Welcome to meet the candidates, the local election forum from Pioneer PBS.

This season we asked every candidate the same list of questions to learn more about what type of legislators they will be if elected.

In this episode, we will meet candidates from Minnesota's Senate District.

Nine.

District lines have changed since the 2020 census.

District 9 is made up of Wilkin, Otter Tail, Traverse and Grant Counties and the western portion of Douglas County.

Major cities include Fergus Falls, Breckenridge, Perham and Pelican Rapids.

To find out which district you live in, visit MN Votes dot org.

And now let's meet the candidates.

We will start with the DFL candidate, Cornell Walker.

I was born and raised in a little ranch in Texas.

During my summers and holidays, I herded cattle.

I built hay.

And my grandfather was a queen producer and is a byproduct of queen producing.

You get honey.

So I extracted honey during the school year.

I attended school and in a little town about 50 miles from the Louisiana border.

And I still remember the despicable white only water fountains, the segregated movie theaters and the segregated schools.

I moved to San Antonio, Texas, for high school.

I always wanted to be a lawyer.

And following high school, I went to college and then attended law school in San Antonio, Texas.

Following law school, I went into the US Army and served three years at Fort Hood and Fort Knox, Kentucky.

I began my career practicing law there and then continued my practice for 42 years and it was always a trial practice.

I also learned that mediation was a great way to resolve cases and I became a mediator.

And mediation to me is the most wonderful way to try to resolve cases.

Why do you want to be the senator for your district?

I want to be the representative for SD9 because I think I bring a unique quality to it.

I decided to run because I got tired of Democrats and Republicans saying no to each other simply because the idea arose from the other parties.

I want to be able to cross the aisle, sit down and talk with Republicans, understand and hear what they have to say, and then see if I can bring my skills as a mediator to bear.

And instead of gridlock, move the agenda forward in mediation.

You have two parties or three or four that about as far away from each other as you can.

And their idea is my idea or the highway.

As a mediator, I need to bring them close together and try to get people to understand that I'm going to give up a little here.

But I get some I give up a little here, but I get some.

And then from that point, move forward.

I think I can help this district and the citizens of Minnesota through my mediation experience.

What are your priorities for the next legislative session?

My priorities are take some of the budget surplus that we have and spend it where it's needed now.

We had an agreement to spend 4 billion, billion of the surplus on infrastructure, education and health care that was kicked down the road.

And it shouldn't have been.

We need that money now, especially in the rural areas.

We need that for our citizens.

In addition, I want to see well-trained, well staffed law enforcement agencies.

We need to be able not only to recruit law enforcement people out in this Senate district nine and other rural areas, but we need to retain them.

I want to take the family farmers and increase the estate tax exempt so that they can transfer land to their children or grandchildren without the children or grandchildren having to sell part of the land simply to pay the estate taxes.

We need to have children who are going to school and they feel safe at school.

As parents and grandparents, we shouldn't fear for our children's safety.

We need good roads and bridges, especially in the rural areas.

We need good health care services.

We shouldn't have to travel more than 15 or 20 miles to get to a well-staffed, well qualified hospital or clinic.

We need to work for education.

Thank you.

What unique perspective do you bring to the Minnesota Senate?

I bring the perspective of a mediator, someone who knows how to listen.

And I'll tell you how I got there when I was in the Army.

Part of our job was to listen to soldiers and try to counsel them on issues that they were having that were civilian in nature.

A young man came in, talked to me on my date to take that job, and he asked me about a family law question, and I listened to him.

And then I answered very what I thought was a brilliant answer.

I was very detailed and very exacting, and when I finished, I said, Do you have any questions?

And he said, Yes.

Do I get to see a lawyer that teaches you humility in a hurry?

What I want to do is take the skill of being able to listen in.

I should have listened more carefully to that soldier, but take that skill of listening across the aisle, sit down with Republicans and listen to what they're saying, what their needs are, and then try to get with them, build trust and begin compromise and compromising.

Used to be a good thing, and now it's turned into a bad word.

I want to return compromise to a good word so that instead of gridlock, we're moving forward.

What is your vision for the future of Minnesota?

My vision for the future of Minnesota is something that we need to do currently and then we need to move forward from there.

But first of all, and I've said it earlier, we need to take the money, the surplus.

Let's set aside some of it.

Two, three, $4 billion.

I don't have a figure in mind, but set it aside for rainy day fund and then spend the rest of it.

Not spend it, but use it so that the citizens of SD nine in Minnesota benefit from its use.

We need to use it for education.

We need to use it for health care.

We need to use it for our law enforcement.

We need to use it for infrastructure.

We need to use that money so we can get well-trained and well-staffed people and get people off unemployment and employed.

We need to use it so that people feel safe.

We need to use it for health care.

We need to use it for the training and staffing of our facilities that take care of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

In short, we need to come together and bring it bring people together and use our resources to help everyone in SD nine and the state of Minnesota.

And now a closing statement.

I urge you on November eight to vote for me.

The logical question is, why should I vote for you?

Well, I think I bring that unique perspective, that is of someone who is going to listen to Republicans, independents and Democrats, and see if we can't come to agreement and move the agenda forward.

Not a dogmatic my way or the highway, but a view of let's get here where we can agree that we don't get everything we want, but we get some of what we want if we just give up a little bit and that way we can move forward.

I think that is the most important thing that's happening right now.

That we must learn to work together as a team.

So when you go to the polls, I ask that you vote for me not because I'm a DFL candidate, but because you feel that I am the most qualified candidate.

Thank you so much.

You can find more information online about Cornell Walker at his website.

Cornel for MN dot com.

Next, the Republican candidate.

Jordan Rasmusson.

Hi, I'm Jordan Rasmusson and I'm the Republican candidate for Senate District nine.

