- Senate District three covers a large portion of the Arrowhead region in northeastern Minnesota, including all of Lake, Cook, and Koochiching counties, the northern part of Itasca County, and the northern and eastern portion of St. Louis County.

This is an open seat.

Senator Tom Bakk is retiring from the legislature.

The Republican running for the Senate District three seat is current Babbitt Mayor Andrea Zupancich.

- Hi, I'm Andrea Zupancich, and I'm running for state senate district three.

I'm a mother, a wife, a new grandmother, a business owner, and I'm currently the mayor of Babbitt.

I'm running because I have seen over my years as being a mayor how the district has been going in different directions and not necessarily the greatest.

Our population is down, our jobs are down.

We want people to come back to northern Minnesota.

Parents don't wanna see their children move, so what I'm doing is working for you, and I want to bring more of Minnesota back to northern Minnesota.

We have great, great opportunities with the copper and nickel mining and other precious minerals.

We have a beautiful environment and we have good water and safe water.

We don't want anything to harm our water as well.

Our landscape and our tourism is also great, but that can't be the only thing that our district relies on.

We've got a timber industry that is also ready to go and with skilled workers abound.

We have many different issues that are going on, and what I'm finding at the doors is really just confirming the reason why I'm actually running.

I'm hearing about the tax on social security.

That's ridiculous, we need to be able to take that tax off.

It is already been taxed, and we need to put more money into the pocket of the residents in our district.

The other thing that I'm also hearing is the concern for the parents' education for their children.

They wanna have a right in what their children should learn.

We need to bring back the basics.

I was a substitute teacher in the school district in our area when my children were growing up, and we definitely need to get back to what the kids need to learn.

What many people don't realize is when a mining layoff happens, that it affects more than just the miners that are working.

My current career in my business that I have been doing for 19 years, it was actually a by product of a mining layoff.

My job was eliminated due to the mining layoff, and I went back to school.

So even during tough times, we were able to persevere and change and reroute and do something productive.

I started out with one office, myself as a full-time agent and two part-time agents, and now I have grown to four offices, about to open my fifth one, and 18 agents.

So definitely we are hardworking people on the range in northern Minnesota, and I wanna bring that quality back.

I'm not afraid of hard work, I work nights and weekends, and I know what it's like to not be able to pay myself but have to pay the bills first.

And what we're lacking is more common sense, which is why I have that as my slogan.

We need to bring back common sense.

I hear that every day, multiple times, and we can do that, and I want to be able to be that person to bring that for you.

So vote for me, Andrea Zupancich.

I will work with common sense to support your rights as individuals and ensure that we have a healthy place to live and bring economic growth back to northern Minnesota.

- The Democrat running for the Senate District three position is Hermantown City Counselor Grant Hauschild.

- Hi, I'm Grant Hauschild.

I'm running for the Minnesota State Senate in district three.

The district includes communities like Hermantown, Proctor, Rice Lake and others.

It goes all the way up the north shore to Grand Moray and Grand Portage, picks up the Iron Range communities of Hoit Lakes, Babit, Ely, Cook and Ore, and goes all the way up to I Falls and even picks up parts of Itasca County.

If you think that's a lot, it is.

This is the largest legislative state senate district in the entire state.

It's the size of Massachusetts, and it includes a variety of communities that make Minnesota great, from our rural communities to our lake country.

I'm running to represent the entire district because we need a state senator who will just deliver.

My campaign is built around making connections with folks across the aisle and working as an independent voice for the Northland.

Like you, I'm sick of the extreme positions being shouted by both sides of the aisle that are distracting politicians from delivering for families in need.

If you paid attention to the last legislative session, you know that the legislator walked away having done nothing for working families and folks on fixed income.

We can't let that happen again all because of political gridlock.

And even if you didn't see that, it probably wouldn't be a surprise because that's become the norm in our politics.

They couldn't secure a bonding bill, they didn't provide historic tax relief for families.

They didn't eliminate the tax on social security income, and they didn't get a bonding bill or funding for our Northland schools.

Simply put, they didn't do the job that we elected them to do.

I'm Grant Hauschild.

I'm running to be an independent voice for the Northland, because the last thing we need is a senator who's gonna get in the back of their party's line and wait for directions.

I've worked in rural economic development to deliver for communities through grants and loan programs for small businesses, fought to save the rural postal service in the US Senate, I've worked to get pay raises for Air Force employees.

I've always looked directly for solutions even during challenging political environments.

We don't want a senator that's gonna be one-sided.

As your state senator, you can bet that I, Grant Hauschild, will be an independent voice for the Northland that will stay out of the nonsense.

We need to provide relief for families now.

Eliminate the tax on social security income for those on fixed income, provide extended unemployment insurance for our Northshore minors, get the government out of women's healthcare decisions, address the workforce shortage and the housing crisis we're facing, and protect northern Minnesota's taconite taxes.

Lastly, we need to fight for northern Minnesota to ensure we get our fair share, because that way we'll be less reliant on your property taxes, which have been way too high for way too long.

There's no shortage of issues facing us in this election.

This campaign is personal for me.

My wife Grace and I chose to raise our family here in the Northland, and we had our son Henry and daughter Ila during the pandemic.

I'm running to make sure our kids have a strong Minnesota, thriving rural communities, and a commitment to the freedoms we all cherish.

I've dedicated my life to public service.

My favorite role is being a city counselor in Hermantown, where we've achieved a lot for our communities.

In my day job, I run a healthcare foundation where I raise money for patients and families that can't afford the care that they need, and my role is to make my job less necessary because no family should have to rely on fundraising to get the care that they need.

I'm Grant Hauschild.

I hope I can earn your vote on November 8th because we need a senator who will just deliver.

- Our next race is in House District 6A,