Tag Archives: Dave Pinto

Election 2026: All the State Legislative Races in Minneapolis and Saint Paul

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The tl;dr here: just vote for the DFLer in all of these. My least-favorite Democrats are all still better than Republicans.

State Senate District 59

Bobby Joe Champion is running unopposed.

State Senate District 60

Senator Doron Clark (originally elected in the special election in 2025, after Senator Kari Dziedzic died of cancer) is running for re-election. Back during the Special Primary, people described him over and over as the kind of guy who shows up, and he’s continued showing up since getting elected. Republican Abigail Wolters is running against him again. I e-mailed her when she ran in 2022 asking who she thought won the 2020 election; she did not reply. She wants school vouchers, she wants to “eliminate unfunded mandates” which generally means special ed, and she scaremongers about crime. Vote for Doron Clark.

State Senate District 61

Scott Dibble is running unopposed.

State Senate District 62

Omar Fateh had an opponent in the primary but is unopposed in the general.

State Senate District 63

Zaynab Mohammed was elected in 2022. Her website has a lot of focus on affordable housing. Diane Napper ran for House in 2024. She is married to Trumpy weirdo Shawn Holster, who ran for this senate seat in 2022. Her website talks about how bad the schools are (I assume she’s pro-voucher but she doesn’t say), how bad crime is, and how bad taxes are. I e-mailed her in 2024 to ask who she thought won the 2020 Presidential election and she did not reply. Vote for Zaynab Mohammed.

State Senate District 64

Erin Murphy is my State Senator and is terrific. She’s probably best known for her work on health care for all. Robert Bushard is an elderly crank who ran for Ward 4 City Council in 2023 and bragged about personally clearing a homeless encampment; referred to the murder of George Floyd as “the death of a career criminal;” scaremongered about LGBTQ+ people; suggested banning bail funds; and flirted with election denial. His current website calls Tim Walz “Governor Runaway Tampon Timmy Awolz.” Vote for Erin Murphy.

State Senate District 65

Senator Sandy Pappas is not running again, so this is an open seat. The DFLer running is Robyn Gully, a West St. Paul City Council Rep who has spent years working in labor organizing. She sounds great. The woman she beat in the primary, who failed to respond to my question about her stances on abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, Natasha Bennett, is running a write-in campaign. There is also a Republican in the race, Chris Rocco, who apparently is on the ballot as “_Rocco” (the underscore is included on the ballot). His absolute jaw-dropping awfulness is summed up pretty neatly by the fact that he’s the guy woxesho proposed the “moment of silence” for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin at the GOP State Convention (the motion passed and they did, in fact, hold a moment of silence for a murderer; bear that mind the next time Republicans yap about being tough on crime.) He’s also been putting campaign stickers on people’s mailboxes (which is illegal) and in the discussion thread about that, someone alleged that he sexually assaulted them. None of the Republicans running are good; Rocco is a dumpster fire in a toxic waste dump, and the more you look the worse he gets. Vote for Robyn Gully.

State Senate District 66

Clare Oumou Verbeten is the DFLer who is just finishing her first term. Her website calls out “fighting fascism” as her top issue. Her Republican opponent, Kathleen Bart, is running on hating trans girls specifically, massively reducing family and medical leave, and getting rid of universal free lunches (“Why are taxpayers paying for wealthy children’s meals?” Well, for one thing, because there are no wealthy children. There are children with wealthy parents, and some wealthy parents are jerks. We can collect from the wealthy parents by raising taxes on them!) Vote for Clare.

State Senate District 67

Foung Hawj has been in the State Senate since 2013. His website highlights the rental assistance passed in the legislature to help people struggling during and after Metro Surge. His Republican opponent, Toby Hesselgrave, has no website and has responded to no questionnaires but I did find his Facebook. It’s a mix of right-wing AI slop, transphobia, racism, classic cars (apparently he does classic car restoration — whether as a business or a hobby, I’m not sure) and insisting that Katie Zacharia is a lawyer even though she never passed the bar. Vote for Foung Hawj.

State House District 59A

Fue Lee is unopposed.

