his one endorsement is from Republican congressional candidate Angie Windhauser, who says, “The Holy Spirit whispered in my ear: ‘Loyal, Faithful Servant…there HE is, the next GOVERNOR of Minnesota!’ It is my Honor to support and Officially Endorse, Pastor Bill E. Gates, Jr. as the next Governor of Minnesota 2026. God Bless You Mightily!!!” (He put this on his website verbatim.) I don’t actually see anything on his website that indicates he’s a pastor; I kind of wonder if God got him mixed up with John Krhin (one of the Republican candidates for governor) while whispering in Angie’s ear. I’m not going to vote for him (honestly, if I wanted a moderate I’d probably be happy voting for Amy.)

Thomas Evenstad and Jason Haarsager

Both of the men on this ticket were convicted of serious sex offenses in the late 1990s / early 2000s. I would strongly suggest that if you’re considering voting for this ticket that you run Thomas’s name through the Minnesota Court Records System and do a little browsing. This post from Mercado Media is also worth reading.

Kobey J Layne and Paul Ference

Kobey is running as the progressive alternative to Amy and managed to mount enough of a challenge to her at the DFL convention that she was able to make a speech and force a written ballot (on which she got 28% of votes.) Kobey is trans, and I absolutely trust her more than Amy to protect trans rights, despite the fact that (this is the concern I’ve heard raised about her) she was a Republican as recently as 2022.

Kobey is young, and her political journey is one that a lot of young people make when they leave home (especially when they grew up in a small town) and learn new things about themselves and about the world. She has a master’s in public policy and worked as a legislative assistant; this is a fully symbolic vote and yet I also find it reassuring that in the improbable world where she somehow becomes governor, she’s not rolling up with zero idea of what she’s doing. Anyway, I’m going to vote for Kobey.

Edited to add: Kobey, on her website, explicitly pledges to stand behind the nominee.

Amy Klobuchar and Ben Schierer

I mean, realistically, Amy is going to win the primary, and I will take her as governor over anyone running as Republican, but I’m not going to vote for her in the primary, because she has been chronically disappointing on a huge number of points — centrally, her cheerful business-as-usual bullshit as Trump and his lackeys do their best to make it impossible to dislodge Republican rule while stripping us of fundamental rights.

The reason why progressive are surging around the country in primary races is that progressives are actually behaving like we’re facing an existential threat, rather than just fundraising off it.

I think I mentioned up above that her website has some specific proposals (more than Muhammed’s website). Here’s an example: “Make state services mobile-first. Make state services fully accessible on a phone – if a service can’t be completed on a phone, it isn’t moving at the speed Minnesotans expect.” This is, frankly, where Amy has always excelled and why she’s popular: she’s good at spotting low-hanging fruit and getting it in the basket. Ambitious: no. Will she protect trans Minnesotans and immigrants: I mean, she probably won’t attack those groups, making her better than the Republicans, but I am not optimistic about her fighting for vulnerable groups. Will she make everyone’s life better in some small but tangible ways: probably. Is that better than what Republicans will do: yes. And if we give her a DFL legislature that sends her good bills, I think she’ll probably sign them.

But she’s going to have to make it through the primary without me or my endorsement, I’m voting for Kobey Layne.

And now, a quick tour of the absolute horror show that is the Republican candidates.

John Krhin and Dennis Conn
Ross Nova and Kerry Busby
Loner Blue and Andrew Maass
Mike Lindell and Phillip C Parrish
Raul J Estrada and Joe Kincaid
Lisa Demuth and Ryan Wilson
Kendall Qualls and Brian Nicholson

John Krhin and Dennis Conn

John Krhin’s website looks like fan art for The Handmaid’s Tale done by someone who thinks Gilead is aspirational.

Ross Nova and Kerry Busby

There were two things I took away from browsing through Ross’s website. The first is that he was adopted internationally as a child, and yet didn’t become a citizen until after serving a tour in the US Army. That is deeply fucked up and his parents, who adopted internationally and yet didn’t take the steps to get him citizenship as a child, are deeply irresponsible people who failed him. (It worked out for Ross but a number of other people in his position have been deported. These days naturalization is automatic for adoptees, but this was not always the case.)

The second is that Ross has written 43 proposed bills, all (almost all?) of which have some sort of cutesy name that spells something out. This would be more entertaining and fun if it weren’t for the fact that the very first one proposes to ban from all streaming services anything that “Promotes or endorses transgender ideology or gender transition; Portrays or promotes homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, or cross-dressing behavior in a positive
or normalizing manner; or Encourages rejection of biological sex or traditional male and female roles.” Fuck this guy, but also, he should have received his US citizenship as soon as his parents had completed the adoption and the way he frames it (“His military service also led to one of the proudest moments of his life: becoming a United States citizen”) is a scathing indictment of the people who brought him to North Dakota from Bulgaria, whether he intended it to be or not.

Loner Blue and Andrew Maass

No campaign website; the link just goes to Loner Blue’s Facebook page. For a quick rundown of why you shouldn’t vote for Loner, check out the post from two years ago and scroll down to the comments section.

Mike Lindell and Phillip C Parrish

Does anyone really need a rundown of the MyPillow guy? He’s a conspiracy theorist and fascist wannabe who has spent many years and a mountain of money promoting Trump’s election denial. He very well may win the primary because Minnesota Republicans love to lose and hate women and Black people, and Mike is the front runner who is a white man.

Raul J Estrada and Joe Kincaid

Raul is a weirdly old-school red-baiter who uses a lot of violent rhetoric on his site. (“ERADICATE Socialism at the root.” “We need people that are experienced in hitting back….and hitting back hard.”) Back in January he was trying to get people to go to the far-right rally that was allegedly going to march through Cedar-Riverside. I think this was the rally that turned into Jake Lang being pelted with water balloons as he attempted to hide in a city hall window well.

