by Dan Burns

Oct 1, 2024, 11:00 AM

MN House DFL pickup opportunities 2024

These are districts where I think our chances are best, based on results from 2022. I’m using the MN Secretary of State website’s candidate filing list. I admire almost all of our candidates, and their volunteers, from the tightest districts to the longest shots.

HD 3A: Then-incumbent Rob Ecklund lost to the current incumbent, Rep. Roger Skraba (R-Ely), by fifteen votes in 2022. Our candidate this year is Harley Droba. From his website:

Ensuring that folks living in rural areas have easy access to top-notch healthcare is incredibly important. I am fully committed to making sure our medical facilities cater to the residents they serve, improving how people can reach their medical appointments, supporting the local clinics around us, and bringing in highly skilled healthcare professionals to work in our communities so that everyone can receive the care they need right in their own neighborhoods.

Rep. Skraba, in his first and hopefully last term, is a cookie-cutter Party of Trumper. On age demographic shifts alone this seat should flip, but there’s a “Forward Party” candidate named Rich Tru. Anyone thinking of voting for him instead of Droba needs to think about what the DFL trifecta accomplished, and pull his head out.

HD 11A: Pete Radosevich is the DFLer.

The first-term incumbent is Jeff Dotseth (R-Kettle River). I remember noting in 2022 that of the GOP candidate websites I looked at his was the only one with the candidate proudly sporting a MAGA cap in at least one photo. It’s since been strongly alleged that he’s engaged in sustained, severe domestic abuse.

HD 33A: Our candidate is Jake Ross. From his website:

I’m Jake Ross. I’m an accountant with a degree in economics and experience as an environmental researcher. I grew up in Forest Lake and have lived here all my life. My mother is a public school teacher and proud union member. I have a younger brother and sister who are both in college. I love my hometown and our district.

I’m running to be your state representative because I want to build a strong economy that works for everyone, and ensure a bright future for District 33A. I want our state to be a place where everyone’s fundamental rights are respected, where our environment is cared for, and where people like my brother and sister can grow up safe and healthy.

Rep. Patti Anderson (R-Dellwood) is in her first term. She was State Auditor a long time ago. She hasn’t exactly rocketed to prominence in the lege.

HD 36A: Janelle Calhoun is our candidate. Her website emphasizes education, infrastructure, and environmental issues.

Rep. Elliott Engen (R-White Bear Township) is another first termer. He won in 2022 by less than 3%. Here’s something about where his head is at.

HD 41A: Rep. Mark Wiens (R-Lake Elmo) is leaving the lege after one term. He’d won in 2022 by about 0.5%. Didn’t much care for life in the minority I suppose, along with facing no easy task in getting reelected. Lucia Wroblewski is the DFL candidate. From her website:

While lawmakers can’t fix the whole problem (of cost-of-living issues), our Democratic majority in the legislature, led for the first time by two women, took historic strides to invest in a thriving workforce and economy while providing financial relief to the Minnesotans that need it most.

They made universal meals at school a reality. They passed tax cuts to reduce child poverty by a third. They enacted paid family and medical leave so people don’t lose their jobs when they get sick or need to care for a sick loved one. They invested a billion dollars in affordable housing.

The GOPer is Wayne Johnson. He won a tight primary after losing GOP endorsement to a far-right kook. But Johnson’s only a little less right-wing, by any rational, reality-based standard.

HD 41B: Rep. Shane Hudella (R-Hastings) is also leaving after one term. He won in 2022 by about 2.2%. Our candidate is Jen Fox. From her website:

Many Minnesotans encounter vulnerable groundwater–water that is easily contaminated by nitrate in the soil–on a daily basis. Local farmers and agronimists are developing nitrogen management practices to protect District 41 from unsafe drinking water but will require sufficient funding to implement these strategies. Fox will fight for state funding of Best Management Practices (BMP) to ensure that our communities have clean drinking water.

Party of Trumper Tom Dippel fits that Trumper label all right. He’s running under the auspices of “Action 4 Liberty.”

Addendum: Originally, the preceding was to be followed by a Part 2 in a separate story covering Minnesota’s remaining districts. But when I looked I found only two that qualify, as many of the highest numbers cover inner metro districts that are not remotely competitive even when the GOP bothers to run candidates at all (which they often didn’t in 2022, though they are this year). So I’m just adding those two, here.

HD 45A: Our candidate is Tracy Breazeale. From her website:

Though I spent my early years in Minnesota, I have also lived abroad and in many other states. My husband and I chose to start our family in Minnesota because of the many accessible and beautiful lakes, world-class education, thriving business community, and safe communities. We’ve enjoyed living in the Lake Minnetonka area for over 25 years. I want to ensure Minnesota remains a place that families want to call home and businesses want to invest in.

Rep. Andrew Myers (R-Tonka Bay) has done nothing notable.

HD 57B: The DFLer is Brian Cohn. The priorities page on his website shows him to be righteously progressive.

Rep. Jeff Witte (R-Lakeville) has done nothing notable, either. To be clear, what I mean by that is that he’s accomplished nothing in the lege, but has also refrained from publicly running his mouth in the ways favored by some Minnesota House Party of Trumpers that you can presumably name as well as I can.