ELY— It was a tale of two debates here last week as Ely Rotary and the American Association of University Women paired up to present a candidates forum focused on the local District 3 contests.
In an often-contentious District 3 Senate debate, incumbent Sen. Grant Hauschild and challenger Andrea Zupancich, answered questions on stage together, trading barbs in the process. Afterward, the District 3A state representative candidates, incumbent Roger Skraba and challenger Aaron Kania, took to the stage for a notably more cordial exchange.
The candidates fielded a wide array of panelist questions, from voting rights to mining, affordability to their willingness to buck their own party.
Around 200 Ely residents gathered at the Minnesota North- Vermilion theater to watch the political spectacle with rapt interest, many taking notes.
Partisanship and each candidate’s penchant for independence proved significant themes throughout the evening.
In her first question of the evening, Zupancich was asked how she would navigate a “rancorous” political environment and work cooperatively for the common good of the region. She explained that her background in real estate has offered frequent opportunities to use her negotiation chops. She added that “not everyone is going to win” and that people can “be at least supportive and open to what the outcome may be.”
During a response to a different question, Hauschild noted he has repeatedly criticized his own party, drawing a contrast with Zupancich. “Ask my opponent if she has ever disagreed with her political party. I’m pretty sure you will get the answer.”
“I understand that you’ve disagreed with your party and you called Governor Walz out on it,” replied Zupancich. “And how did that go? Did he give you an answer? No.”
The exchange set the tone for the first half of the forum, as Hauschild repeatedly portrayed Zupancich as a rubber stamp for Republican policies, pointing to his own breaks with the DFL for contrast.
The tenor of debate changed noticeably when Roger Skraba and Aaron Kania took the stage following the Senate candidates. Skraba was quick to take credit for working closely with Hauschild in the Legislature, portraying himself as one-half of a bipartisan duo representing northern Minnesota.
“I’ve shown the rest of the state that when you work together, you can get things done,” Skraba said.
Kania, likewise, pointed to his experience coordinating disaster response, highlighting the importance of working with all involved groups to get things done.
“Just think about the leaders in our community that were working together in the same direction when we needed to survive disasters, and that unity that we brought together during fires, during floods, we were all on the same page,” Kania said.
Jobs and the economy
Jobs, affordability, housing, and the economy also dominated the forum. While the candidates agreed that the region is facing economic challenges, the causes and solutions varied. Housing emerged as a point of agreement, with each candidate pointing to a lack of affordable housing as an impediment to the economy.
Hauschild and Kania both focused on the impact of tariffs and federal cuts, as well as the importance of jobs and housing, painting a picture of an economy struggling with income and employment problems.
“I’ve talked to over 1,000 voters here with my team and in other venues with 30 open houses, and have met probably a quarter of the voters in this district. They are struggling. It’s affordability, and what Grant said, the cuts from the federal level are causing that primarily,” Kania said.
Zupancich and Skraba focused instead on diversifying the economy. In the wake of this summer’s wildfires, Zupancich argued that the area needs to restore mining and other ventures rather than relying on tourism.
“Tourism should not be the cake. It should be the icing on the cake,” Zupancich said.
Skraba, instead, emphasized infrastructure projects as a means of attracting jobs to the area.
“You have to keep up on infrastructure. You have to,” Skraba said, adding that he was proud of pushing Republicans to support bonding for infrastructure during his time in office.
“Four years ago, bonding was kind of like that dirty word. Now we’re all embracing it,” Skraba said.
While discussing the economy, Hauschild and Zupancich butted heads once more, this time over right-to-work laws. Hauschild accused Zupancich of supporting right-to-work legislation that would allow employees to choose whether to join a union at a unionized workplace. Critics of right-to-work laws argue that they drain unions of resources and contribute to lower wages.
“She is quoted saying that she would be in favor of considering right-to-work laws,” Hauschild said of Zupancich. “Imagine the day when an Iron Range legislator tries to advance right-to-work laws, laws that would undermine every single union in the Northland.”
Zupancich responded, saying she had been misquoted on her position.
“It was a matter of miscommunication. I absolutely support union jobs, and I have evidence,” Zupancich said. “I’ve stood with the union laborers for the past 10 years as a mayor on the Iron Range. So that is a lie, shocking.”