It’s frankly weird to me that Raul would buddy up with the sad wet Nazi, because he’s Native American. I know there are some extremely conservative Native folks but partnering with white supremacists seems like an odd choice.

Lisa Demuth and Ryan Wilson

Absolutely everyone knew that Lisa Demuth was the strongest contender vying for endorsement at the GOP State Convention, and yet they didn’t endorse her. Unlike Michele Tafoya she’s got unimpeachable anti-abortion and pro-gun credentials and actual legislative experience so I am forced to conclude that Minnesota’s Republicans hate women.

Lisa Demuth partnered with streamer and noted piece of shit Nick Shirley to gin up paranoia about Somali-run day cares in Minnesota, which gave Trump an excuse to send thousands of ICE agents to beat, harass, kidnap, and murder Minnesotans. Lisa defended Metro Surge and claimed it made Minnesota safer. So, you know: she can absolutely go fuck herself. But she was by far the most plausible candidate in the Republican field and they endorsed Kendall Qualls, who (like endorsed Senate candidate Adam Schwarze) is so obscure he doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. (“Is that really fair to point out? Republicans HATE Wikipedia, they call it ‘Wokipedia.'” Okay, but neither of them are in “Grokipedia” either, I just checked.)

(It’s possible that by posting this, I will shame some Republican into putting together Wikipedia pages for Kendall and Adam, but as of June 28th, neither has one.)

Kendall Qualls and Brian Nicholson

Kendall Qualls is running on the “I’m different: unlike Lisa Demuth, I have no prior political experience” platform. (“For 20 years, we’ve repeated the same failed strategy: nominating candidates for governor drawn from the same pool—the Minnesota state legislature. The results speak for themselves.”) I would argue that Jeff Johnson (failed candidate in 2014 and 2018) was better known for being a Hennepin County Commissioner than a State Legislator, but I guess it is accurate that they were all legislators. (So was Tim Pawlenty, the last Republican who successfully got elected to the governorship.)

In his bio he says “For the past 15 years, I’ve worked to transform stagnant or declining business units in the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries by introducing transformative strategies.” Does that mean “laying people off”? Because that’s the sort of rhetoric that usually means “laying people off.” I looked him up on LinkedIn and he says his job from 2017-2020 was at “a disruptive AI startup company empowering cancer patients with actionable information to make more informed decisions about treatment options,” which definitely doesn’t not sound like “I laid people off.”

He’s also “founder and president” of a nonprofit called TakeCharge, which is an organization dedicated to the proposition that racism isn’t real and Black people aren’t getting married enough (which is the fault of the liberals). I should note, Kendall is Black. (So is Lisa Demuth. It’s nice to see the Minnesota GOP discovering the value of diversity.) It appears to have one employee other than Kendall. The held a gala in May and the photos are all framed so as not to show very much of the room but it does look like they got at least 18 people to come. It appears that this organization hosts Kendall’s blog (at least I’m assuming he’s the one who writes the blog posts) but I am genuinely uncertain what else they do.

Anyway, here’s the thing about all those former legislators that Kendall trash talks: they have literally any experience with policy, legislation, governance, etc. We did have a governor who arrived with none of that, and while I feel some nostalgic affection for Jesse Ventura, he was not very good at being a governor. I do not think running a business is the same thing as running a state, and the phrase “disruptive AI startup” gives me hives.

Also, his running mate was at the January 6th riot. (He says he left when things turned violent. Dude, you went to DC to try to overturn an election. You wanted to deny the majority of Americans the right to pick our president.)

I haven’t set up a fundraiser for this year yet but you can go buy my new book!

Election 2025: Sample Ballot/Index of Posts

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Greetings to everyone pulling up my site on their phones from a voting booth. For your convenience I’ve put links to (hopefully) all of this year’s races. If you scroll and don’t find what you’re looking for, try searching a candidate name, but remember, I only write about races that appear on the ballot in Minneapolis or Saint Paul.

Saint Paul (we’re doing Saint Paul first because it’s a very short ballot)

Saint Paul Mayor: Melvin Carter

City Question 1: Yes

School District Question 1: Yes

Minneapolis

Minneapolis Mayor: (1) DeWayne Davis; (2) Omar Fateh; (3) Jazz Hampton. DON’T RANK FREY.

Board of Estimate and Taxation: (1) Eric Harris Bernstein; (2) Steve Brandt. THERE ARE TWO OPEN SEATS; RANK BOTH OF THESE PEOPLE.

Minneapolis Park Board At-Large: (1) Tom Olsen; (2) Michael Wilson; (3) Amber Frederick. THERE ARE THREE OPEN SEATS. RANK THREE PEOPLE.

Minneapolis Park Board District 1: Dan Engelhart. (Both candidates are named Dan. Pay attention to the last names.)

Minneapolis Park Board District 2: Charles Rucker is running unopposed.

Minneapolis Park Board District 3: Kedar Deshpande is running unopposed.

Minneapolis Park Board District 4: (1) Jason Garcia; (2) Andrew Gebo.

Minneapolis Park Board District 5: (1) Kay Carvajal Moran; (2) Colton Baldus; (3) Steffanie Musich.

Minneapolis Park Board District 6: Ira Jourdain

City Council Ward 1: Elliott Payne

City Council Ward 2: Robin Wonsley

City Council Ward 3: Marcus Mills

City Council Ward 4: Marvina Haynes

City Council Ward 5: (1) Ethrophic Burnett; (2) Anndrea Young

City Council Ward 6: Jamal Osman

City Council Ward 7: Katie Cashman

City Council Ward 8: Soren Stevenson

City Council Ward 9: Jason Chavez

City Council Ward 10: Aisha Chughtai

City Council Ward 11: Jamison Whiting

City Council Ward 12: Aurin Chowdhury

City Council Ward 13: Ugh, why can’t we have some better choices? Linea Palmisano I GUESS but it’s not like BobAgain is going to win so maybe write in your favorite neighbor.