My wife and I live in Fergus Falls, and I'm the sixth generation of my family to live in Otter Tail County and I'm running because I believe that we need to make sure that Minnesota and West Central Minnesota is a great place to live, work and raise a family.

I've had the honor of serving in the Minnesota House since I got elected in 2020 and have really worked hard to listen to our constituents and listen to the people in our area and make sure that their values are represented down at the state capitol.

Outside of the legislature, I work in the business world.

I work with businesses to improve their operations, help them find growth opportunities and improve their performance so that they can grow and invest and add jobs across the country.

Why do you want to be the senator for your district?

For me and my family, who came to Otter Tail County six generations ago to Homestead, and they came to Minnesota into our area because it was a land of opportunity.

And so I'm running to be our area's next state senator to ensure that our area remains the land of opportunity for families and to make sure that it's a great place to live, work and raise a family.

For me, the state of Minnesota can make that tough sometimes, whether it's our high taxes or burdensome regulations that can drive businesses and families out of the state.

Also, when it comes to public safety, we've had leaders who have not respected and supported law enforcement, which has created issues in the Twin Cities and across the state when it comes to public safety.

And then lastly, we see persistent achievement gaps in our educational system that need to be corrected to make sure that all students can realize their potential.

And so I'm running to offer proven conservative leadership that gets things done on behalf of the people in West Central Minnesota.

I have a record of results in my two years in the Minnesota House, including getting legislation passed to expand access to mental health care, extend high speed Internet to our communities, and also working to encourage rural economic development projects that will help spur growth and jobs in our community.

And so I'm running to take that common sense leadership to the state Senate.

What are your priorities for the next legislative session?

One of the.

Big questions that the next legislature will have to answer as to what to do with our record budget surplus.

And for me, that record budget surplus is a sign that we're overtaxing Minnesotans.

And so my number one priority is permanent tax relief.

In the House, I authored the bill to exempt Social Security from Minnesota state income tax and also authored another bill that would cut all Minnesotans income tax and would actually represent the largest permanent tax cut in Minnesota history.

We have to give this money back to the taxpayers and permanent tax relief to help make Minnesota more competitive so we can bring families and businesses to our area.

Second, we need to ensure that everyone feels safe in their communities.

We need to support and back law enforcement and first responders and ensure that they have the resources needed to keep our communities safe.

I'm honored to be endorsed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association in my race.

And then lastly, we have to look at burdensome regulations that are driving inflation here in the state of Minnesota.

One of the initiatives that I want to repeal and stop in the Minnesota Senate is Governor Walz's California Cars Standard, which would add costs to new cars in the state of Minnesota and is an unnecessary regulation that will especially hurt farmers and small businesses in our community.

And so those are some of the key priorities that I'm committed to working on as this area's next state senator.

What unique perspective do you bring to the Minnesota Senate?

A couple of the unique aspects that I would bring to the state Senate would be, number one, my background in the business world.

I sit down with companies and investors as they're looking to invest and bring new businesses and jobs to certain areas.

And I know how they run that math.

And so that's a perspective that I'll be able to bring when we're looking at how we can make Minnesota more competitive from a tax and regulatory perspective to attract families and small businesses to our area.

Second, I've had two years of service in the Minnesota House of Representatives in order to pass any legislation down at the state Capitol.

A bill has to pass through both the House and the Senate.

And so my relationships with my colleagues, the trust I've been able to built with them, will be able to help further the priorities of this area down to the state capitol.

And then lastly, I'm one of the youngest legislators down at the state capitol.

And as we're looking to how to draw young people, young families back to Greater Minnesota, back to west central Minnesota.

That's a perspective that I bring to the table and something that I'll be focused on is how we can attract more young families to our area.

What is your vision for the future of Minnesota?

For me, this goes back to my family being here in this area for six generations.

And they came to Minnesota because this was the land of opportunity.

And so how can we continue to make sure that west central Minnesota that Minnesota remains a land of opportunity for future generations?

I'm running to make sure that our area is a great place to live, work and raise a family.

And as this area’s next, state senator, I'm going to work to make sure that we have a tax and regulatory environment that's competitive, that we're not losing families and businesses to North and South Dakota, but we're attracting them and gaining people in our area.

Second, we need to have safe communities.

We need to make sure that law enforcement is supported and respected and that they have the resources they need to keep us safe.

And lastly, Minnesota kids deserve a world class education.

I want to make sure that regardless of anyone's zip code, which school district they're going to, that they're able to have educational opportunities to find the jobs that are here in our community and that will be here in the future and that they have the opportunity to unlock their God given potential.

And so that's my vision for Minnesota, and I'm offering common sense solutions and leadership and a track record of getting things done on our community's behalf.

And now a closing statement.

I appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about my campaign today.

Again, my name is Jordan Rasmusson, and I'm the Republican candidate for Senate District nine.

And I just wanted to quickly talk about some of the organizations that represent people in our community that are supporting me in my campaign.

I'm honored to be endorsed by the Minnesota Farm Bureau, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, NFIB, which represents small businesses.

I'm also honored to be endorsed by the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Carpenters and Operating Engineers.

And the reason that the organizations representing farmers, small businesses and labor have endorsed my campaign is because they have had a chance to see my common sense leadership approach that gets things done down at the state capitol.

And I'd be honored to have the opportunity to continue working on our areas behalf in the Minnesota Senate.

You can find more information online about Jordan Rasmusson at his website.

Jordan Rasmusson dot com.

Learn more about voting, how to register and what district you live in by visiting the Minnesota Secretary of State website at MN votes dot org.

Remember, election day is Tuesday, November 8th.

Thank you for watching.

Meet the candidates on Pioneer PBS.