(gentle music) - [Narrator] Welcome to "Meet the Candidates," the local election forum from Pioneer PBS.

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

In this episode, we will meet candidates from Minnesota Senate District 16.

District 16 is made up of Chippewa, Kandiyohi, and Renville counties, and the western portion of Meeker County.

Major cities include Willmar, Litchfield, Montevideo, and Olivia.

To find out which district you live in, visit MNVotes.org.

And now, let's meet the candidates.

We'll start with the DFL candidate, Kathy Jorgenson.

(gentle music) - Hello, I'm Kathy Jorgenson, and I live in Morton.

I'm very proud to be the Senate DFL candidate for Senate 16.

I moved to Minnesota seven years ago to work for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service as a soil conservationist.

I worked with farmers and ranchers to implement conservation practices onto their land.

I also worked with the Conservation Reserve Program, otherwise known as CRP.

My background includes working in agriculture for USDA, and being born and raised on a ranch in Northwestern North Dakota.

I also work in education as a substitute teacher.

10 years ago, I returned to college to obtain a Master's degree from NDSU in natural resource management.

I have three children that I'm very proud of, and two of them are residing in Minnesota.

I also have a daughter and son-in-law who are proudly serving our country as service members.

My son, daughter, and son-in-law live in Minnesota, and they love living here, and I do too.

And we've made Minnesota our home.

I'm an avid horseback rider.

I love parks that are available for riding here in Minnesota and in SD 16, and I've made many friends through horseback riding here in Minnesota.

I plan to continue having my home here along the beautiful Minnesota River Valley.

- [Narrator] Why do you want to be the senator for your district?

(gentle music) - I want to help people live better lives, and to have the services that we all deserve to live a healthy and productive life.

I was orphaned at eight years old, and also lost a brother at that time.

My older brother, sister and I were raised by my father's oldest sister.

She dedicated her life to raising us, and I owe the greatest honor to her.

We did not grow up with much, but I learned to work early on and I worked two jobs through high school.

I paid my way through college, also working several jobs, including riding horse at sale barns, penning cattle.

My goal is to work with all in the legislature and to continue to stop fraud and support for the independent office of inspector general, to root out fraud and provide transparency to those in SD 16.

I hope that you will consider voting for me.

I am very much dedicated to working with everybody in the legislature, and moving Minnesota forward.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] What are your priorities for the next legislative session?

- My priorities are to increase support for childcare providers, help working families with assistance to help with childcare costs, support beginning farmers with the services that they need for them to succeed.

Other agricultural priorities include promoting expanding markets, and increase funding for cover crop adaptation.

I also very much want to support infrastructure funding that will maintain good roads for ag transportation that builds our rural economy.

I want to propose an increase in pay for paraprofessionals within the school system, because right now they only receive $16 an hour.

I will also fight to keep our rural hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes open.

Healthcare is just as important to rural residents as well as urban.

As Minnesota residents, we all need and deserve access to local quality healthcare.

I will also provide support for veterans and senior citizens as providing access to programs and assistance for them to have quality of life.

- [Narrator] What unique perspective do you bring to the Minnesota Senate?

- I bring perseverance.

Being raised as an orphan, and not having the same opportunities as other kids had with a mother and father in the household was somewhat of a disadvantage.

I also was encouraged though by my dad's older sister that raised me to go on to college and to pursue my dreams.

I have worked very hard to become an educated person and to have received several degrees, especially a Master's degree that I'm very proud of.

I'm also very proud of my career with USDA as 15 years, and as one of the first women to be hired back in the '90s for the agency to be a surveyor.

I also understand that there are many challenges right now and that I just will be willing to work very much with both sides of the aisle, and to be there for my constituents in SD 16.

- [Narrator] What is your vision for the future of Minnesota?

- My vision for Minnesota is to have equality for all who live here and call Minnesota home.

I think it's very important that we all treat each other as neighbors, as friends, as someone that we want to respect and be with and to respect others.

I feel we need to bring back that hometown friendliness, the hometown meetings, and also the hometown, getting together for coffee, and just visiting and not having discourse.

My future in Minnesota is going to be long.

I am very settled here, and I am very happily living along the Minnesota River Valley, and plan to continue to do so.

And I pray that you will consider voting for me, because I feel once we are all strong together, we will move forward.