And that’s it! If you’d like to express your appreciation for my work in a monetary way, you can donate to my fundraiser for YouthLink. Also, please consider supporting one or more of the many excellent journalists I rely on when doing my writeups.

Election 2025: Minneapolis & St. Paul municipal elections

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Welcome to the 2025 Election Season! I am planning to write about the Minneapolis City Council race, the Minneapolis Park Board race (both at-large and the districts), the Minneapolis BET (Board of Estimation and Taxation) race, and of course the Minneapolis mayoral race. St. Paul just has a mayoral race; I will write about that, too. If I missed anything, like a special school board race please remind me in the comments. (Unless it’s in Roseville. I only write about races that appear on the ballot in Minneapolis or St. Paul.)

I am planning to write about the Minneapolis mayoral race as early as I possibly get a post finished. In fact I want to get everything done early this year, because my October is going to be extremely busy. But where the mayoral race is concerned, I want all the people who “wait to hear what Naomi has to say about [candidate]” to see what I have to say so they can make up their mind and send money to their favorite of Jacob Frey’s opponents and maybe even go out and doorknock, while there’s still time for that to matter. This means that if there’s late breaking news I may have to update my post, but c’est la vie.

First, though, I’m going to warm up with some of the easy ones, where it’s “excellent incumbent vs. weirdo” or for that matter “incumbent I can’t stand but no one reasonable filed to run against her so it’s incumbent I don’t like vs. weirdo” (that would be Ward 13, where it’s Linea Palmisano vs. Bob Again.)

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi but instead encourage people who want to reward all my hard work to donate to fundraisers. This year I’m fundraising for YouthLink. YouthLink is a Minneapolis nonprofit that helps youth (ages 16-24) who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. (Here’s their website.) I have seen some of the work they do and been really impressed. I set up a fundraiser with a specific goal mainly because “number go up!” is very motivational for me (and having external motivation helps. This is a ton of work and 2025 is a dumpster fire.)

Special Election 2025: Senate District 60 (general election)

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If you live in MN SD 60, you have an election TODAY.

On the ballot:

Doron Clark (DFL)
Abigail Wolters (Republican)

You can read what I wrote about both of these people in my post about the primary, or you can just go vote for Doron Clark, the DFLer, because obviously you should go vote for Doron Clark. He’s the former Senate District chair and the thing I heard over and over from his supporters is that he shows up for people, in both big ways and small. He’ll be great in the MN Senate. Abigail Wolters was recruited by Republican weirdo and 3%er Shawn Holster, according to her talk radio appearance (which Bluesky user Mara listened to so you don’t have to.)

Polls are open until 8 p.m. and you can find your polling place here.

Some Sort of Caucus/Convention Guide for 61A and 62B

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A NOTE REGARDING THIS WHOLE POST: I am going to do a Real Post about both the 61A primary and the 62B primary, but not until the filing deadline (June 4th). In the meantime, be aware that this information may be totally out of date — I put this together mainly to motivate people in 61A and 62B to become delegates to their Senate District convention, since DFL endorsement can play such a huge role in getting people elected.

I’m not going to worry about personally endorsing anyone or assembling a lot of in-depth information until we actually get into primary season (lots of people drop out after conventions, especially if there’s an endorsement, and other people get in late) but given the really short turnaround here I’m going to provide some basic info on the people running. I will try to update this page as I learn stuff / as people get in.

Caucuses are happening on Tuesday, February 27th. (The Presidential Primary, which thank goodness is no longer part of the caucus process, happens on March 5th, Super Tuesday.) If you would like to participate in the Senate District Convention to endorse a candidate, go to your caucus or submit a non-attendee form and ask to become a delegate (or alternate). I think all the Senate District Conventions are happening in person this year. For more information on how all this works, here’s a set of video guides.

The caucus/convention process determines who gets the DFL Endorsement. There is still a primary in the fall (and it may be contested, even if everyone on this page abides by endorsement). DFL Endorsement is a big boost, though — it comes with money and volunteer support and mailings and quite a few voters rely heavily on the DFL Endorsement to determine who to vote for.

If you’re wondering about other reps who might be retiring, there’s a list here. And here is a huge, comprehensive list of races and candidates!

Important note for the 61A and 62B people: you do not need to decide, before you go to the caucus, which candidate you’ll support. Just go (or send the form) and pick your favorite candidate at your leisure over the next month.

Also! If you go to your Senate District convention in Minneapolis, stick around to vote for delegates to the US House District 5 convention, in support of Ilhan Omar, not Don Samuels. (Or Tim Peterson.)

Minnesota House 62B

The current rep is Hodan Hassan; she’s announced she’s not running again. Currently hoping to replace her:

Londel French

Londel French is a former Park Board commissioner. I’ve written about him in the past, when he first ran and after he’d served a term. Endorsed by Keith Ellison, Angela Conley, and some other high-profile people. [ETA 2/26]: Also Stonewall DFL, Sheigh Freeberg, State Rep Cedric Frazier, Samantha Pree-Stinson, and FYI if you want the full list for these, scrolling Twitter feeds is probably your best bet. (Editing 2/29 to add Nelson Inz and Robin Wonsley.)

Ira Jourdain

Ira Jourdain is a Minneapolis School Board member who is not running for re-election. I missed his contested election in 2016 and didn’t write about him; when he ran for re-election he was unopposed. No endorsements yet (that I found); he did get an anti-endorsement from Ashley Fairbanks over on Bluesky. [3/18] Ira was endorsed by the DFL Senior Caucus.

