The DFL primary for Senate District 50 was not close. Karla Hult won the Aug. 11 vote with 9,472 votes, or 58.88%, against 3 rivals, according to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State with all 28 precincts reporting. Bloomington School Board member Nelly Korman finished second with 3,467 votes (21.55%). Retired firefighter John McClellan had 2,103 (13.07%), and healthcare organizer Amal Ibrahim had 1,046 (6.5%).
Hult now faces Republican Owen Michaelson in the Nov. 3 general election. Michaelson had no opponent in his own primary and drew 4,214 votes. The winner takes a seat with no incumbent, because Sen. Alice Mann, DFL-Edina, isn't running for reelection.
Here's the background. The district covers the western half of Bloomington and parts of Edina, and 4 DFLers filed once Mann's seat opened up.
The 4 candidates had very different résumés. Hult has degrees from St. Olaf College and Columbia University. She founded an Alzheimer's education effort called So Many Goodbyes. She also pointed out that no journalist currently serves in the Legislature. Korman has served 14 years on the Bloomington School Board and earlier sat on the city's Planning Commission. She teaches high school Spanish immersion. McClellan is a Bloomington father of 4 and a retired Minneapolis firefighter with a law degree. He founded the Minnesota Justice Coalition. Ibrahim is a healthcare administrator who immigrated to Minnesota in 2012.
Before the vote, Hult had collected the most visible support from local DFL figures. Former House District 49B Rep. Paul Rosenthal wrote a letter backing her. He said her decades of "asking the hard questions, holding power to account and communicating across divides" made her the right pick.
Dennis Maetzold, who was Edina's mayor from 1999 to 2004, also wrote in. He called her "smart, compassionate and principled." His letter said Edina Mayor Jim Hovland, County Commissioner Heather Edelson, Rep. Julie Greene and Sen. John Hoffman had endorsed her too. In the end the endorsements and the vote count told the same story.
East Bloomington voters had nothing to decide in August. Senate District 51, which covers Richfield and the east side of the city, had no primary in either party. One DFL candidate and one Republican were already set for November.