Thank you.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] And now, a closing statement.

- As senator for Senate District 16, I will work very, very hard to be there for you and everyone in this district.

I will fight to keep hospitals, to keep clinics, to keep our healthcare system running in this area.

I will fight for schools to make sure that we have adequate funding to be able to provide for quality education for our rural schools.

And I will also be there for all the other people that need help and services, especially our veterans and our elderly.

I pray you will consider voting for me, and you can follow me on my Facebook page, Jorgenson for Senate 16.

Thank you.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] To learn more about Kathy Jorgenson, visit @jorgensenforsenate_sd16 on Instagram.

(gentle music) Next, the Republican candidate, Andrew Lang.

(gentle music) - My name is Andrew Lang.

I am a lifelong resident of District 16, other than a couple of years in the military, and a couple of years in military training, where I didn't live in the district, but I was born and raised just outside of Willmar, Minnesota.

I've always lived in district, as far as my normal regular life goes.

Married, Susie, two boys, Elliot and Jonas.

Elliot is 19.

Jonas is going to be 16 already, and ready to drive.

I am this current sitting state senator here in District 16.

I've served this district for 10 years.

I first got elected in 2016.

Largely my legislative experience revolves around agriculture.

I'm really heavily involved in the environment committees from the very start.

I've served on the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, which is the legacy money for nine and a half years, so I'm probably coming towards the end of that.

And then one of my biggest passions in the legislature has obviously been veterans affairs.

I've been in the National Guard for 25 years now, and I was the Chair of the Veterans Committee and really one of the last few veterans.

We have very few veterans that serve in the legislature, and I'm very proud to serve this district.

I've worked really hard for rural Minnesota.

I've worked very hard for District 16, and the communities that exist in it.

We've worked on all kinds of different topics.

And as of lately, just in the last couple of legislative cycles, this will be my third year that I've served on the education finance committee.

So that has been an education to myself in general.

But, as we come into the next session, I'm really looking forward to hopefully serving again.

And I appreciate any support that has been given to me in the past and support that's come in the front.

I think District 16 is a unique district.

We are a rural district, but we are a very active district.

We have a very educated group of individuals that both live and work in the district, and the citizenry here has been nothing but outstanding.

- [Narrator] Why do you want to be the senator for your district?

(gentle music) - Why do I want to be the senator?

Initially in 2016, I was asked to run and I was hesitant.

Sometimes the things that go along with being a senator aren't always the, it's not the fame and the fortune.

It really isn't.

It is a lot of hard work.

I was told it was a part-time job, and that was completely wrong.

It is not a part-time job.

I spend a significant amount of time outside of my real job serving the citizenry.

It is a lot of work.

I think having a, I'm not as young as I once was, but having a younger individual, there are quite a few younger representatives and senators that are serving now that have a perspective on living in rural Minnesota and really functioning state government should be the ultimate focal point.

I think, being of what I would always call prime earning years, offers perspective that some of the older retirees that now serve in the legislature sometimes don't always see.

It is very interesting over the last few years how the state budget has changed so rapidly, how much money we spend in the state, versus how much money that the state has in revenue as it comes into the state.

So, being fiscally conservative as we go forward has been a challenge.

And being from the background I have, both working for a organization and serving in the military for the years I have, I think that's a very unique perspective, and that is really what I bring to the legislature.

- [Narrator] What are your priorities for the next legislative session?

- Well, we're coming into a budgetary cycle, so that is always kind of first and foremost when it comes to priorities.

We are looking at a deficit that is the second budgetary cycle in a row, where we're looking at a budget deficit coming, and we don't know what that budget deficit looks like.

Several billion dollars is kind of what the number is being tossed around currently.

The November forecast will tell us where we're at.

As we hit session, we'll get a forecast again in February.

Those numbers will allow us to look at exactly where the state is sitting.

When it comes to tax revenue, when it comes to tab fees, or any of that stuff, all the money that comes into the state, what do we have to spend on?

And then the priority part of it comes is where do we want to put our money?

We spend a lot of money on a lot of different things in the state of Minnesota.

When it comes to cutting billions of dollars out of the budget, you need to be very careful about where you cut those dollars, or where you decrease the amount of spending.

That is ultimately the biggest thing that comes into the next session.