Bill Emory

Bill Emory is a Policy Aid and Director of Constituent Services at Hennepin County. He is endorsed by Amy Brendemoen (St. Paul City Council person) and Becky Alper (Park Board commissioner). [ETA 2/26] Also endorsed by Robin Garwood (long-time aid to former City Council rep Cam Gordon), former School Board member Kimberly Caprini,

Again, a reminder: you do not need to decide right now which of these people you support (and more people may get into the race). If you are a delegate to the convention, you should have the opportunity to talk to all of them and ask them about the issues you are most concerned about.

AK Hassan (added 2/24)

Announcement is here; there’s a website linked on his Facebook page, but it doesn’t seem to lead to anything helpful. AK Hassan spent a term on the Park Board; here’s what I wrote about him when he ran for re-election in 2021. (The summary is, he was not good at the job.) (update: he’s now suspended his campaign.)

Anquam Mahamoud (added 2/24)

Announcement is here. Describes herself as “a Black Muslim woman, a healthcare policy expert, and a leader in substance treatment and mental health clinics.” I’m guessing this is her LinkedIn. She has endorsements from AK Hassan and (current, retiring Rep) Hodan Hassan.

Minnesota House 61A

Update on this race: the DFL House District Convention was held on 3/23, and adjourned without an endorsement. Some of these people will probably drop out. You can read Josh Martins’ Twitter thread about the convention here and watch videos of the candidate speeches and Q&A taken by WedgeLive here.

The current rep is Frank Hornstein; he’s announced he’s not running for re-election. Currently hoping to replace him:

Katie Jones

Katie Jones ran previously for the Ward 10 City Council seat (when Lisa Bender retired), losing to Aisha Chughtai; here’s what I wrote about her at the time. She works at an energy-related nonprofit and has been talking about “fifteen-minute cities” since before the right wing was scaremongering about them. She is endorsed by former Park Board commissioner Chris Meyer. She did an interview with Southwest Voices. She is the Ward 10 rep on the Capital Long Range Improvement Committee (CLIC) and several people spoke highly of her work there.

Isabel Rolfes

Isabel Rolfes is a Legislative Assistant in the Minnesota House, and has worked as state legislative staff in various capacities, and as a campaign manager. I couldn’t find any endorsements yet but I think she’s likely to have some soon. (I couldn’t find a ton of information about her generally beyond her website and her LinkedIn — she locked down her personal social media, reasonably, but it means there’s just not a ton out there that I could find.) [ETA 2/25] She is endorsed by Brad Tabke, the DFL State House Rep from 54A, which is Shakopee, and by Rep. Kaela Berg of 55B. She did an interview with Southwest Voices.

Dylan McMahon

Dylan McMahon is a Finance Manager for UnitedHealth. He served on the City of Minneapolis Long-Range Improvements Committee and as his Senate District chair. His older Tweets are heavily about urbanist issues (more housing, less street space reserved for cars). When someone questioned the stuff he’s clicked “Like” on in the past, he took his account private for a bit, nuked absolutely all his likes, then re-opened his account. (I would probably do something similar, tbh, I am a profligate liker of things on Twitter, including some that are entirely by accident, it’s easy to do on a phone.) If he has any endorsements, I wasn’t able to find them.

[ETA 2/25] Some other notes on Dylan: according to multiple reports, he does not live in the district. (He lives in 61B, and is reportedly planning to move if he gets endorsed.) More problematically, as the former Senate District Chair, he planned the convention that’s going to endorse a candidate. Briana Rose Lee (Minneapolis DFL Chair) has questioned the ethics of this on Twitter. Multiple times. Dan Thomas (@DanTheRulesNerd on Twitter) chimed in to say that it’s explicitly against the rules, and tweeted a screenshot of the applicable bit.

The applicable bit reads as follows. (It’s in the DFL Constitution and Bylaws, which you can find here. Article III, Section 7, Subsection C: “Bylaw. Party officials, with the exception of the State DFL Chair and Vice Chairs, are allowed to run for public elected office as long as the party official has no direct involvement in the planning or execution of the relevant endorsing convention, except in the advisory role given any candidate. Under no
circumstance could a party official who has direct responsibility for an endorsing convention run for the office in which that convention is endorsing.” If he had direct involvement in the planning, it seems pretty clear to me that he cannot run for endorsement this cycle.

The other thing that’s pretty clear is that a lot of Dylan’s support is coming from the Senior Caucus / Operation Safety Now wing of the local DFL. Although rumor has it that Scott Graham is just about to get in.

Dylan did an interview with Southwest Voices. Over on his website, under “Why Now,” he says, “When Frank called me, my first thought wasn’t about myself. It was about how a transportation and environmental justice champion has made his imprint on the State of Minnesota. It was about how the Minnesota House would be losing a Jewish legislator right as we’re seeing a rise in antisemitism.” The “we’re losing a Jewish legislator” framing made me wonder if he was Jewish. His interview clarifies that he’s Catholic (or at least, he grew up in a Catholic family.)

On March 16th, the Minneapolis DFL Senior Caucus endorsed Dylan. (Note for those who don’t know this: the DFL Senior Caucus is currently one of the most conservative DFL groups — heavily in favor of parking minimums, more cops, etc.)

Scott Graham [added 2/25 based on rumors]

Scott Graham ran for the Ward 7 City Council seat in 2021 and I did not like him; you can read all the reasons why. (He did not try for endorsement.)

Jared Brewington [added 3/18 because he just hopped into the race]

(This is why I normally don’t write blog posts until primary season and just let other people worry about endorsement season: there’s an actual filing deadline, which makes it clear exactly who’s going to be on the ballot.)

