Issues

When I talk to families across District 57A, one of the things I hear most is this: I don’t trust the people in charge anymore. And honestly? I understand that.

Too many people in positions of power, on both sides, have used those positions to take care of themselves first. We have lawmakers trading stocks on information the public does not have. We have officials walking out of office richer than when they walked in. We have a revolving door between the legislature and the lobbying industry.

Here in Minnesota, Koznick has voted against legislation to establish nonpartisan oversight committees for funding programs. He would rather keep those decisions in the hands of people who agree with him than let independent eyes see where the money goes. That is not accountability. That is protection of the status quo.

I will fight every single day to make sure the people of District 57A have a representative who is working for them, not working for himself.

I run Alberta’s Restaurant in Elko New Market with my wife. I know what a dollar looks like by the time it survives every layer of taxation.

By the time that original dollar has made it all the way through: sales tax, self-employment tax, state income tax, federal income tax. I am keeping maybe 50 cents. Maybe. And out of that 50 cents, I still have to pay for my own healthcare, maintain my equipment, and build a reserve for when something breaks.

That is not a talking point. That is Tuesday.

The people in St. Paul making decisions about business regulation have never signed the front of a check. I have. Every contractor, flower shop owner, and landscaping crew in this district is doing the same math at the end of every month. I will be that voice in St. Paul.

When you look at your mortgage statement, your largest single line item should not be property taxes.

I have talked with families all across this district and I hear it over and over again. The mortgage I can handle. It is the property tax that is drowning me.

When I say I will fight to lower property taxes, I want to be very clear about what I mean. I am not talking about defunding our schools, our police, our fire department, or the people who make this community safe. Not even close.

I am talking about the businesses that get sweetheart deals. The big developers who build low-income housing, collect massive tax exemptions, and pass the entire burden onto every other property owner in the district. Large developers collect affordable housing tax breaks, and the moment their compliance period ends, rents go to market rate while the tax burden stays shifted onto everyone else.

It is a system that works perfectly. Just not for you.

I support law enforcement fully and without hedging. Defunding police is something I will never support.

I am also a gun owner. I have my permit to carry. I take that right seriously and the responsibility that comes with it seriously.

And I support banning assault rifles.

I say that clearly because too many politicians have been afraid to say what they actually believe. A weapon designed to fire dozens of rounds per second has one purpose. The shooter at Annunciation chose an AR-15 specifically because of its rate of fire. Thirty people became victims. Higher criminal penalties would not have deterred someone who planned to die at the scene. That is not an honest answer. It is an avoidance of one.

Lakeville’s Mental Health Crisis Team has responded to over 600 incidents since June 2024. That is not soft on crime. That is smart on safety.

Now let me talk about our volunteer firefighters, because this is something that makes me angry. Many give their time freely to protect this community. One of the few benefits they receive is a pension. I will fight to make sure those pensions are fully funded. Full stop.

Volunteer firefighters who see a gap in ambulance coverage, sometimes 20 to 30 minutes away, have gone out and gotten their EMT certification on their own dime. A $7,000 training. On no salary. Because they wanted to save lives.

That is wrong. And I will fight to fix it.

I have spent years walking the hallways of Lakeville schools. I know what it means to a child when the school they walk into every day says: you matter, there is space for you here.

ISD 194 is one of the fastest-growing school districts in Minnesota. That is something to be proud of. But growth brings pressure, on classrooms, on teachers, and on families watching costs climb while academic performance struggles to keep up.

Parents across this district feel like they are being kept at arm’s length from decisions that affect their children every single day. That has to change. Parents are partners, not bystanders.

Teachers in this district are burning out. The pay does not match the responsibility. We keep asking them to do more without the support or the compensation that reflects what we are actually asking of them. That is a policy failure. And it is one we can fix.

Not a public option. Not a plan that covers some people some of the time. Healthcare for every single Minnesotan. I will say that clearly and I will not apologize for it.

Minnesota individual market premiums are up more than 21 percent in 2026. Small business plans up 14 percent. Nearly 90,000 Minnesotans paying an average of $177 more every single month, because Congress let critical tax credits expire. I know what that number feels like. You look at it, you look at your employees, and you try to figure out what you cut.

Minnesotans are already paying for healthcare. Through premiums. Through deductibles we cannot afford to hit. The question is not whether we can afford it. The question is whether the system is delivering what we are paying for, or whether a significant portion disappears into administrative overhead and insurance company profit before it ever reaches a doctor.

