BRAINERD — Steve Samuelson said he doesn’t fit neatly into either major political party’s box — instead, he’s an independent thinker whose background in politics has revealed to him a broken system.
“I’m not extreme enough to be accepted by one party,” Samuelson said during an Oct. 3 interview at the Brainerd Dispatch. “ … I just don’t agree with any parties, you know, 100% or even 50 or 60%.”
The Brainerd man is a second-time candidate for the Minnesota Senate, previously losing to Republican state Sen. Carrie Ruud in the 2020 election. This year, he takes on state Sen. Justin Eichorn, R-Grand Rapids, a two-term legislator who successfully challenged Ruud for the Republican endorsement after both landed in the same district following redistricting. Eichorn did not return multiple requests for an interview.
While Samuelson will have “DFL” behind his name on the ballot, he said he wasn’t interested in the party’s talking points. Both parties are to blame for inaction this past legislative session, and Minnesotans were the ones who lost out, he said.
“I think our system is broken. And they refuse to work together to get things done and it’s the people that suffer,” Samuelson said. “Both parties, all they care about is the next election. I mean, you know, Nov. 10, there’ll be a whole bunch of people sitting in offices getting ready for what we shouldn’t pass, so we could talk about that for the next election.
“Maybe I’ve worked in the sausage factory too long, and I kind of know how it works. But the people are the ones that suffer. There is no reason why they didn’t get their work done last time.”
The son of former longtime area legislator Don Samuelson, Steve Samuelson said he grew up talking politics at the dinner table and watching his father’s approach to getting things accomplished. He’s taken a page out of Dad’s book, he said, and sees value in building relationships with people of all political stripes. This sets Steve Samuelson apart from his opponent, he said.
“They represent party, not people, you know? That’s pure and simple. My party understands — they know where I’m coming from, because I don’t dance around. … I don’t like to mince words. Maybe they don’t appreciate that,” Samuelson said. “ … My dad spent more time fighting with his own party than he did with the other party. And that got him respect from all over the place. And that’s basically the only thing you have to hang your hat on at the end of the day.”
If elected, Samuelson said his priorities include supporting labor to rebuild a vibrant middle class, increasing access to health insurance for more people and shoring up public education, particularly in Greater Minnesota.
As a teenager, Samuelson worked as a brick tender and became a member of a union for the first time. He said he made twice as much money as friends who worked at a grocery store — but as the influence of labor unions declined in later years, wages remained stagnant while corporate profits skyrocketed. The tax structure in the state isn’t fair, he said, and those with lower incomes are the most affected.
“When they wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, their whole idea was corporations weren’t supposed to be bigger than government,” Samuelson said. “And that’s not true anymore.”
Later in life, Samuelson said he could not afford health insurance while suffering from glaucoma, which put the prescription eyedrops necessary to treat his condition out of financial reach. When the Affordable Care Act made it possible for him to once again be insured, his condition had deteriorated by a troubling degree, he said.
“Something needs to be done about our health care,” Samuelson said. “People shouldn’t have to be deciding for food or medicine.”
When it comes to public education, Samuelson said advocates shouldn’t have to fight every two years to ensure adequate funding comes their way. Rural school districts face some of the more difficult challenges when money gets tight, he said.
“No matter where we live, everybody should have the same opportunity,” he said. “We like to live in a place that doesn’t have a whole bunch of stuff going on like the Twin Cities. Shouldn’t make a difference, where you live, on your education or any opportunity.”
Samuelson said progress could have been made on some of these issues with the state’s budget surplus, but instead, politicians looked out for themselves.
“They could have just distributed that $9 billion, instead of saying, ‘Hey, let’s just wait till the next election, maybe we’ll be in charge and then we could be the hero,’” he said. “To me, neither party should be in charge. You need divided government, you really do. But they need to work together.
“ … They left all that money on that table, where they could have invested more in education. And there was money set aside for small businesses. You know, that was extra money that should have been returned (to taxpayers).”
Samuelson blamed the lack of momentum to effect change in policies that would help average Minnesotans on the massive influx of dollars into campaigns from corporations and special interest groups. Outside money influences politicians’ agendas, he said, more than the needs of everyday people ever will if nothing changes.
While Samuelson feels his chances of being victorious in the upcoming election are slim, he’s clear on what he’d fight for if given the opportunity: cooperation.
“I always say, let’s just try for a little. We can always go back to the way it is: hating each other. We could go back to that really fast,” Samuelson said. “But let’s just try to work together and see.”
CHELSEY PERKINS, community editor, may be reached at 218-855-5874 or
chelsey.perkins@brainerddispatch.com
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