Jared Brewington is a restaurateur who runs (ran? I think it might have closed) a fried chicken restaurant called Official Fried Chicken. The vibe of his website is “look what a great buddy of Jacob Frey I am,” which makes his timing here kind of startling (he seems like he’d have been the pick of the DFL Senior Caucus if he’d gotten in earlier!)

Trevor Turner

Trevor Turner jumped into the race on the morning of the convention. There is a screenshot of his e-mail here. Pretty sure this is his Twitter. I’m doing no further research on him since who knows if he’ll even stay in (I hope not, there are enough candidates already, most of whom had the forethought to get in the race earlier than the literal morning of the endorsing convention.) (I feel like getting into the race post-convention is less obnoxious than jumping in THE DAY OF and wasting everyone’s time.)

Will Stancil

So yeah wow. If you’re familiar with Will, you probably (like me) should spend less time on Twitter. I was a little taken aback to find out he was local, because his Twitter focus has been primarily national. The best article I found to explain his whole deal was this Racket profile from earlier in the month.

I don’t follow Will, but his tweets constantly cross my feed anyway, either because one of my friends thinks he said something smart and retweeted it, or because one of my friends thinks he said something bad and quote-tweeted with a bunch of snark. I don’t actually want to go through his (enormous) (you cannot even fucking imagine how much this man tweets) Twitter archive to evaluate how often people get mad at him even though he’s right and how much of his own snark is normal for Twitter and so on and so forth, I will instead focus on this:

[eta: Will got his website up on 2/24]. I don’t have a link to a website here because Will doesn’t have a website up yet. There is a website circulating: it was created by right-wing trolls who scooped up the WillStancil dot com URL because Will didn’t fucking register it before initiating his campaign. (ETA: he says they scooped it up before he decided to run. It does not sound like they’ve had it for long, though.) The troll website has real links to his fundraiser to add veracity but also a “Volunteer” link connected to a Google Form that collects people’s personal information. (There’s also a “Kody Hurst” on Twitter claiming to be Will’s campaign manager. He is not. I don’t know who Will’s campaign manager is, but Kody Hurst is part of the overall disinformation campaign here.)

Will’s campaign has also caused this massive influx of right-wing trolls who are harassing Katie Jones with a degree of vitriol and threat you rarely see in a local race. (They are entirely focused on Katie, from what I can tell, because none of them have noticed there are other people also in the race.) These trolls are posing as Will Stancil supporters who are supporting him with racism, misogyny, and transphobia that Will does not in fact countenance or welcome, obviously, but it’s being directed at Katie Jones; her mentions are a horrifying sewer. It’s not great.

I do not think Will is handling anything about this situation with the trolls, the fake website, the fake campaign manager, etc., particularly well, but at least, as of 2/24, he now has a website: www.willstancil.org/.

On March 16th, the Minneapolis DFL Senior Caucus rated Will “acceptable.”. (Note for those who don’t know this: the DFL Senior Caucus is currently one of the most conservative DFL groups — heavily in favor of parking minimums, more cops, etc.)

Election 2022: Minneapolis School Board At-Large

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Well, this turned into kind of a clusterfuck of a race. Here’s who’s on the ballot:

KerryJo Felder (DFL-endorsed)
Collin Beachy (DFL-endorsed)
Sonya Emerick
Lisa Skjefte

In the primary, I said I would vote for KerryJo Felder because the school board suffers from chronic lack of institutional memory due to people rarely serving more than one term (KerryJo is not an incumbent, but served one term from 2016-2020) and Sonya Emerick because I was impressed by their responsiveness and thoughtfulness. It turned out that part of why I hadn’t heard back from Collin was because he’d had COVID — and I felt bad about that, but also, it was a primary, the DFL-endorsed candidates can be expected to sail through a primary, and so I was not super worried about it.

Lisa Skjefte has no website, although she has been coming to candidate forums.

I’m going to put a break here and FYI: this is going to get long. If you want to skip straight to who I would vote for: Collin Beachy and Sonya Emerick.

Continue reading →

Election 2022: Hennepin County Sheriff

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During the primary, I endorsed Dawanna Witt because she struck me as a lot more likely to be able to beat Jai Hansen, who I really didn’t like. I totally assumed Jai would make it through the primary! He did not. So now the question is — absent that, do I prefer Dawanna Witt, or Joseph Banks? Despite having some doubts about Dawanna, and having taken a somewhat closer look at Joseph Banks … I’m going to say it’s still Dawanna Witt.

On the ballot:

Dawanna Witt
Joseph Banks

Dawanna Witt has worked for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office, specifically, for a really long time — mainly she runs the jail. Joseph Banks is a retired former chief of police for the Lower Sioux Community and Morton, MN. They both talk about wanting to improve public safety, transparency, and community relationships. They’re both Black, and Dawanna talks about fearing and distrusting police for years before getting an entry-level job working at the jail.

Dawanna is endorsed by the DFL and a lot of other organizations; Joseph Banks, as far as I can tell, doesn’t have any endorsements at all. (ETA: I missed that he was endorsed by the Independence-Alliance Party, aka the Jessecrats. But he doesn’t put that on his website, and given that this group also endorsed Hugh McTavish in the Governor’s race, I’m not reassured that they’re vetting people with any criteria I’d recognize as useful.)

There was a debate earlier this month and I watched the recording of it to see if I could get any better clarity than “look, Dawanna’s at least been vetted by people who know more about this job than I do, and they think she’d be OK.” The debate is online here.

One really interesting exchange took place about an hour in. (It actually starts at 57:15, if you want to watch.) Joseph said, in response to a question about tangible steps toward accountability, “Let’s be clear on this: the Sheriff department is the top cop in the county. […] It is the Sheriff’s responsibility to police the police. It is the Sheriff’s job to make sure that we’re holding law enforcement officers accountable in our county.” When Dawanna got the floor she opened with, “There is no statute that will give you the authority to tell a municipality what to do. That is not your job as a Sheriff.”

