House candidates look to flip seats in St. Cloud area

ST. CLOUD — This November, two of the dozen or so competitive seats Republicans hope to snag to gain control of the Minnesota House will be decided by voters in the St. Cloud area.

The seats in District 14A — which covers the south side of St. Cloud, as well as Waite Park, St. Augusta and St. Joseph — and District 14B, which covers the rest of St. Cloud, are currently split between first-term Republican Bernie Perryman and DFLer Dan Wolgamott, who is running for his fourth term.

Their opponents, Democrat Abdi Daisane in 14A and Republican Sue Ek in 14B, both say their respective incumbents don’t adequately represent their constituents — and they’re hoping voters agree.

Perryman, 65, won her seat in 2022 by fewer than 200 votes. And while Republicans have controlled the district for the last decade, it narrowly swung for Biden in 2020, giving Democrats hope they can flip the seat this fall.

Daisane, a business owner and consultant in St. Cloud, is campaigning against Perryman by criticizing her legislative record.

“She did not do anything in the last two years,” Daisane said. “She didn’t pass any bills. She barely authored or co-authored any.”

Perryman introduced about a dozen bills over the last two years — and said she is most proud of a proposal that would let local governments better conduct background checks on massage parlors, which would help combat sex trafficking. She blamed the Democrats’ power trifecta — controlling the governor’s office and both houses of the Legislature — for stymieing her efforts.

“When you have a majority like they’ve had the last two years, I don’t feel many voices were heard,” she said. “I didn’t get my bills heard. Committees didn’t even hear some of them.”

Perryman, who owns two Batteries Plus stores, is campaigning on a platform to help families and small businesses by reversing some recently enacted policies.

“We did pass some things that were unfunded mandates, and it stifles our business growth and it makes it harder for Minnesotans to live and work here,” Perryman said, specifically calling out the new laws on family paid leave that go into effect in 2026. “We’ve already made changes within a short period of time, so that tells me we really didn’t vet it well enough.”

She also wants to remove regulations such as the gas tax that’s tied to the rate of inflation, as well as the plethora of unfunded mandates tied to recent school funding.

“Government should work for the people and not against them,” she said.

Daisane is also calling out Perryman for backing multiple bills that would have limited state funding for abortion services, saying he instead would “personally stand up for the reproductive rights of all.”

During her tenure, Perryman also voted no on bills to increase the penalties for straw gun purchasing and to establish safe storage requirements for firearms.

“She has voted against literally every bill, whether it’s common sense or not,” he said. “To be a moderate, I think you actually have to balance between some of the core values of your party and what your constituents want.”

Daisane, 36, said his priorities include removing barriers for mental health care, advocating for affordable housing options and increasing funding for schools to support smaller class sizes.

Born to Somali parents, Daisane grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States in 2009. He now runs a child care center and leads a training program for small business owners; before that, he worked as a refugee resettlement specialist and career planner.

“My No. 1 thing is access to resources and opportunities that help people transition to the next thing in their life,” Daisane said. “Because personally I have seen how access to resources and support can transform lives.”

While Republicans have controlled the 14A seat for the past decade, the 14B seat has flip-flopped several times in the past 12 years. Wolgamott, 33, was first elected in 2018 after incumbent Jim Knoblach, a Republican, ended his re-election bid; Wolgamott was then re-elected in 2020 and 2022.

Wolgamott says his top priority is the law enforcement workforce shortage: There are currently 1,000 open positions for police officers in the state — and that will be exacerbated in the next two years when about 2,400 officers hit retirement age.

Last session, Wolgamott put together a bill that allows cities and retiring officers to continue working while receiving their pension.

“It gives a chance to the next generation of police officers to learn and grow from seasoned veterans, and it gives us more time to fill those gaps,” he said. “We put in a ton of work on this for over a year. It’s not going to solve everything, but it’s a great tool we have as a state.”

This summer, the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association endorsed Wolgamott, which is significant because last year, Wolgamott was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol. He says the topic has come up on the campaign trail but that generally people have been understanding.

“I’m straightforward and honest today just like I was right when it happened,” he said. “I made a mistake. I learned from it. I’ve grown from it.”

Wolgamott is also campaigning on his record of working with legislators from both sides of the aisle — and is warning his opponent is too extreme for the district. An organization called Majority in the Middle recently released a report showing Wolgamott is ranked among the top eight representatives for being most likely to sponsor bipartisan bills.

Ek, 61, says her priorities are advocating for lower taxes and fewer regulations, as well as increased options for families when it comes to schools. But she has also shared views against same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion.

“Her views … are so out of touch with anything that I’ve heard in my thousands of doors in door-knocking,” Wolgamott said.

Ek is the communications director for Natural Family Planning Outreach, which promotes the tracking of a woman’s ovulation to determine fertility. She wouldn’t say whether she would vote for a bill banning contraception or other reproductive health care, just that she is focused on other priorities in her campaign.

“People are talking about the economy,” she said. “When I ask them what is the one thing I can do when elected to make state government better, they almost always say to lower taxes and reduce government.”

Ek also took aim at Wolgamott’s legislative record, saying she doesn’t think constituents would approve of him supporting the plan to renovate the Minnesota State Office Building at an estimated cost of $500 million or voting to let undocumented immigrants obtain a state driver’s license.

But Ek’s main goal, she said, is to upset the Democratic trifecta: “Bringing balance to the Legislature is a key thing to me.”