With a familiar name, DFL tries to win back long-held Minnesota House seat it lost last election

HERMANTOWN, MINN. – Mark Munger was a young lawyer in the 1980s the first time he was approached by elder Democrats and asked to consider an entry into politics. They wanted him to run against independent Republican James Gustafson for a senate seat.

He turned to his uncle Willard Munger, who had experience here. The elder Munger served 42 years as a member of the House of Representatives before he died of liver cancer in 1999. The Munger name still holds weight in this community, where the 80-mile Willard Munger State Trail starts near the Munger Inn. He was frank in his advice to his nephew.

“He said ‘Mark, if you want your first election to be your last election, run against Jim Gustafson,’” Munger, a retired St. Louis County judge and Proctor city attorney, recalled recently.

He took the advice.

“I don’t like losing,” Munger said.

Earlier this year, Munger, 69, was approached by the party a second time. The request: Take on incumbent Republican Natalie Zeleznikar in the Minnesota House District 3B race. In 2022, then-newcomer Zeleznikar ousted Mary Murphy, a Democrat who had represented this region since 1977. It was a close call — and paired with other races painted a district divided. Zeleznikar won by 33 votes. But Pres. Joe Biden won here, too.

All 134 seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives are on the Nov. 5 ballot; 68 are held by Democrats, 63 by Republicans. This Greater Minnesota race, with two candidates from Fredenberg Township, population 1,400, is considered one of a handful to watch.

Lobbyist Jeff Anderson described this district as full-on blue, not even purple. And yet: “You’ve got a very competitive race with outside party money,” he said.

Zeleznikar, 58, is a longtime nursing home administrator, youth hockey and church volunteer, breast cancer survivor and author. She credits her background for earning her a spot with a bipartisan delegation that traveled to Washington, D.C. last month with the Emergency Medical Services Task Force to advocate for Greater Minnesota.

Munger, on top of his legal career, is the author of more than a dozen books, both fiction and nonfiction, including one about Uncle Willard. He’s an Eagle Scout and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Reserve. He’s co-executive director of his church.

Both list child and elder care among the issues driving them. Both have stressed a need for civility in modern politics. Both have been hard at work knocking on doors in the northeastern Minnesota district that includes Proctor, Hermantown, Two Harbors, Rice Lake and more than a dozen townships.

“It’s an interesting race by two people who are committed to the District,” said Jake Benson, the editor of the Proctor Journal who is also a city councilor. “Natalie is a good campaigner and Mark is up to the challenge and showing that he, too, could be an enthusiastic campaigner.”

In 2022, Zeleznikar was new to politics, but unsurprised to find herself in the throes of it. She had thought about running for St. Louis County Commissioner; the pandemic gave her an early push. Zeleznikar had been a nursing home administrator/owner for 30 years, she’s worked every shift she said, and was moved by watching people in her care visit family through windows, pressing their hands to glass.

“I figured if we were ever in a pandemic again, I wanted to write a policy or regulation that we would never deny family to be with their loved ones,” she said recently.

She has hands-on experience in a range of areas in health care, a unique background that she didn’t see duplicated among other lawmakers.

Her run had nothing to do with ousting Murphy, she said, and more to do with wanting to serve — with an eye toward this region’s robust aging population. She is a “doer” and those who know her insist that “Natalie” is a verb, she said.

“This is just another avenue of doing service,” she said.

Zeleznikar sometimes hits the campaign trail aboard Hazel, a 4-wheeler. She said her constituents’ main issue is the affordability of day-to-day life. She wants to diversify this part of the state’s energy portfolio, she said, but she wants to be thoughtful about deadlines and costs.

She questioned why a retired judge would focus a campaign on elderly care and child care, rather than public safety. “I’m endorsed by the police,” she noted, a nod to the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association.

At the start of the year, Sen. Grant Hauschild (DFL-Hermantown) approached Munger about challenging Zeleznikar. Then came another call from one of Munger’s two favorite Minnesota governors: Tim Walz. (The other is Arnie Carlson). Ultimately it was the words of Murphy, with her vast years of experience, who cemented the idea for him.

She told Munger it wasn’t something he should do; it was something he had to do.

“And that kind of put a heavy weight on it,” Munger said recently.

Munger has been frustrated with where we are as a country — a lack of decorum and integrity in politics, he said — and he has seen it trickle down to local politics, to city council and school board. He said there is a longing to return to a time when members of both parties can drink coffee together and disagree about pollution or taxes. It’s not enough to post about it on Facebook, he said, you have to stand up. He’s doing this for his grandchildren.

“It’s one thing to have a difference of views on policy,” he said. “It’s quite another to have differences of views on what is reality, what is fact.”

In his visits with residents of this area, Munger said he is hearing about the economy — specifically “where are my kids going to work, what jobs will there be in the future,” he said. Munger’s core platform, beyond elder and child care, is centered on education, economic development and the environment. He’s pro-mining, he said.

Munger acknowledged name-recognition is likely one of the reasons he was asked to run — but he also has a range of life experiences to prepare him for this position.

“It’s the fact that I was in the community for 40-plus years as a prosecutor, as a judge, as a youth coach in Hermantown for 25 years, leadership in churches I belonged to,” he said. “Boy Scouts, Eagle Scouts, all of these things.”

Hauschild described it as the “No. 1 race in the state. This district is a top target for both parties.”