This left me really wanting to know — could the Hennepin County Sheriff’s staff go out and investigate and arrest Minneapolis police officers who commit murder or assault or whatever in their line of work? Because that’s not happening right now, but if Joseph were elected and just decided it was part of the Sheriff’s duties, could they? I asked Twitter and did not get a particularly conclusive answer. It’s not written in the statutes but it’s not forbidden by the statutes, and Sheriffs as elected officials (rather than appointed/hired staff) can in some ways kind of do what they want (see, for example, Dave Hutchinson’s refusal to resign despite wrecking a car while drunk off his ass). Also — would we want this? I mean it’s sort of tempting to say “hell, yes,” given that the cop who pepper-sprayed nonviolent protesters out his car window while driving by has to my knowledge never even been identified, never mind charged.

But … okay, so having looked at Joseph Banks’ website, he doesn’t mention this anywhere as a goal, he just pulled it out during the debate. His platform talks about better coordination with MPD and other agencies; it does not say anywhere, “by the way, we could TOTALLY go arrest Minneapolis cops for brutality, vote me in and we’ll start doing that,” which is kind of funny because that would have gotten him a lot of attention from some of the local groups, especially if he really seemed like he could make that stick.

“Does he seem like he could make that stick” is another question. In addition to “is he serious about this thing he brought up at a debate but doesn’t mention on his website,” I’m reminded of a comment someone made during the primary about Mary Moriarty vs. one of the other candidates running as a reformer — reform is extremely hard and you’re a lot less likely to succeed at it if you don’t know the existing system really well. Dawanna has worked for the Sheriff’s office (for years); Joseph Banks has not.

Joseph has worked as a chief of police, though: “In 2005, I started working for the Lower Sioux Police Department until I accepted a position as Chief of Police with the Upper Sioux Police Department. I then served as the Chief of Police for Morton, Minnesota. I then returned to the Lower Sioux Police Department where I was the Chief Investigator and the acting Chief of Police.” The Upper Sioux reservation has a population of 120. Morton, MN has a population of 411, and at the present time does not have a police department — its policing is done by the Renville County Sheriff’s Department. This is pretty standard for very small towns and honestly, I’m surprised that they ever had their own Chief of Police, with a population that small. By comparison: the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office has 800 people working for it.

So — yeah, okay, that detail all by itself makes me deeply skeptical of Joseph, even as it also explains why (in the debate) he kind of airily said that anyone who committed misconduct would be gone, he’d fire them. (It’s frequently not that simple, which is part of the problem. Dawanna said that she would fire the bad actors if she could, but if she could not, she’d put them on desk duty.) He’s been a Chief of Police, twice, but in the larger of the two places, the whole community was less than half the size of the department he’d be running as Sheriff.

In some ways, Joseph Banks presents himself as more of a reformer than Dawanna. But when someone comes in to a high-level position where they’re kind of over their head, what tends to happen is that all the people under them just kind of keep doing what they’re doing. And this is a department that was run for years by Stanek (and then for the last four by Hutch, but he’s been largely checked out for most of the last year. His car crash was in December of 2021 and he apparently spent a bunch of 2022 vindictively running up bills.) I think the changes Dawanna is proposing (things like an information dashboard, making it more efficient to check people into the jail, an expansion of education and treatment options for people who are in the jail awaiting trial) are more modest, but also she’s vastly more likely to get them done.

I would vote for Dawanna Witt.

ETA 10/25: There was a good article in the Sahan Journal about the race. Some additional details mentioned: Joseph Banks hasn’t worked in law enforcement since 2009; his job in Morton, MN only lasted four months; he was fired by the City Council in a closed session after a meeting to discuss a no-contact order filed by his former partner. The article also notes that he wants to triple the number of deputies to 2,400, hiring 500 deputies per year until they reach that number; Dawanna Witt says that’s not in the budget (even remotely) and she will hire 30 additional deputies, the number actually budgeted for by the county.

Anyway, this article confirmed my broad impression that Dawanna Witt is competent and would know what she is doing in this office and Joseph Banks is sort of a flake.

In addition to writing political commentary, I write science fiction and fantasy. My book that came out in April 2021, Chaos on CatNet, takes place in a future Minneapolis. It’s a sequel to Catfishing on CatNet and signed copies of both books are usually available from Dreamhaven and the NOW REOPENED Uncle Hugo’s (it’s at 2716 E 31st St in Minneapolis, in the former Glass Endeavors.)

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, but you can make a donation to encourage my work! I get a lot of satisfaction watching fundraisers I highlight getting funded (or, in the case of the Movement Voter fundraiser, continuing to raise money past their goal). I explained back in May why I’m fundraising for the Movement Voter PAC and that fundraiser is still active.

I also went looking for some DonorsChoose fundraisers. In Minneapolis, I found a science teacher at Sullivan STEAM magnet needs some better computers so his students can actually program the cool robots they got. In St. Paul, I found an English teacher at Harding Senior High who would like snacks for her students.

Election 2022: Minnesota Attorney General

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This is one of the races that’s so stark for me it almost doesn’t feel like I should need to write this. Keith Ellison is one of the DFLers who is not only better than the alternative, I’m actually extremely happy with the job he’s done, plus he’s up against a radical right-wing Republican who is smart enough to say the quiet part quietly but is nonetheless going to do anything and everything in his power to screw over LGBT people and anyone who needs an abortion while also defanging Minnesota’s consumer protections. tl;dr VOTE FOR KEITH ELLISON.

