House District 3A 2026 Election Guide

Incumbent

Party: Republican

Age on Election Day: 64

Community: Ely, MN

Employment: State Representative/Wilderness Fishing Guide

Please share any prior experience and education that you believe qualifies you for office.

Ely City Council 9 years, Ely Mayor 8 years, MN State Representative 4 years.
US Army Reserves 9 years.
Graduated from North Dakota State University, Fargo, with a BS in Construction Management
Served on St. Louis County Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment 15 years.

Why are you running?

To serve the people of District 3A. I have always wanted to serve the communities I’ve lived in and I have been fortunate enough to do that. I have experience in elected office and I have lived my whole life in the woods and waters that surround us. I will always protect our environment, I have guided for over 40 years so I know firsthand how important clean air and water are.
Winning by such a large margin also makes me feel that the people want me to serve them in St. Paul.

Why should voters elect you?

When I was elected the first time I won by 15 votes, I won my second election by over 3,600 votes, a 23,000 percent increase. I have proven to the voters that I can and do work across the aisle to take care of the people I represent.
I was born and raised in Ely, MN and lived my whole life in northern Minnesota. I know the people, the issues and the lay of the land. I have elected experience being a city councilor, mayor and state representative, with all of that experience comes relationships with people who can help get things done. When I’m elected all that experience is put to use and all the people from District 3A benefit.

What are your top three priorities, if elected? Please describe specific policy goals.

We have to stop the fraud in our State Government, we known it is happening and the usual checks and balances are not working so we need to determine what is the best way to stop it.
I will support and help pass a Capital Investment bill that fixes our critical infrastructure and creates thousands of good paying jobs.
To extend or make permanent the 340B Drug Pricing Program in Minnesota. Our rural hospitals count on these funds to keep providing services in rural Minnesota.

Name a public leader you admire and explain why.

Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth. I helped elect Lisa as our Caucus Leader and the Speaker of the House. She has shown me that with hard work and being honest, you can succeed in politics. She negotiated a civil ending this last session, with the House being tied, the Senate controlled by the DFL and the DFL Governor, it was tense but she did an excellent job to ”land the plane” under those circumstances.

What natural resources policies do you support?

Keeping Minnesota’s air and water clean.
Maintaining and expanding all trails in Minnesota, and I mean all trails.
I am a hunter and fisherman and will support policies that protect the use of the land and water in the State for hunting and fishing and any other outdoor activities.

What policies do you support to address concerns of widespread fraud in state-run programs?

We need to hold the Agency heads accountable and help them with new laws to perform what we believe will stop the fraud. We need to agree that there is and has been fraud committed, then we can all agree on a path to fix it.

What policies would you champion to help alleviate growing property tax burdens on residents at the local government level? 

Stopping bills that have unfunded mandates in them. When legislatures pass bills with the state not funding them then the county and local governments have to raise property taxes, by stopping legislation like that there cannot be any increases for that issue.
We also need to encourage those that can work, to work. The more people working the more money moves around and the economy grows, new businesses grow out and pay new property taxes, lessening the burden on those already paying.
We also need to address the school districts increases to property taxes, the State keeps passing unfunded mandates to school boards and that needs to stop.

What does representative democracy mean to you?

Representative democracy allows citizens to elect people they trust and the elected official’s govern to the best of their ability. Elected officials pass laws that govern the people and if the people don’t like the way they are being governed then they vote new people in.

Party: DFL

Age on Election Day: 51

Community: Vermilion Lake Township

Employment: USFS District Ranger Retired, Wildland Firefighter

Please share any prior experience and education that you believe qualifies you for office.

My career as a public servant spanned 28 years as a federal employee. This included twenty three years as a law enforcement officer, wildland firefighter, and supervisor for twelve of those years. For the last six years, I served as the US Forest District Ranger in Ely Minnesota. In this position I was responsible for fifty employees, complex mineral permitting, forest management, WIlderness stewardship, tribal consultation, and emergency response to natural disasters like flooding and wildfires. Compassion and care helped make things better for those people and communities during difficult times.

Why are you running?

My career as a public servant spanned 28 years as a federal employee. This included twenty three years as a law enforcement officer, wildland firefighter, and supervisor for twelve of those years. For the last six years, I served as the US Forest District Ranger in Ely Minnesota. In this position I was responsible for fifty employees, complex mineral permitting, forest management, WIlderness stewardship, tribal consultation, and emergency response to natural disasters like flooding and wildfires. Compassion and care helped make things better for those people and communities during difficult times.