On mental health, we have been underinvesting for decades. The cost shows up in our emergency rooms, our schools, and our streets. Nobody in this district should have to wait months for a mental health appointment or skip care because they cannot afford the copay.

This district is growing. That is a good thing. But growth without supply is just pressure, and right now that pressure is squeezing families out of communities they have lived in for years.

Young people who grew up here cannot afford to stay here. Seniors on fixed incomes are watching their property taxes climb. And while regular homeowners are squeezed, large developers are collecting property tax exemptions meant for affordable housing, and once the compliance period ends, charging market rents while the tax burden stays on everyone else.

We need more housing. Built at prices working families can actually afford. And the rules need to mean what they say.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is one of the most pristine and treasured natural places in this country. And right now the federal government has approved copper mining near its shores.

I oppose that decision. Copper mining near the Boundary Waters poses a real and serious risk of sulfide runoff and acid mine drainage into one of the cleanest water systems in North America. Once that water is contaminated, there is no undoing it. This is not a partisan issue. This is a legacy issue: what we hand to the next generation of Minnesotans.

Closer to home, there is a data center proposed for District 57A. I understand the economic opportunity that brings. But data centers are enormous consumers of water and electricity. If we add significant data center capacity to this region without simultaneously investing in the green energy infrastructure to power them, we are setting up an electricity crisis. That is short-term thinking with long-term consequences.

I will work to ensure that any data center development in this district comes with real commitments to water conservation and green energy generation.

Those two things are not opposites. And I refuse to be told they cannot go together.

My employees are not my adversaries. They are the people who show up every day and make this place work. When they do well, the business does well. When the business does well, they do well. That is not a contradiction. That is how it is supposed to work.

Unions exist because workers figured out that the only way to have a real conversation with an employer about wages, safety, and dignity is to have numbers on your side. I respect that. I support the right of every worker to organize and collectively bargain without interference, intimidation, or retaliation.

I also support better wages. Working full time and still not being able to pay your rent is not a personal failure. It is a policy failure.

Minnesota does not have a Right to Work law, and I will fight to keep it that way. Right to Work laws allow workers to benefit from union contracts without contributing to the cost of negotiating them. It is designed to weaken unions by starving them of resources. It is not about freedom. It is about making it harder for workers to organize.

A union worker and a small business owner have more in common than the political system wants them to believe. I am for both.

I came to this country legally. I have been here for 35 years. I believe in the rule of law. And I am living proof that a legal, humane immigration system can work.

I also know what happened in this district during Operation Metro Surge. I watched families hide in their homes. I saw empty desks in the schools where I work. I sat with people who asked me what they did wrong. And I had to look them in the eye and tell them: they didn’t do anything wrong.

What happened here was not enforcement. Enforcement does not put a knee on a child’s neck at a bus stop. The economic damage was real. Alberta’s lost an estimated $36,000 in revenue over twelve weeks. My wife and I took less home. We gave groceries to families who were afraid to leave their houses. Not every small business could do that. Some had to stop paying employees altogether.

Both parties have failed on immigration, and both benefit from keeping the system broken. Meanwhile, real families in this district pay the price every single day.

We can hold both truths at once: the rule of law and human dignity are not opposites.

This isn’t a simple topic. And I’m not going to pretend it is.

It’s emotional. It’s moral. It involves life, responsibility, personal freedom, and deeply held beliefs. Good, thoughtful people land in different places. I respect that.

Here’s where I land:

You can believe something is morally serious without believing the state should control it. Those aren’t the same thing.

And I’m cautious, very cautious, about giving government authority over the most personal medical decisions a person will ever face.

Because here’s what history teaches us: when we hand government that kind of power, convinced we’re right, that same power doesn’t go away when the politics change. It stays. And it gets used in ways we didn’t intend.

If we want fewer crisis pregnancies and fewer painful situations, and I think everyone does, the answer isn’t just more laws. It’s building something better. It’s supporting women instead of isolating them. Making healthcare something families can actually access. Holding both parents responsible, not just one. Strengthening the communities and the networks that keep people from ending up in desperate places in the first place.

A healthy society doesn’t treat women like they belong to the state. It treats them as capable adults: people who can think, wrestle with hard things, and carry real responsibility.

That’s the kind of society I want to help build. In St. Paul and right here at home.