How do you make Minnesota very sustainable for generations to come?

How do you make sure that kids growing up in the district look at a, or the state of Minnesota in general, look at the state and say, "Hey, this is where our elders, I guess in this case, spent their dollars, and they didn't overspend, they didn't put us in a budgetary deficit.

It is sustainable for the ongoing future, so."

(gentle music) - [Narrator] What unique perspective do you bring to the Minnesota Senate?

- I have, again, the... My background largely revolves around military service.

That has been the bulk of my professional career.

I've always been National Guard.

Like I said, 25 years.

I have a bunch of active duty service within that 25 years.

I work, in the past, I've worked in the environmental area, but I also, I work for a company called LifeLink that provides air EMS services.

Most of the folks in the district are familiar with LifeLink.

And seeing that medical aspect to it, turning that in with my military experience, and then really getting in the legislature is a learning experience to itself.

When you first start out, your breadth of knowledge is very shallow and it's not quite as wide.

And over the course of years, you really learn how things operate, you learn beyond partisan politics, you learn the business of the state.

Having experience is something that I think is invaluable, really and truly I was probably ignorant to that, until I got in the legislature.

And then through the first couple of budgetary cycles, serving as a chair of a committee, seeing how the budget process works, working with Minnesota Management Budget, working with all these different agencies as we go forward has been really the education of a lifetime.

Really, you have to remain active.

You have to be proactive when it comes to budget things and seeing how all the process works when it comes to policy the same way, you have to know how that policy is going to affect each individual person in the state, each individual agency throughout the state.

And without having a good group of mentors before I came into the legislature, I don't think I would've been able to do that.

It isn't something that you just pick up from being there.

So unique perspective, that really is how a person serves the legislature well, does well, and that's really what I bring to the table.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] What is your vision for the future of Minnesota?

- My vision for the state.

Well, over the last couple of years, the Minnesota budget and the policy that goes along with it has really changed quite rapidly.

If you remember just a couple of years ago, we had an $18 billion surplus.

Now, that is something that's been in the news for many cycles.

That $18 billion was really a nest egg for the state of Minnesota, and in my opinion, it was rather squandered in the 2023 budget cycle.

And at the same time, we raised taxes on almost everything throughout the state of Minnesota, about $10 billion worth of increased taxes.

And what happened was we went from a roughly 50, 55, $54 billion budget to a $72 billion budget.

Well, that put us right into a hole.

That's unsustainable.

We really cannot spend money like that in the state of Minnesota.

So vision for the future is make Minnesota sustainable.

How do we provide the high quality of life in the state of Minnesota that we've always done?

How do we make sure our citizenry has, we have lakes, rivers, streams in the state of Minnesota that we need to protect, but how do we do it and make it for our future generations, how do we make it so that it's all set up?

And that is what really what the vision looks like.

You want Minnesota to be competitive with other states.

We really right now are not.

Having the challenges of a high tax rate state really are tough for the state of Minnesota.

If you look at our population, we're rather stagnant.

We really have a tough time growing our population.

We see some of those prime earners that I was just talking about.

We see a lot of those folks leaving the state, leaving the state for a better tax environment.

And the folks that move into the state are coming in with a much smaller income.

It is challenging if you look at the budgetary cycle to see year after year after year, less and less revenue coming in for prime earning years.

So really that's the thing, is how do you make Minnesota competitive with other states, sustainable into the future, and a great place to live and work?

(gentle music) - [Narrator] And now, a closing statement.

- So again, my name is Andrew Lang, and I appreciate the time both here on camera.

I appreciate all the effort that's been put through the summer with parades and saying hi to individuals.

I appreciate all the folks that we've been out through district talking with in an election cycle.

I'm just very happy and very proud to have served this district and the state as a whole, and I appreciate just, it sure is a humbling experience to be elected by a group of your peers and hopefully, hopefully, that I can make everybody in this district proud.

So again, thank you very much, and I appreciate any support that comes in November.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] You can find more information about Andrew Lang at langforsenate.com.

(gentle music) Learn more about voting, how to register, and what district you live in by visiting the Minnesota Secretary of State website at MNVotes.org.

Remember, election day is Tuesday, November 3rd.

Thank you for watching "Meet the Candidates" on Pioneer PBS.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues)