Here’s who’s on the ballot:

Natalie Hudson (Incumbent)
Stephen Emery

tl;dr: vote for Natalie Hudson.

Stephen Emery has an interesting history. First, he ran for US Senate in the DFL primary in 2018 (against Amy Klobuchar.) I noticed at the time that he was hair raisingly conservative, absolutely not someone anyone should vote for in the DFL primary even if they disliked Amy Klobuchar. In 2018, he described himself as “Pro-Life, Pro-Traditional Family, Pro-Gun, Pro-Private Enterprise, Responsible Immigration.” His website included gems like, “I will advocate and vote in such a way as to promote the decree of the Creator for mankind to take dominion over the earth and subdue it and to be fruitful and multiply” and “I would advocate and vote to defund the promotion of evolution.” He also wanted to disband the UN because it was too pro-Muslim.

In 2022, he ran for and won a race to be County Attorney in Yellow Medicine County, only to then refuse to accept the position. The guy he’d defeated was appointed instead. Also in 2022 he was promoting election denial propaganda.

So it’s a little surprising that his website for the judicial race starts out with a long anti-corporate rant. (But shows up with the title “Conservative representation for Minnesota” when you google.) Anyway: absolutely do not vote for this guy!

Natalie Hudson is fine. I’m going to vote for her and so should everyone else. (Seriously, even if you’re very conservative and would prefer a Chief Justice not appointed by a DFLer, you don’t want Emery. If you’re very conservative and would prefer a Chief Justice not appointed by a DFLer, I’m going to suggest you move to Iowa, because the MN GOP endorsed Royce White for US Senate this year, that is not the choice of a serious party that wants to win statewide elections at some point in the future.)

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, but I get a lot of satisfaction by pointing people at fundraisers that I can then see fund. I’m probably going to mix things up later but for now, if you’d like to make a donation to encourage my work, Ms. Pierce at Lucy Craft Laney school in North Minneapolis would like donations to buy snacks for her students and supplies like Lysol wipes (that schools with wealthier families just have the parents send in). She is also looking for funds to buy school supplies, learning materials, and classroom storage, rugs, and flexible seating.