State House District 59B

Esther Agbaje was elected in 2019. Her website highlights first-time buyer help and tenant protections (especially during the pandemic) as well as authoring the CROWN Act, barring hairstyle-based discrimination against Black people in schools and workplaces. (I think it actually bans hairstyle-based discrimination against anyone, but this comes up a lot more for Black people.) Her Republican opponent is Kenneth Smoron, a Log Cabin Republican (which is to say, he’s gay but apparently hates taxes more than he likes having rights.) Vote for Esther Agbaje.

State House District 60A

The incumbent is Sydney Jordan, who originally won in a special election in early 2020. Her website highlights a focus on education, from preschool through college. Her Republican opponent John Holmberg has what looks to me like an AI-generated image of Northeast on the front page of his website. He offers almost zero biographical information (he and his wife Mary have lived in Northeast for 30 years. That’s it: nothing about what he does for a living, what his civic involvement has been, etc.) and I found no social media. He highlights school vouchers and longer sentences for criminals as his main issues. I e-mailed to ask him for an example of an unfunded mandate that “eats up school budgets” and he did not reply. Vote for Sydney Jordan.

State House District 60B

Mohamud Noor was challenged in the primary but is unopposed in the general.

State House District 61A

Katie Jones is unopposed.

State House District 61B

Jamie Long is unopposed.

State House District 62A

Aisha Gomez is unopposed.

State House District 62B

Anquam Mahamoud is just finishing her first term in the State Legislature. Her website highlights her commitment to health care and bodily autonomy. Bob Sullentrop is a perennial candidate who has run for Park Board (2017) (on a “prioritize the golf courses” platform), Ward 8 City Council (2021), Ward 8 City Council again (2023) (those runs were on a “I hate bike lanes and also any steps towards pedestrian safety that inconvenience me in my car” platform — seriously, he complained about speed limits), Minnesota House 62B (2024), and Ward 8 City Council again (2025) on an “I hate the DSA” platform. Vote for Anquam Mahamoud.

State House District 63A

Samantha Sencer-Mura has been in the legislature since 2023. She’s an educator, writer, and activist, and she highlights education and climate justice on her website. Kyle Bragg is running against her. Kyle Bragg has run repeatedly but this is the first time he’s ever had a website. It doesn’t help much. (He says he wants safer streets, better schools, and more government integrity, but with zero detail on what he means or what he’d do.) Vote for Samantha.

State House District 63B

Emma Greenman was first elected in 2020. Her website highlights legislation she passed banning junk fees, strengthening Minnesota Care, and defending voting rights. Her opponent, Nick Peters, has a website that highlights the old flag and says he’s trying to raise enough money by July 20th to qualify for a public subsidy. Vote for Emma.

State House District 64A

Meg Luger-Nikolai is unopposed.

State House District 64B

Dave Pinto is unopposed.

State House District 65A

Samakab Hussein is unopposed.

State House District 65B

Sebastian Ellefson was challenged in the primary but is unopposed in the general.

State House District 66A

Leigh Finke was first elected in 2022. She’s a trans woman who highlights civil rights and racial justice on her website. Her Republican opponent, Mark Born, added a sign to his signs saying “Normal Guy, Normal Name,” which several DFL State Senators have noted is both a transphobic statement and either a xenophobic or antisemitic swipe at Leigh’s last name. He highlights his hostility toward trans girls on his website. Vote for Leigh Finke.

State House District 66B

Athena Hollins was first elected in 2020. Her website highlights public safety, affordable housing, and climate justice. (Note: her public safety section talks about re-thinking how we respond to problems that don’t actually require armed intervention, and responding vigorously to police misconduct.) Her opponent, Mary O’Neal, says on her website, “Together, I am focused on issues that matter to Minnesotans: Voter ID, School choice, Restoring the original state flag.” Mary also filed a groundless complaint against the DFL after the 2024 election because when she went to early vote at the Plato building, she saw someone with a Kamala Harris sign tucked under one arm standing in the parking lot having a conversation. You are required to keep campaign materials 100 feet from the polling place; this was well over 100 feet and this woman was not holding the sign up or campaigning. Vote for Athena Hollins.

