Rep. Kaohly Her scored a major upset over Mayor Melvin Carter Tuesday, emerging as St. Paul’s first Hmong-American and first woman mayor, capitalizing on voters’ dissatisfaction after Carter’s two terms.
“Here is my commitment to you: As your mayor, I will always show up. We are a large city, but a small community. Being involved matters. How we run our government matters. How we show up for people — in every corner of our city — matters,” Her said during victory remarks at Sweeney’s Saloon on Dale Street.
Her’s surprisingly strong challenge came after jumping into the race in August. A campaign spokesman said they knocked on 40,000 doors in their sprint to win nearly that many votes needed for victory.
“Three months ago, people told us this was impossible — look at us now!” she said.
Rep. Kaohly Her, DFL-St. Paul, at her victory party at Sweeney’s Saloon in St. Paul. (Photo by J. Patrick Coolican/Minnesota Reformer)
“My family came here as refugees. Never in their wildest dreams would I be standing here today accepting the position of mayor,” she said in a statement.
Her, who came to the United States as a three-year-old refugee from Laos following the Vietnam War, campaigned on competency amid a city-wide malaise, underscored by the closure of downtown’s only grocery store and another in the Midway, which has struggled from a lack of development despite the presence of the professional soccer stadium. A rent control initiative passed with Carter’s backing in 2021 has been deemed such a failure that the City Council earlier this year exempted units built after 2004 — at Carter’s urging. High office vacancy rates and a resulting collapse in commercial property values have resulted in steep property tax increases on homeowners.
Carter, who had been considered a dynamic and rising star in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, conceded to Her and offered his support: “Me and my team will be there to set her up for success because this has never been about me and this has never been about my team. This has to be about the city.”
Her, 52, graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and spent 15 years in banking, raised children and only entered politics at 45, becoming Carter’s policy aide. She’s represented District 64A in the House since her election in 2018.
Her said in a Reformer interview at her victory party that she worked hard to be financially secure before she saw a place for herself in politics, but now approaches public service with urgency: “When I realized there are a few people making decision for everybody, that that’s where I needed to be because we can’t just let a few people make decisions for everybody.”
The mayor-elect said she plans to gather St. Paulites who have often been left out of the conversation about the future of the city.
“One of the biggest things I heard from people was that they didn’t feel heard, they didn’t feel they were being brought in as partners. We’ll listen and do this work together,” she said.
Her joins a City Council comprising seven women, making St. Paul a rare large city that’s entirely women-led.
Her said her vision for St. Paul in five or 10 years is a city government so adept at “nuts and bolts” that “no one will even know it was ever an issue, so that if I lay the foundation and the groundwork, whoever comes next can build on top of that.”
Ryan Winkler, the former House majority leader who worked with Her in the lower chamber and supported her mayoral candidacy, said Her’s election should be a wakeup call for Democrats tasked with governing: “If we aren’t paying attention to basic needs, then there’s no reason to trust the city to take on bigger challenges. If we can’t fill potholes, I don’t see how you can solve global warming or poverty.”
J. Patrick Coolican is Editor-in-Chief of Minnesota Reformer. Previously, he was a Capitol reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for five years, after a Knight-Wallace Fellowship at the University of Michigan and time at the Las Vegas Sun, Seattle Times and a few other stops along the way. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and two young children
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