On the ballot:

Keith Ellison
Jim Schultz

At the top of my list of reasons I appreciate Keith Ellison’s work: his prosecution of Derek Chauvin. The AG’s office does not do a lot of criminal work (mostly that’s handled by the County Attorneys, more on this in a minute) but in a situation where a police officer is being prosecuted for a crime, there are significant advantages to letting a state official take the lead. (County Attorneys depend on police officers to testify in all their other criminal prosecutions; this creates a significant conflict when prosecuting police for crimes committed while on duty.) More importantly: Ellison’s office did an extremely good job prosecuting Chauvin. It is hard to get a conviction of a police officer, even when he commits cold-blooded murder in front of multiple cameras. They took nothing for granted, brought in top-notch experts, built the case, and won it.

Normally, the Attorney General is more focused on consumer and worker protection, and Ellison has also done a lot of excellent work there. He’s taken slumlords to court. He’s created a wage theft unit. He’s won debt relief for people who were conned into enrolling in fraudulent diploma-mill schools and a settlement from Navient over allegations they steered people away from the repayment plans that would have benefited the borrower. He defended the Alex Smith Insulin Affordability Act and joined a lawsuit against generic drug makers for colluding to keep costs high. He’s done a lot of really good work and I am genuinely really happy with him as AG.

Jim Schultz seems to be running on the platform of, “not Keith Ellison.” If you look at his website, it’s sort of shocking just how little information is on it. I counted, and on his issues page, he uses fewer than 100 words total. (It’s 71, to be exact.) The icons shift slightly when you mouse over them, suggesting that maybe they’re links that would go to a more detailed policy discussion, but nope. No links. Here’s one of his “issues”:

Defend the Constitution
Safeguard the constitutional rights of every Minnesotan.

He does not say which constitutional rights and we sure as hell know he doesn’t mean the right to an abortion! (I assume, after a bit of digging, that he means “the right to own guns and take them wherever the hell you want with no repercussions or inconveniences or requirements or training or whatever, at least if you’re white.”)

He’s tried repeatedly while running to claim that abortion is “settled law,” which — weirdly — is almost word-for-word what several of the Republican-nominated justices said in confirmation hearings and they went on to overturn Roe vs. Wade. His phrasing here is absolutely not a coincidence; it’s intended to reassure the right wing that he’s definitely going to do whatever’s in his power to stop people from getting abortions.

And what is in his power? Well, in the debate, he pointed out that AGs can wade in to criminal cases uninvited if they involve “racketeering.” The NLRC has been urging the passage of legislation that massively expands racketeering laws to prosecute people who provide abortions. Abortion in Minnesota is legal and protected, but that does not mean that Schultz would not be able to find loopholes to harass and prosecute people seeking or providing abortions. He served on the board of the “Human Life Alliance,” a nonprofit that says it seeks to make abortion “not only illegal, but unthinkable.”

This morning, I listened to a radio show (also a podcast) about “pill fairies,” women who provide abortion pills on demand in states where abortion is not legal. (There’s also a transcript — you can find it here.) The legal status of people who buy abortion pills over the counter and send them by mail is deeply unclear, but I am really confident that a Republican could dig up a law they could prosecute that under, whether it’s practicing medicine without a license or misuse of encryption. Racketeering laws are intended to prosecute people involved in criminal enterprise. So let’s say someone in Minnesota acts as an intermediary — buys the abortion pills via telemedicine for a friend, sends them along, and gets reimbursed the cost over Venmo. Do we really think Jim Schultz won’t try a racketeering charge for that, if it happens in Hennepin or Ramsey County and the County Attorney declines to treat this as a criminal matter?

In the piece about pill fairies, the journalist cites a Mexican activist in saying, “the bigger the movement becomes, the harder it’ll be to crack down on.” Overall, this is true. However, what I predict will happen is that right-wing prosecutors will try to make an example of anyone they happen to catch. There’s a saying popular among cops that goes, “You may beat the rap, but not the ride” — even if a jury refuses to convict, this sort of criminal prosecution can really fuck up someone’s life. And that would be the goal.

In the meantime, Jim Schultz has explicitly promised to protect the rights of people who take pharmacy jobs in order to act as the personal moralistic gatekeeper against anyone who needs medication they “disagree” with (rather than the rights of individuals who need medication) and I sure as hell don’t see him protecting the rights of same-sex married couples, never mind the rights of trans kids or their families.

He’s also a literal hedge fund lawyer and has made it thoroughly clear that his priority is not citizens that get ripped off, but businesses and their right to make as much money as possible. He wants to cut the number of consumer protection advocates in the AG’s office. He says he would hold businesses accountable for serious wrongdoing, which is a heck of a caveat. Just how serious does it have to be before he’d get involved? Does it matter if a company only stole $100 from you, rather than thousands? The Strib article also included this really classically Republican quote:

He would focus on protecting seniors in assisted living facilities from neglect and abuse, noting his late father who had dementia did not receive adequate care at one nursing home and had to be moved to another.

Seniors in assisted living facilities absolutely need protection from neglect and abuse. (This is in fact something Ellison’s office has worked on!) But it’s sure telling that the one area of consumer protection Schultz wants to talk about is the one where a family member has suffered unnecessarily. This is such a chronic Republican thing (where they suddenly recognize that something is a problem when it happens to them, their spouse, one of their parents, or one of their kids — because this is the set of people on whom they’re disinclined to blame the victim) that I thought surely there was a term for it but I’m not finding it. Maybe there isn’t! Maybe we should come up with one! Because it’s sure a thing.

Jim Schultz is not a moderate. He’s a right-wing extremist who believes all the same crap as Doug Wardlow, but said with a smile and couched in polite words. I am voting for Keith Ellison and I really hope everyone reading my blog will vote for him as well.

ETA 10/31 to add: Jim Schultz also committed massive campaign finance violations, coordinating with a Super PAC on $800,000 worth of ads. Totally fucking racist ads.

