This is a non-partisan primary; the top two vote-getters will advance to the November election. Parties are not listed on the ballot but the DFL did endorse a candidate (Cedrick Frazier) and there’s a candidate here who I believe would totally be endorsed by the Republicans if that were not viewed by a large majority of Hennepin County residents as a clear warning label. it Here’s who’s on the ballot:
Matt Pelikan
Diane M. Krenz
Anders Folk
Hao Nguyen
Cedrick Frazier
Matt is a lawyer in private practice. He has the best accessory of any candidate in any race this season (a giant inflatable pelican named Penelope). Other than that: he has no endorsements that I could find, he’s been so quiet since the county convention that I thought he might have dropped out of the race, and his website does very little to differentiate him from the other people running. (His campaign ad, which is front and center, starts out, “Every politician says they care about safety. Every lawyer says they care about justice.” He then goes on to say that he cares about safety and justice.) Matt is the candidate who challenged Lori Swanson for endorsement in the State Attorney General race in 2018, which ultimately resulted in Keith Ellison becoming Attorney General and Lori Swanson going off to do private practice with her fellow former AG Mike Hatch, so props to him for that, but I would not vote for him in this race. (ETA: the county convention happened after the deadline to remove your name from the ballot and he doesn’t seem to be actively campaigning.)
Oh, also: his website still says he works for the law firm Madel Law. Madel Law is providing legal counsel to the ICE agent who killed Renee Good. Matt actually resigned over this back in January. I find it very weird he did not update his website to reflect this.
Diane is a Republican masquerading as an independent. Fellow Minnesotan Internet pundit Ed Kohler noted that she follows a huge number of right-wing politicians and organizations with her Facebook (and I checked and while she does follow a few Democrats, it’s about a 50:1 ratio).
In June she posted to her social media accounts responding to people wanting to know if she’d prosecute ICE agents; her answer was an emphatic no, but I think it’s worth noting that her position is, “The County Attorney charges the crimes that happen here,” and that’s why her answer is no. ICE agents did in fact commit crimes here. Those are the crimes Mary Moriarty has brought charges over, not crimes they committed other places. Presumably Diana doesn’t think they’re crimes. Maybe she doesn’t even think the road rage guy committed a crime? Unclear.
Needless to say she’s also very “law and order, cops are great, how dare you question whether police in 2026 need horses, throw the book at juvenile offenders.”
I’m disgusted by Diana’s attitude and I hope she comes in last.
The three candidates who might actually make it through to the November election are Anders Folk, Hao Nguyen, and Cedrick Frazier. I’m going to focus heavily on endorsements because if you just look at their stances, they all sound progressive.
Anders Folk is former Assistant US Attorney for the State of Minnesota and touts the fact that he led the federal prosecution against Derek Chauvin’s co-defendants.
His endorsements page is an absolute rogue’s gallery of local politicians I don’t like. He’s endorsed by Jacob Frey, Martha Holton Dimick, Don Samuels, LaTrisha Vetaw, Elizabeth Shaffer, Lisa Goodman, and more. He’s 100% the choice of the faction that would say with self-righteousness rather than irony that the law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges.
Anders also accepted the maximum campaign contribution from Mike Furnstahl, who prosecuted Marvin Haynes. (There were a number of iffy cases prosecuted in Hennepin County in that era but that one stands out to me for the gross misconduct on the part of law enforcement and the prosecution team.) Taylor Dahlin noted in that same thread that Anders does not anywhere on his site commit to maintaining the HCA’s Conviction Integrity Unit.
From the responses he’s getting to his posts on Twitter, I think the local Republicans are mostly voting for the actual Republican in the race, Diane, and it will be extremely funny to me if they split the conservative vote and it’s Hao Nguyen vs. Cedrick Frazier in November.
Hao Nguyen is an immigrant and former refugee who worked in law enforcement for five years before becoming a lawyer, and has now worked in the Ramsey County Attorney’s office for sixteen years.
I feel like the problem he’s run into is that he’s not law-and-order-y enough for the law-and-order crowd but he’s too law-and-order-y for the progressive crowd, leaving him kind of stranded. His endorsements are not as loathesome as Anders’ endorsements, but they include Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt, who was denied DFL endorsement despite having no one opposing her because of shit like claiming that uniformed officers who have committed misconduct were “working undercover” and thus their bodycam footage can’t be handed over (here’s an article about it).
In his favor, he has a trans kid. (Here’s a thing that has stuck with me about the double standards historically employed by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office: in 2011, the still-anonymous man who pursued mugger Darren Evanovich and then shot him dead was not charged with a crime because it was considered self-defense while Cece McDonald was charged with second-degree murder. I do in fact think that an Asian immigrant with a trans child is less likely to make that same set of charging decisions than the white guy who was HCA at the time.)
His website does not say whether he would maintain the convictions integrity unit.
Overall, prefer Hao Nguyen to Anders Folk, but I prefer Cedrick Frazier to Hao Nguyen. Hao’s partnership with Dawanna Witt (they’re full-on campaigning together) gives me a ton of pause and makes me dubious about his commitment to pursuing crimes committed by local law enforcement (I do think he’ll go aggressively after ICE).
ETA: Apparently he’s also somehow campaigning with both the people running against Ilhan Omar in the primary. He went to the campaign kickoff for Latonya Reeves and spoke at the campaign kickoff for Julie Le! Yikes.
Cedrick Frazier, like Mary Moriarty, has worked as a public defender. He’s the DFL-endorsed candidate and is widely regarded as the person most likely to follow policies similar to Mary Moriarty’s. His endorsements also include all the high-profile progressives (Ilhan Omar, Tina Smith, Peggy Flanagan). His website includes an explicit commitment to reviewing wrongful convictions.
I would vote for Cedrick Frazier. I do kind of hope Hao Nguyen gets enough votes to push Anders Folk off the ballot, but given that Folk has all the endorsements from the Frey wing of the local DFL I think that’s unlikely.
This seems like a good year to fundraise for a trans nonprofit, so I’m fundraising this year for TIGERRS. I don’t have a Patreon, and a fundraiser lets me see in a tangible way that people value my work, which is really helpful as a motivator. (This project is a lot of work.)
I also have a new book! Obstetrix is about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on hand to deliver their babies; it’s a story about enduring, surviving, and not giving up. You can buy it anywhere fine books are sold, and Uncle Hugo’s, Moon Palace, and Dreamhaven all (probably) have signed copies. (I also signed copies at Next Chapter, and will be making my way to other bookstores as time
Will Tell Stories For Food 