State House District 67A

Liz Lee was first elected in 2022. Her website highlights education, child care, and infrastructure issues, including transit. Her Republican opponent Jennifer McPherson offers a grab bag of random grievances but honestly doesn’t sound like she’d be especially comfortable at a Republican convention. Her current campaign Facebook page includes reshares of Republican complaints about taxes and fraud but also an Angela Davis quote about being anti-racist, a Malcolm X quote about being fooled into hating your fellow oppressed people, and objections to data centers. That’s all within the last day.

Jennifer has also run for school board twice, in 2019 and 2021. Her school board race Facebook is also still up and if you scroll down a bit you’ll find a whole lot of pro-remote-learning posts from early 2022 (see also here and here). (Schools had mostly gone back to in-person in the fall of 2021, but late 2021 / early 2022 was when Omicron wave hit.) There’s also a “lock him up” post that’s clearly referring to Trump, and a re-share from Gender Inclusive Schools. Her current website talks about trans kids and sports and I’m just going to quote verbatim because I am honestly not sure what she’s saying here: “Sports for all genders. MN has to be the leader and allow all children to play sports while following federal laws creating transgender sports teams we are ensuring equality for all while taking the target off children so they can be children and showcase their talents.” She also posted about this issue on her current campaign Facebook: “I will fight for ALL CHILDREN TO FREELY PLAY SPORTS IN MN!! TRUMP WILL NOT TAKEAWAY FREEDOM FROM OUR MN CHILDREN.” She also in that post describes herself as an Independent, despite running as a Republican.

Anyway, I’ll note that the area Republicans seem to be largely ignoring Jennifer. Vote for Liz Lee!

State House District 67B

Jay Xiong is unopposed.

And with that, I think I’m done with this year’s election blogging? (Unless I forgot something. I have been known to miss a race.)

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 raised $7,230 during primary season so I’ve raised the goal.

I also have a new book out! 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 I’ve been doing my best to keep Uncle Hugo’s, Moon Palace, and Dreamhaven Books in signed copies.

Election 2024: Minnesota House (Minneapolis & St. Paul Seats) Legislative Roundup

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The tl;dr is “vote for the DFLer” but I e-mailed every Republican running in a city district to ask who they think won the Presidential race in 2020 and now I need a post to share the results.

A note — for the incumbents, I pulled up the list of bills where they were the principal author. To find this, pull up the legislator at https://www.house.mn.gov/ and under member links you’ll see one to “Bills Chief Authored.” It shows what they chief authored in the last session. You can also see what they co-authored.

Cut for length!

Continue reading →

Election 2020: Minnesota House, 64B

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On the ballot:

Dave Pinto (DFL)
Georgia Dietz (Republican)

Dave Pinto is a progressive and generally responsive legislator who is doing a fine job.

Georgia Dietz is the chair of the Senate District 64 Republicans and is realistic enough about her chances that she hasn’t bothered setting up a website. Sharon Anderson’s campaign is a good illustration of why it’s always worth having some reasonably respectable Republican show up and file, even if they’re absolutely not going to win.

I’m going to vote for Dave Pinto.

If you’ve read all the way to the bottom: I took the time to look over on Donors Choose for some Minneapolis public school teachers who could use some financial help during These Difficult Times and in particularly with distance learning. Ms. Stone is a teacher at Cityview Elementary in North Minneapolis. She will be teaching third graders this year, and to help them succeed with distance learning, she is requesting a set of Chromebooks for her class. To equip this class of children with the basic technology they will need for distance learning will require another $5,411 to be raised by October 3rd. Can my readers raise that much? If not, can they at least get it to within sight of the finish line so a corporation or foundation will be inspired to swoop in and match our donations? I think it’s worth trying.

(I don’t have a patreon or a ko-fi but I take a lot of satisfaction from seeing projects fund after I point people at them. Please donate!)

Election 2018: Minnesota State House, 64B

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This is my legislative district. Running:

Dave Pinto (DFL)
Alex Pouliot (Republican)

Dave has been my rep since Paymar retired. I like him. He’s progressive, smart, and thoughtful. You can see the bills he was chief author of in the last session here; bills he co-authored are here.