Why should voters elect you?

I am running to represent District 3A with steady, practical leadership - focused on listening, showing up consistently, and getting real results for our communities. District 3A needs a strong voice at the Capitol. We deserve a leader who listens to all sides. I value hearing different perspectives and understanding what matters most to my neighbors. The only path to lasting change is through compromise. We must focus on what unites us, rather than pursue divisive partisan politics. I will work tirelessly to bring that compromise back to the legislature and work to find common ground to achieve results for Northeast Minnesota.

What are your top three priorities, if elected? Please describe specific policy goals.

1.) I will protect and utilize our land. The foundation of this economy is our land. I will support forestry, tourism, and the responsible use of minerals — all while ensuring that these industries do not threaten our woods, waters, or Wilderness. Transparency is the key to success when priorities come into conflict.

2.) I will make life more affordable. The skyrocketing cost of living is hurting all of us. We should keep more of our tax revenue in the Northland, fully fund our schools, and support rural healthcare while keeping the cap on prescription drug prices.

3.) I will provide strong leadership for the Northland. We need our voices heard in St Paul! 3A needs a bi-partisan representative in the Capitol. I have decades of experience bringing people together across parties and communities to fight natural disasters, keep us safe, and deliver real results.

Name a public leader you admire and explain why.

I would say former U.S. Representative Rick Nolan. As I travel across the district listening to voters, his name often comes up as an example of a Representative who listened to his constituents as the path to find solutions to the difficult problems he faced. I think we've mostly lost that in our politics today. As a Representative, you represent everybody in your district, whether they voted for you or not. Real leadership rises above that divisiveness to find solutions that work for everyone.

What natural resources policies do you support?

I have spent my career protecting public lands. In District 3A, our abundant natural resources drive our local economy. We have iron ore, timber, water, power, tourism and the best-trained industrial workforce in the country sitting partly idle. Our path forward is to stop shipping raw material out of state and letting somebody else add the value. In order to grow this economy, we must develop new markets like green steel, biomass, and sustainable aviation fuel. I will promote and support policies that keep our dollars local without risking what makes Northern Minnesota such a great place to live.

What policies do you support to address concerns of widespread fraud in state-run programs?

Fraud is unacceptable at all levels of government. I spent twenty-three years as a police officer arresting people who thought they were above the law, including those who committed fraud. I am eager to put this experience to work to protect your tax dollars, hold fraudsters accountable and properly fund oversight systems to stop fraud before it happens.

In the legislature, I would work to design programs that are hard to cheat in the first place — site visits and background checks before the money goes out, not after; modern IT that flags duplicate billing automatically. We need to stop outsourcing this work; every middleman added increases the risk of fraud. We also need to fund the investigators and the courts, because you cannot prosecute if the resources aren't available. Thoughtful investments in our fraud prevention systems will pay for themselves by shielding our tax dollars from theft.

What policies would you champion to help alleviate growing property tax burdens on residents at the local government level? 

This fall, Minnesota voters will have the opportunity to approve an amendment to increase annual school disbursements from the state's school trust fund. This is an important step we can take now, to increase funding to our public schools without raising taxes. A 'yes' vote means more money for our schools.

Additionally, taxes on vacation rentals in District 3A flow to the state instead of to our school districts - that money needs to stay local. Local and County Program Aid haven’t been adjusted for inflation - our property taxes have increased to cover the gap. Senator Hauschild has proposed legislation on this and I would push to propose his bill on the House side. That’s the single biggest structural fix available to us.

I also believe that Minnesota shouldn’t tax Social Security benefits at the state level. Rising property taxes are placing an undue burden on our seniors.

What does representative democracy mean to you?

Representative democracy means electing officials that are accountable to all of their constituents, not just the ones who voted for them. How could I legislate and represent my district if I didn't consider the needs of every resident of District 3A? If I finish this campaign with the exact same opinions that I started with, then I didn't listen well enough.

I also feel the only way to represent our constituents is to work together with other elected officials to identify our common ground and lead from the center. I will listen to anyone who has something to share and I will work with anyone willing to work with me. Our representative democracy was founded on the idea of compromise. Representative democracy crumbles in the absence of compromise.