Duluth City Leaders Mourn Passing of City Councilor Renee Van Nett

Longtime Duluth City Councilor Renee Van Nett lost her battle to cancer Friday morning, at 52.

DULUTH, Minn,- Longtime Duluth City Councilor Renee Van Nett lost her battle with cancer Friday morning, at 52.

“The passion to help people ran deep within her,” City Council President Arik Forsman said. “And so yeah she’s an irreplaceable leader as far as the city council and that sort of thing goes, just really an irreplaceable friend.”

Irreplaceable was just one of the words people used to describe Renee Van Nett.

According to a post on social media, Van Nett passed surrounded by her friends and family.

She served as 4th District Duluth City Councilor and just last year, was the first indigenous woman to serve as Council President.

She was a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.

At the beginning of the week, it was announced she was being hospitalized with cancer.

This comes about a month after she withdrew from the race for Senate District 8.

Council President Forsman said he’ll always remember her as a champion for the underrepresented and a kind soul with a heart of gold. “If she found somebody who wasn’t getting their voice heard, there was no stronger advocate for that person.”

“When she handed me the reigns for the council presidency she had this pen made, ‘one bead at a time’ with the colors that we both shared for our political campaigns,” Forsman recounted.

“So she just had a way of just making somebody feel special all the time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Duluth Mayor Emily Larson released a statement which reads:

“Renee Van Nett was an incredibly powerful woman who lived life with clarity and purpose. An absolute straight talker who knew her values, she also knew her voice. And the importance of using it. Time and again she was fearless. I will truly and deeply miss her as a friend to call on and laugh with through the brutal work of local politics.

Our entire community benefitted from her groundbreaking leadership as the first Indigenous woman elected to the Duluth City Council in the city’s history, going on to serve as Council President, DEDA Commissioner and Public Safety Chair. Renee was also a founding member of the Duluth Citizen Review Board and was an all-around truth teller.”

A GoFundMe online has been set up for expenses and for Van Nett’s 2 young daughters Tiara and Nevada.