Public Forum Held with MN Senate District 6 Republican Primary Candidates

Republican candidates for the Minnesota Senate District 6 special election were at Forestview Middle School on Tuesday night for a public forum, where the candidates responded to three prepared questions, as well as two questions that were written by audience members. Seven of the eight candidates were in attendance, with Jennifer Carnahan not present due to an illness.

A major topic of the night was bipartisanship and working across the aisle. Candidate Angel Zierden spoke frequently on her belief to work with the DFL to tackle important issues.

“I think that a lot of times in politics we look at bipartisanship as a compromise, as a bad thing. But I think Republicans need to be realistic about the state and the climate of Minnesota,” said Zierdan. “We have not had a majority. We have not—you know, every election cycle, we continue to vote the same people in, we’re getting the same results.”

Another hot topic was on school choice. Candidate Keri Heintzeman, wife of state Rep. Josh Heintzeman, expressed her views based on her own life experiences.

“I believe in school choice. I believe parents know best what their child’s educational needs are, and the ability to choose that and have the dollars follow the child is extremely important,” said Heintzeman.

Josh Gazelka, a former small business owner in the area, held similar views.

“There’s so many options, but also there’s so much fear and anxiety in that decision because you can’t always trust what you’re sending your kids into,” he said. “We don’t have the curriculum transparency that we deserve. We don’t have the options we deserve because not everybody can afford different options. So much like Keri said, I am an advocate for school choice. I’m an advocate for curriculum transparency.”

Candidate John Howe frequently spoke about energy, claiming that solar and wind were not enough to support and sustain the country’s needs.

“Energy is the lifeblood of this area, and elimination of the fossil fuel industry is setting the stage for a cold, dark future for you, me, industry and business,” said Howe. “Pretending that the energy required will come from wind and solar is just not reality.”

Candidate Matthew Zinda responded to a question about policy by saying others were going about it backwards.

“Policy is way down here, alright?” said Zinda while gesturing low with his hand. “We got God way up here. Then the Constitution, then the U.S. Code, then the state statute. Then local ordinance, then executive order, and policy’s way down here.”

Following multiple attacks on DEI initiatives across the country by President Trump, many of the candidates spoke in favor of removing DEI initiatives from schools and youth sports.

“Equity is not equality,” said candidate Doug Kern. “Here in the local school district, if we don’t follow Trump’s executive order to ban men and boys from competing with girls and women and using their showers and locker rooms, if we don’t stop that, we’re going to lose $6 million just in this school district.”

Veteran Steve Cotariu spoke in favor of reducing regulations on small businesses.

“If we want to have families to have good jobs and good place to live, we need to reduce the burdensome regulations on small businesses,” he said.

The primary election is on April 15th to select the Republican candidate that will go up against DFL candidate Denise Slipy on April 29th.

If you’d like to watch the entire forum, you can view it at the Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook page.