Meet your choices for State Representative:

Wayne Johnson

Cole Birkeland

Addressing the skyrocketing cost of living

Lifelong St. Croix Valley resident Cole Birkeland is focused on helping working families keep more of their hard-earned money by fighting against corporate greed. He’ll crack down on price gouging, cap prescription drug prices, and will work to ban surveillance pricing where companies use customers’ personal data to charge different prices for the same products.

Cole Birkeland 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.

Wayne Johnson caved to pressure from pharmaceutical industry lobbyists, opposing capping costs on common, life-saving prescription drugs (1), forcing local hospitals to pay more for medicine (2), and forcing thousands of Minnesotans off of their health insurance. (3)

As County Commissioner, Wayne Johnson voted to raise our property taxes THREE TIMES. Then as a legislator, he voted against meaningful property tax relief for families, and against the child tax credit that would have put money back in the pockets of working parents. (4, 5, 6)

And Wayne Johnson 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. (7)

Preventing fraud and corruption

Cole Birkeland 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. (8) Cole Birkeland also supports conducting a top to bottom audit to fix systemic problems that led to fraud.

Minnesota Republicans like Wayne Johnson 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. (9)

Fighting back against Federal overreach and costly tariffs

Cole Birkeland will fight to protect Minnesotans from dangerous, targeted attacks like Operation Metro Surge, and will defend our civil rights. (10)

He 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.

Wayne Johnson would continue to be a rubber stamp for Trump’s agenda, such as 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, Wayne Johnson was the deciding vote to let ICE agents enter our schools without a warrant and traumatize children. Wayne Johnson 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)

Wayne Johnson promised constituents he would vote for a bill to crack down on predatory landlords, but after his party leaders opposed it, he skipped out on the vote and the bill failed. He single-handedly blocked the measure from advancing, breaking his word and misleading advocates. (18) Thanks to his cowardly actions, the Cimarron community in our area has some of the highest lot rent in Minnesota, with residents reporting rent nearly doubling since 2020 with no end in sight. (19)

Siding with predatory landlords over local residents

Check the Facts:

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

  2. [HF3609, House Journal, 3/23/26]

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

  4. [Washington County Board, 12/11/18, 12/17/19, 12/14/21]

  5. [House Taxes Committee, 4/29/2026]

  6. [HF 4, A4, House Journal, 3/17/25]

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

  8. [SF 856, House Journal, 5/7/2026]

  9. [NYTimes, 1/20/26]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  18. [FOX9, 4/21/26]

  19. [MPR News, 4/1/26]

Protecting Minnesotans from secret, unregulated AI data center projects

Cole Birkeland will work to prevent shady non-disclosure agreements that keep communities in the dark. (15, 16) He’ll fight to protect our neighborhoods and natural resources from AI exploitation.

Wayne Johnson 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. (17)