Alex Pouliot is currently a legislative aide for the Transportation and Regional Government Policy committee, which may explain why (unlike many Republicans) he likes buses. In trying to track down other information about him, I found this article from 2008, when he was 18 and volunteering for Mitt Romney. It has this absolutely priceless bit:

The state deputy chairman of the Minnesota Teenage Republicans, Pouliot began to take interest in politics about three years ago, a passion sparked by a U.S. history class. He remembers reading about robber barons and taxation.

“I thought, that’s not fair, these people earned their money,” said Pouliot, adding that abortion is important to him because he’s Catholic.

How many people read about the robber barons of the Gilded Age and say, “wow, it’s so unfair these people got taxed!” (Also, his reading of Catholic teaching was interestingly selective.)

Anyway, I’m going to vote for Dave Pinto.

Election 2016: State Representative District 64B

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I live in 64B, which is Highland with a bit of Mac-Groveland. We are represented by Dave Pinto, who was elected for the first time two years ago when Michael Paymar retired.

I like Dave. I was a Senate District Convention delegate so I got to talk to him in some detail, and I found him thoughtful, a good listener, and a committed progressive.

The two candidates on the ballot:

Dave Pinto (DFL)
Emory K. Dively (Republican)

Dave Pinto

Dave is a Ramsey County prosecutor who works on domestic violence cases involving children. His big focus tends to be kids, especially early childhood education.

Emory K. Dively (Republican)

Emory is a pastor at Deaf Life Church on Snelling Avenue, which I pass pretty frequently and have wondered about a few times. It is apparently part of a loosely-organized Pentecostalist fellowship. Emory and his wife (who’s a co-pastor there) are both Deaf.

There is very little info on Emory’s website about his views (there’s not a ton on Dave’s, but he’s at least got a voting record plus I remember him from when I was contemplating the Senate District Convention back in 2014) so I went looking for other info on him. I was thrown for a bit by the fact that there are two Emory Divelys, this one plus an Emory David Dively who turns out to be Emory K. Dively’s son. There’s a bunch of interesting biographical information over on this site, including the fact that he speaks eight different sign languages. (Sign languages are not the same from country to country; in fact, ASL (American Sign Language) and BSL (British Sign Language) are apparently not mutually intelligible.

I also found a District 64 Candidate Forum that was held last night and is now up on YouTube:


and watched it. (Well, okay, I fast-forwarded through some bits.) It’s not just Dave vs. Emory: Dick Cohen and Ian Baird, as well as the candidates from 64A, Erin Murphy and Riley Horan, are also in it.

 

Emory used ASL and had an interpreter. Some of what he was saying came across as pretty incoherent and I’m honestly not sure whether the problem was that he is an incoherent communicator, or if the interpreter was having trouble. The interpreter sounded a lot smoother on his closing statement than on some of his answers, though, which made me think that it was him, and he was not great at coming up with answers he hadn’t practiced.

Things I noted about his positions: he is very focused on special education; that’s his pet issue. I’d say this isn’t entirely surprising, given that he’s a Deaf man working at a Deaf church, but Dave Pinto is also disabled (he’s significantly vision impaired, enough that he can’t drive) and his pet issue is Early Childhood Education.

Asked about the racisal disparities in St. Paul public schools, Emory had no real answer. Asked about climate change he said we needed to take our time and not rush and not try to tell other states what to do. Asked about improving health care his answer was just confusing.

I will say that i kind of liked him? He seemed like a warm, likeable person, especially when compared to his fellow Republicans, the very young Ian Baird and the holy-shit-even-younger Riley Horan. (Riley is twenty years old, and is currently in college at the University of St. Thomas.) I am definitely going to vote for Dave Pinto, though. Absolutely. I sat through 90 minutes of forum and I am still not sure what his views are on most of the major issues, but more to the point, I’m not sure he knows, either.

Ian Baird came across as very young and frequently inarticulate. (Ian, if you’re reading this, go to Toastmasters.) He had handful of comments that made sense but he also thinks global warming is going to be solved with “American ingenuity” rather than government interference.

