Meet your choices for State Representative:

Bidal Duran

Reed Olson

Addressing the skyrocketing cost of living

Reed Olson is focused on helping working families keep more of their hard-earned money by fighting against corporate greed. As Beltrami County Commissioner, he passed measures to help address the housing crisis in rural Minnesota, support veterans and small businesses (1), and expand access to quality affordable childcare in the Bemidji area.

Reed Olson knows greedy corporations are to blame for many rising costs, and as our State Representative will be focused on holding those corporations accountable to ensure Minnesotans can afford the basics we rely on– like food, energy, and housing. He will work to make it easier to buy a home you can afford, and is committed to addressing skyrocketing home insurance costs and rising property taxes.

Bidal Duran caved to pressure from pharmaceutical industry lobbyists, opposing capping costs on common, life-saving prescription drugs (2), forcing local hospitals to pay more for medicine (3), and forcing thousands of Minnesotans off of their health insurance. (4)

And Bidal Duran is running on a platform that calls for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations which could drive up local taxes and costs for working families. His party platform also calls for creating massive new sales taxes on everything we buy, including groceries, clothing, and prescription drugs. Their new sales taxes would be used to cut taxes for the wealthy and big corporations, shifting the burden to the rest of us (5).

Preventing fraud and corruption

Reed Olson will take on fraud in Minnesota. He’ll push for tougher penalties on anyone who commits fraud, regardless of their party and work to strengthen the new independent, non-partisan Office of Inspector General to investigate fraud across state government. (6) Reed Olson also supports conducting a top to bottom audit to fix systemic problems that led to fraud.

Minnesota Republicans like Bidal Duran are letting Donald Trump and his billionaire friends get away with blatant acts of corruption–using the presidency to enrich himself and his family, cutting a deal to get immunity from IRS scrutiny, using our tax dollars to build himself a ballroom, and proposing a slush fund for the January 6th rioters (7).

Fighting back against Federal overreach and costly tariffs

Reed Olson is working to protect Minnesotans from corruption and overreach, from leading the charge for congressional term limits (8) to establishing a track record of standing up to executive orders that contradict our values (9) as well as calling out ICE’s illegal tactics in Minnesota (10). 

Reed Olson will work to safeguard Minnesota from federal overreach–protecting Minnesotans’ access to healthcare, right to vote, and ability to make ends meet without the continuing costs associated with Trump’s tariffs and war in Iran.

Bidal Duran would continue rubber stamping Trump’s agenda, voting to give Minnesotans' personal voter data to the Trump administration and bring Trump's Medicaid cuts to Minnesota, which could take health insurance away from 140,000 seniors and people with disabilities. (11, 12, 13)

After Trump sent ICE agents to target Minnesotans, Bidal Duran was the deciding vote to let ICE agents enter our schools without a warrant and traumatize children. Bidal Duran voted against legislation that would have protected daycares and hospitals from unconstitutional ICE raids, banned ICE agents from hiding their identities with masks, and let Minnesotans sue ICE for violations of their civil rights. (14, 15)

And you should know about Bidal Duran’s record of reprimand as a police officer

Bidal Duran was terminated from his job in law enforcement after a string of incidents showing his poor judgment. In 2022, Duran participated in a drug investigation in Park Rapids, but was accused by a county judge of trying to mislead the court in pursuit of a warrant. (19)

The judge denied Duran’s search warrant request, writing that Duran had, “intentionally or recklessly mischaracterized the truth.” The judge further described his conduct as potentially “insidious” and characterized Duran’s actions as, “extremely serious and inexcusable." Duran’s missteps led to dismissal of what would have otherwise been a successful felony drug prosecution and Hubbard County opened an internal investigation into Duran for misconduct. (20)

Bidal Duran also received a written reprimand after turning off his body camera twice during an encounter with a citizen. He claims he’s retired at 40 years old, but records show he was terminated. (21)

Check the Facts:

  1. [lptv.org, accessed 8/17/26]

  2. [SF 2744,House Journal, 5/17/2023]

  3. [HF 3609, House Journal, 3/23/26]

  4. [SF 4612, House Journal, 5/7/2026]

  5. [mngop.com, accessed 7/28/26]

  6. [SF 856. House Journal, 5/7/26]

  7. [NYTimes, 1/20/26]

  8. [Duluth News Tribune, accessed 8/17/26]

  9. [MPR News, accessed 8/17/26]

  10. [Reed Olson Instagram, 6/12/26]

  11. [HF 4220A5, House Journal, 5/6/26]

  12. [SF 4612,House Journal, 5/7/26]

  13. [www.mprnews.org, 4/17/26]

  14. [Bemidji Pioneer, accessed 8/17/26]

  15. [HF 5149, House Journal, 5/17/2026]

  16. [House Session Daily, 6/9/2025]

  17. [HF 4077, 3/9/2026]

  18. [HF16, House Journal, 6/9/25]

  19. [Minnesota Reformer, 9/24/2024]

  20. [Minnesota Star Tribune, accessed 8/18/26]

  21. [Minnesota Star Tribune, accessed 8/18/26]

Protecting Minnesotans from secret, unregulated AI data center projects

Reed Olson will work to prevent shady non-disclosure agreements that keep communities in the dark. (16, 17) He’ll fight to protect our neighborhoods and natural resources from AI exploitation.

Bidal Duran supported hundreds of millions of dollars in tax giveaways to bring AI data centers to Minnesota–despite residents’ concerns about the impact they could have on our utility rates and water. (18)