Hello viewers and thank you for tuning in.

My name is Monnique Doward and I am running for Minnesota State Senate District 11 with the Forward Independent Party.

And my campaign is very simple.

It's people over party.

I believe that District 11 deserves practical solutions and not political gridlock or partisan gridlock.

And I I once served on a city council in uh Kettle River.

And so upon that experience, I had the opportunity to see where in some cases the state gets it wrong in the when it comes to uh rural communities.

And those firsthand decisions that I happen to see did have a hard uh a major impact in certain areas in district 11.

Now, when it comes to St.

Paul, it can get things wrong and our communities, like I just stated, they felt it.

So my priority is to make sure that state bonding and local government aid works for district 11, not just for the metro area.

That means fighting for clean water, safe roads, and stronger infrastructure.

Education is a big topic.

We need better much more funding for our educational department that reflects the needs of rural schools and that also help with stronger investments in our schools to create long-term sustainable jobs.

Again, long-term sustainable jobs, not short term.

As a public health professional, I also believe that accessible health care is a great need along with mental health during this political mental uh upset society that we live in.

And I also am for a pilot program on our child care, not from our um tax dollars.

I can chime on in with that later at another time.

And then support for our seniors.

We all will age and we all need to make sure that those strengths are put in place ahead of time.

And when it comes to these new industries such as our AI hypers scale data centers, I think we should expand the moratorum to a five-year moratorum.

That's what I'm pushing.

That's what I started a petition online with statewide.

and that is to make sure that our water, energy, and local economies can have a cleancut [snorts] study impact done before these decisions are made.

As uh independent candidate, I am willing to work with anyone and that is Republican, Democrat, otherwise whatever your party is, I'm willing to work for you to get the results that District 11 needs.

My promise is very simple.

Show up, be present, listen, and bring your priorities, which is my priorities, in turn becomes our priorities, to the capitol.

And I'm talking people over party.

So, I'm Monique Doward, forward independence.

And if you have not gotten your District 11 forward paper, I can get you one or you can always look it up on my website doward forate.com.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Mary Carlson and I'm running for Senate in District 11.

I'm a mom to a nine and a 5-year-old.

I own two local businesses.

I serve on the local school board and my husband and I are proudly working to rehab our almost 100year-old farm.

In my spare time, I work alongside local law enforcement to help horses getting out of bad situations.

I'm running for Minnesota State Senate because I'm deeply concerned about the path that Minnesota is on.

I'm even concerned about the projection that the United States is on.

It's time for new leadership, new energy down at the capital.

District 11, you deserve a much stronger voice.

I'm also very proud to say that the people of District 11 have written my platform.

My platform focuses on you.

First, we need to find property tax relief for those who own houses in District 11.

We need to do that by finding new revenue streams at the state capital.

It's going to take some creative thinking, but if we don't find new revenue streams, our middle and lower classes are going to continue to have to shoulder road projects that the state should be covering.

Second, I fully support a statewide hyperscale data center moratorum.

It is essential that we hit pause on hyperscale data center development so that we don't lose critical farmland to companies like Google.

Also so that we can protect our natural resources like the water that we need to drink.

Finally, I'm deeply focused on fixing our public education system.

As a school board member, I know that we are being asked at the school boards to do more with less.

It's truly time for us to find some new solutions for our students in the state of Minnesota.

I'm asking District 11 that you support me, Mary Carlson, for Minnesota State Senate so that we can find a more positive path for our children and the future generations of Minnesota.

Thank you so much for your support and don't forget to get out and vote on or before November 3rd.

The League of Women Voters of Duth is a proud underwriter of PBS North.