All you really need to know about Riley Horan is that he thinks the jury is still out on global warming. He came across to me like a dark-haired Draco Malfoy. I will give him credit for one thing, which is that he says on his campaign website that same-sex marriage is a settled issue and Republicans should shut up about it. Other than that, eesh. The guy has a picture of himself posing with Ted Cruz, one of his favorite politicians. (His other big favorite: Scott Walker.) If you’re in 64A, vote for Erin Murphy.

 

Election 2014: Minnesota State House, Districts 63A and 64B

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So I’m just going down the ballot in order, and next up on your ballot will be State Rep. I used to live in 63A, where I was represented by Jim Davnie. Now I live in 64B, where I am represented by Michael Paymar but won’t be for very much longer because he’s retiring.

All the interesting stuff in 64B actually happened back in March, when there was an endorsing convention. I went. It was, to my surprise, significantly faster and more efficient than the endorsing conventions in Minneapolis have ever been. The DFL endorsed candidate is Dave Pinto, who I like quite a bit, though he wasn’t my first choice going in. (My first choice going in didn’t even make it to the second round of voting, alas.)

Anyway, I’ll do Minneapolis first. For State Representative District 63A, your choices are:

KYLE BRAGG – REPUBLICAN
JIM DAVNIE – DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR

Kyle Bragg appears to have no website. When I googled for his name, I found a union organizer who lives in Queens; I’m thinking this is probably a different Kyle Bragg. (I mean, there are Republican union members — it does happen — but you can’t run for the Minnesota House of Representatives if you life in New York.) The New York Kyle Bragg actually sounds pretty damn cool

The Minneapolis Kyle Bragg has a LinkedIn profile that says he’s a lease specialist for an office machines company; his Facebook page has a lovely picture of Minnehaha Falls in winter, so I’m pretty sure I’m looking at the right guy.

Anyway, the bottom line is, he’s not a serious candidate; if you can’t even be bothered to set up a Facebook page for your candidacy, you’re not actually running for office even if you’ve filed for it.

Jim Davnie

I have known Jim for over fourteen years; I was pregnant with Molly (and his wife was pregnant with their older daughter) when he ran for office the first time. Jim is smart, funny, honest, thoughtful, and an amazing speaker. If you live in his district, not only should you vote for him, you should seek him out at neighborhood events to chat. Jim is freaking awesome. I would vote for him for anything. Well, maybe not Attorney General. I think you’re supposed to have gone to law school to be AG.

On to St. Paul.

This district has been represented by Michael Paymar since 1996. Paymar is stepping down at the end of this session, so there’s no incumbent. You might think this would have led to a bunch of people filing, but nope. For State Representative District 64B, your choices are:

DANIEL SURMAN – REPUBLICAN
DAVE PINTO – DEMOCRATIC-FARMER-LABOR

According to the Pioneer Press, Daniel Surman is an office director for a Republican campaign office covering the 4th Congressional District. In the MNGOP notice about the endorsing convention they held in July, they note that Daniel Surman is the only candidate who filed, and adds, “With the retirement of former-Rep Michael Paymar, he hopes to rally Republicans in our community to make sure our next State Representative will be a Republican!”

So possibly the problem is “rallying Republicans in our community.” I mean, I know there are a few. But you’d be hard-pressed to find them. Even though Daniel is so Republican he works for the party, and even though he has a Twitter, a blog, and another blog (this one’s with a group of bloggers), he doesn’t seem to have a campaign site of any kind. In other words, like the guy in 63A, he filed but he’s not actually running.

If you’re a Republican you’ll probably vote for him anyway, although you might ask yourself, don’t you want a State Rep who acts like he wants the job of representing you?

Dave Pinto is a county prosecutor. During endorsement season he held “conversations” (with topics) rather than meet-and-greets, which was an interesting idea. He doorknocked us at least once and I also talked with him on the phone; I found him thoughtful and engaged. When he doesn’t have an answer, he’ll ask for your ideas (as opposed to pulling buzzwords out of his ass to try to make it sound like he has all the answers.)

Anyway, I think Pinto’s going to be an excellent State Rep, and I’m planning to vote for him.