If you live outside of Minneapolis or St. Paul, you may find my posts about statewide races useful but I do not write about your City Council races, school board races, County Board races, etc., and I know it can be extremely hard to find good information on those races.

Good news, though — MPR News now has a fully statewide election guide that includes every race on the ballot. They contacted every candidate with three very basic questions (“Why are you running? What life or professional experiences led you to seek this position? What are the top issues you’re discussing with voters and why?”) When candidates did not respond, they assembled any information available on the candidates’ websites. If you click on candidate names, the guide will provide links to their website and social media links, and for many candidates that did not answer, there’s an “ask this candidate questions directly” link that directs to their campaign e-mail.

This is a tremendous resource and I’m so glad they’re doing this. Local races matter! (That’s why I write this guide!)

I also put together a guide for hunting down information on these races last year, which you can read here.