In addition to writing political commentary, I write science fiction and fantasy. My book that came out in April 2021, Chaos on CatNet, takes place in a future Minneapolis. It’s a sequel to Catfishing on CatNet and signed copies of both books are usually available from Dreamhaven and the NOW REOPENED Uncle Hugo’s (it’s at 2716 E 31st St in Minneapolis, in the former Glass Endeavors.)

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, but you can make a donation to encourage my work! I get a lot of satisfaction watching fundraisers I highlight getting funded (or, in the case of the Movement Voter fundraiser, continuing to raise money past their goal). I explained back in May why I’m fundraising for the Movement Voter PAC and that fundraiser is still active.

I also went looking for some DonorsChoose fundraisers. In Minneapolis, I found a science teacher at Sullivan STEAM magnet needs some better computers so his students can actually program the cool robots they got. In St. Paul, I found an English teacher at Harding Senior High who would like snacks for her students. In her project intro, she notes, “With a new schedule this year, some students have to wait a very long time to eat lunch everyday. When students are hungry, they cannot focus and most students can’t afford to buy their own snacks.” This made me curious about their schedule. Some students at Harding don’t get to eat lunch until 1 p.m. School starts at 8:30. When I eat breakfast at 7:30 I’m ravenous by noon, never mind 1 p.m. Feeding kids is an absolute no-brainer, seriously.

Election 2021: Sample Ballot/Index of Posts

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Saint Paul

(Saint Paul gets to be first because it’s so much less scrolling for the other city than if it’s the other way around.)

Mayor: Melvin Carter

School Board (regular term): Jim Vue, James Farnsworth, Halla Henderson (although I think Uriah Ward is also fine)

School Board (special election): Jeannie Foster (although I think Clayton Howatt is also fine)

City Question 1 (St. Paul Rent Control): No.

Minneapolis

Mayor: Sheila Nezhad/Kate Knuth or Kate Knuth/Sheila Nezhad. Don’t rank Jacob. Info on possible third ballot choices here.

City Council Ward 1: Elliott Payne.

City Council Ward 2: #1 Cameron Gordon, #2 Robin Wonsley Worlobah.

City Council Ward 3: Steve Fletcher.

City Council Ward 4: Phillippe Cunningham.

City Council Ward 5: #1 Jeremiah Ellison, #2 Kristel Porter, #3 Suleiman Isse.

City Council Ward 6: Damned if I know.

City Council Ward 7: #1 Nick Kor, #2 Teqen Zéa-Aida.

City Council Ward 8: Andrea Jenkins.

City Council Ward 9: Jason Chavez.

City Council Ward 10: Katie Jones/Aisha Chughtai or Aisha Chughtai/Katie Jones.

City Council Ward 11: Jeremy Schroeder.

City Council Ward 12: Andrew Johnson

City Council Ward 13: #1 Mike Norton, #2 Kati Medford.

Board of Estimate and Taxation: #1 Pine Salica, #2 Samantha Pree-Stinson, #3 Steve Brandt.

Park Board At-Large: #1 Tom Olsen, #2 Londel French, #3 Alicia D. Smith.

Park Board District 1: Billy Menz.

Park Board District 2: #1 Eric Moran, #2 Mike Shelton.

Park Board District 3: Becky Alper.

Park Board District 4: Jono Cowgill.

Park Board District 5: Steffanie Musich.

Park Board District 6: #1 Risa Hustad, #2 Cathy Abene, #3 Barb Schlaefer.

City Question 1 (Strong Mayor): No.

City Question 2 (Public Safety) (second post here): Yes.

City Question 3 (Rent Control): Yes.

In addition to writing political commentary, I write science fiction and fantasy. My book that came out in April, Chaos on CatNet, takes place in a future Minneapolis (and includes scenes of my imagined future of public safety). It’s a sequel to Catfishing on CatNet and signed copies of both books are usually available from Dreamhaven and from the current mail-order-only incarnation of Uncle Hugo’s.

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, but you can make a donation to encourage my work! I get a lot of satisfaction watching fundraisers I highlight getting funded. Some that are worth your consideration:

In Minneapolis:

A first-year teacher at Bryn Mawr would like a variety of classroom supplies, including individual dry-erase boards, a big easel, a classroom rug, a selection of books, and some educational games.

A middle school teacher at Andersen would like to provide her students with some manga they’ve requested; they currently don’t have a media center, and students rely on classroom libraries for books.

A second-grade teacher at Folwell would like to provide her students with graphic novels in both Spanish and English. (A large percentage of her students speak Spanish at home.)

In Saint Paul:

A science teacher at Washington Technology high school in St. Paul would like to provide electronic balances and voltmeters so that his Chemistry students can see “how adding nanoparticles to a conductive solution affects voltage.”

Crossroads Elementary needs a large stock of disposable face masks. (This doesn’t seem like something you should have to fundraise for, does it? but apparently it is.)

And a Head Start teacher would like snowpants, mittens, and hats for her students to wear to play outside in the winter!

And a different kind of school fundraiser (again, in Minneapolis):

Kaytie Kamphoff is a special education resource teacher at Patrick Henry High School and the co-director/producer of Henry Drama Club. (Christopher Michael is her co-director and their full-time theater and dance teacher.) She initially asked for funds on Twitter just so the Henry Drama Club could stage a couple of plays this year. Ms. Kamphoff has now set her sights higher: she’s hoping to raise enough to run a summer theater program for Northside kids, free for participants, paid for the recent grads/Drama Club alums who work. You can donate to her by Venmo or Paypal: Venmo is Henry_DC and PayPal is Kaytie.Kamphoff@gmail.com. Note “Henry Drama Club” in the memo and if Paypal insists you need the last four digits of her phone number, it’s 5548.

Her Twitter thread is solidly worth reading if you’d like some heartwarming stories of the transformational power of theater in the lives of high school students.