Candidates for Minnesota Governor Discuss Issues at UMD

Seven Gubernatorial Candidates Answered Questions from Students and the Community in Duluth

DULUTH, Minn. – Seven candidates for Minnesota Governor stopped by the University of Minnesota-Duluth today to meet with students and other voters in the northern part of the state.

Several organizations at UMD brought in the candidates to get students more involved in the election process and give them more knowledge about the campaigns and important statewide issues.

The panel consisted of DFL candidates Paul Thissen, Rebecca Otto, Erin Murphy, and Tina Liebling, Republicans Phillip C. Parrish and Ole Savior, and Independent candidate Jenny Rhodes.

The candidates answered pre-written questions from the community and questions from students in attendance.

They discussed issues ranging from health care to education to the economy and wealth distribution.

“As a representative of the students, I’m looking to hear about their stances on education, specifically education funding,” said Mike Kenyanya, UMD Student Body President. “We know that the state of Minnesota isn’t funding the University of Minnesota the way it used to so to compensate for that, tuition is rising, so those are some of the issues I’m looking to hear about.”

The Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, the College Republicans, College Democrats, the UMD faculty union, and the UMD student association put on the forum to introduce students to the candidates.

“Being together, spending time together in a forum or before this at a dinner together talking about the issues that matter to them is really important to me because they’re going to make the decisions about who’s going to be the next governor,” said State Rep. Erin Murphy (DFL), a candidate for governor. “I want that job and I want to earn their support.”

The Minnesota gubernatorial primary election is on August 14th and the general election is on November 6th.