Dan Wilson Candidate for State Senator District 26

Dan Wilson

Candidate for State Senator District 26

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

1. Tell us about yourself.

I graze dairy cows on a farm outside of Rushford with my family.  Before that, I lived in the Winona Catholic Worker house in Winona, helping homeless people find housing and treatment, for four years.  I spent two years volunteering as an EMT providing humanitarian aid to asylum seekers coming to the United States. Our first daughter was born two years ago and I was lucky enough to be able to be the stay at home parent for the first year of her life.

2. Why are you running for office?

I’m running because now more than ever, we need elected officials who know how hard it is for folks to get by, and who are fighting for our communities, not advancing their own political careers. When elected, I’ll be the only farmer in the Minnesota Senate. I’ll be a voice for our farm communities here in southeastern Minnesota. We want to stay on the land. We want farms to be strong. We want thriving small towns that can sustain good jobs right on Main Street. And that means we need elected leaders fighting for us.

3. What do you hope to accomplish if you get elected?

Our rural spaces are filled with families, entrepreneurs, and farmers who live in one of the most beautiful parts of Minnesota. We need to make our rural communities accessible and welcoming to everyone. This means broadband internet to every farmhouse in our district, funding for rural EMS services, and soil health grants to help farms thrive. It means funding our public schools so that every student has access to small class sizes, enrichment programs, special education and technology. And it means affordable health insurance that covers mental health and dental care.