Mining, labor, partisan shifts collide in critical northeast Minnesota Senate race

With control of the state Legislature likely coming down to a handful of competitive districts scattered across Minnesota, one race could be the biggest bellwether — the state Senate rematch between incumbent Democrat Grant Hauschild of Hermantown and his Republican challenger, Andrea Zupancich.

Four years ago Hauschild won by only 703 votes in the district that stretches from the townships surrounding Duluth, up the North Shore of Lake Superior, and west along the Canadian border.

“Last time it was a squeaker, and it’s going to be that way again,” said Cindy Rugeley, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “I suspect it’s a one percentage point race.”

In a state Senate where Democrats held a one-seat advantage, Hauschild was often a moderate swing vote, including on several gun-related proposals.

He’s also the last Democrat standing in a region that just eight years ago was entirely represented by the DFL. Since then northeast Minnesota, especially the Iron Range, has shifted dramatically toward the GOP.

Even Zupancich, the mayor of Babbitt, said she voted for former Democratic Iron Range legislators Tom Bakk and David Dill. “The people haven’t changed. The party has changed, and I hear that a lot,” Zupancich said last week at the VFW in Hoyt Lakes, where she greeted locals sipping beers before a meeting of the local ATV club.

Dave Ebnet, who described himself as a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment Republican, told Zupancich she had his vote.

"We need a change,” he said. “This fraud thing and everything else, it's like nobody cares."

The retired plumber, 76, worked for decades at LTV, an iron ore mine that closed 25 years ago outside Hoyt Lakes. He's frustrated that the proposed PolyMet copper mine that’s been in the works for years at the old LTV site, now called New Range Copper Nickel, still hasn't been built.

“If you look at the Democrats, Klobuchar right down the line, they talk the story, but they don't walk the walk,” Ebnet said. Democrats say they support mining, “but they will not do anything to help us,” Ebnet added. “And when it comes to a vote, they vote with the environmentalists just to shut us down up here."

‘Bipartisan senator’

But Hauschild says he's not afraid to buck the Democratic party on issues like mining. He spoke out strongly against Gov. Tim Walz's recent move to temporarily block proposed copper mines near the Boundary Waters.

"What I'm really worried about is whether it's at the federal level with President Trump or at the state level with now Governor Walz, using executive orders on these types of projects is really a dangerous precedent,” Hauschild said. “What it does is it really undermines that environmental review process.”

Hauschild worked with Republican legislators from the Iron Range to extend unemployment benefits for workers at two closed taconite mines in the region. He’s received the endorsement of the United Steelworkers union, which represents mineworkers, as well as other major unions across the area.

Last week, at an endorsement event with Teamsters Local 346 in Duluth, Hauschild said Democrats tend to fight for wages and benefits and support the organizing rights of workers, while Republicans typically back the projects where union members work, including sometimes controversial proposals such as mining proposals.

"And what's missing is politicians, frankly, that are with labor on all of the issues that matter to them, and that's where I try to be a champion for the Teamsters and for all of the trades and labor groups that have endorsed me,” Hauschild said.

Hauschild says he puts the interests of his district over politics, and has worked hard to be a “bipartisan senator.” He touts his record working across the aisle to pass business and environmental permitting reform.

“He’s shown us that he'll stand up for working people, not simply toe a party line,” said Hannah Alstead, political director for Teamsters Joint Council 32.

But Zupancich questions how much Hauschild really bucks his party. During a recent debate in Duluth, she said the incumbent voted with Democrats about 95 percent of the time during his first term.

Zupancich runs a real estate business in Babbitt and is wrapping up her tenth, and what she says will be her final year as mayor of the small town near Ely. Her husband is one of the fifth generation owners of the well-known northern Minnesota grocery chain Zup’s.

She said she was motivated to run for the seat again by the state social service fraud scandals.

"It's a matter of representing your people,” she said. In local government “we’re held accountable, and we have much smaller budgets, and we have to account for every penny and watch for every penny, and we're the stewards of the taxpayers' dollars." She said state taxpayer dollars need to be treated with the same care.

Zupancich’s other priorities include lower taxes and creating jobs so people can stay in the region’s small towns. People “want to have their families stay here,” she lamented. “Everyone is leaving.”

Cash flooding in

At the VFW in Hoyt Lakes, Jim Carlson, who works for Canadian National Railway, praised Hauschild for his work on behalf of ATV riders. But he said he's still undecided on the race. He wants politics to be less divisive.

"I'd like to see a little bit more moderate representation,” Carlson said. “So we can pull the state back together.”

Meanwhile a lot of political advertising money is flowing into this year's rematch. More than $1.2 million has already been spent by outside groups. And that figure is sure to grow when the next spending reports are filed next week.

"I think it's stunning,” said Rugeley, the UMD political scientist. "It shows how important this race is to both political parties and how bad both of them want to retain control of the state Senate."

Another race in the region is also garnering a lot of attention. A state House race two years ago centered around the more rural areas surrounding Duluth was even closer than Hauschild’s victory. Republican Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar of Fredenberg Township won by only 159 votes.

This year, Democrat Aaron Schweiger of Hermantown is hoping to flip the seat. Rugeley expects that race to be extremely tight as well. But she said she wouldn’t bet on anything this election cycle.

While there is a lot of anti-Trump sentiment among the electorate, she said, if voters want change, that could also work against Democrats in Minnesota.

“Neither party right now is beloved,” Rugeley emphasized. “I would not go out on a limb for any candidate in any race this year.”

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