Candidates also discussed fraud, a new hot-button issue in the state. The candidates were largely in agreement that fraud is unacceptable, although the Republican candidates painted it as a systemic economic problem, mirroring recent rhetoric about undocumented immigrants taking jobs and social services from natural-born Americans. The DFL candidates viewed it more as a bureaucratic issue that could be combated with better oversight.
“People are working hard, and they don’t like that their money is just thrown away for any loosey-goosey item that they can get away with. They work hard for their money. I want to see that money stay within the families and the hardworking people in our district that deserve it,” Zupancich said.
Skraba mirrored this sentiment, saying, “When an agency has people applying for funds, and it goes from 2,000 people in a year to 20,000, and that agency head doesn’t have the common sense enough to say, ‘Hey, maybe there’s something going on here. Let’s look at it.’ They don’t do that. They need to be held accountable.”
Both Hauschild and Kania took the opportunity to denounce fraud. Hauschild pointed out that he worked with a bipartisan coalition to pass “the strongest anti-fraud legislation in our history.”
Discussion of fraud overlapped with the candidates’ opinions on Medicaid and other social services. This year, the White House paused $200 million in Medicaid funding to Minnesota, citing concerns over fraud in the state even as many Republican-led states have experienced far worse fraud in the same federal programs. The Republican candidates argued that Minnesota needs to comply with new federal funding guidelines, while the DFL candidates, particularly Hauschild, argued that it was a political move that is harming thousands.
“I think our administration, Governor Walz’s administration, needs to start complying, and so we can work together and still keep our funding for rural areas,” Skraba said.
Zupancich likewise argued that government agencies need stronger checks and balances to avoid fraud before receiving money.
Hauschild focused on the Medicaid cuts that will hit Minnesota, and every other state, beginning in 2027 as a result of passage of the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“People will die because of these cuts. People that are vulnerable, people that are poor, elderly folks, people with cancer. This is not the way that the government is supposed to work,” Hauschild said.
Hauschild argued that Medicaid reductions will disproportionately impact northern Minnesotans because the region has a large share of Medicaid patients and relies heavily on rural critical-access hospitals. He proposed a rural health care stabilization fund at the state level to help alleviate the pressure and pointed to previous work securing funding for rural ambulances at the state level to show where he stood.
Kania also argued that the cuts could end up costing the state far more in the long run.
“Scenic Rivers alone is estimating that 1,000 people will not have coverage. People in this room will not have health coverage, so that means nothing preventative, and everything starts looking like an emergency, and you’re going to end up in the emergency room, and that’s the most expensive type of health care we can possibly have,” Kania said.
Hauschild called out rural Republicans for supporting the Medicaid cuts.
“I’m normally not very partisan, but when it’s something this devastating, it has to be called out. And I’m calling on my opponent to just simply call it out. Just call out your own party and say I disagree with President Trump,” Hauschild said.
Zupanich did not respond to Hauschild’s challenge.
Mining, data centers, and the environment
Transparency was the name of the game for every candidate as they tiptoed through the political minefields of mining and data centers.
Hauschild expressed his support of Minnesota’s mining economy, pointing out his public condemnation of Walz’s executive order banning mining in the upper Rainy River watershed while at the same time calling out national changes to environmental regulations.
Kania took a similar view, explaining that with appropriate legal procedure, mining can be conducted safely.
Both Zupancich and Skraba were more explicit with their endorsement of mining.
“We need to be able to be the leaders, not only in the nation, but also the world, to show how it can be done safely. I have grandchildren here. My family lives here. I do not want to poison the Boundary Waters. There is no doubt about that. But I also want to be able to have the region thrive like it used to do.” Zupancich said.
The candidates’ views on data centers roughly matched their views on mining, a regulation-first approach in strict adherence to the law with an acknowledgment that they might provide a boon to the economy.
“In my career in both law enforcement, but as the district ranger, one thing that we always did was we followed the law, and that’s critical,” Kania said when discussing data center development. “But then the other thing is, we’re going to have to recognize there is a need. Like how many people today have used AI or some sort of large data set?” Kania said.
Skraba echoed this point.
“We need data centers. There’s no question about it. Do we or don’t we? We need them. Where they go is going to be the crux of this issue. I trust our regulatory agencies finding the answers to those questions,” Skraba said, later adding, “I think if an area wants a data center, then they should vote on it and say yes, we want it. But that company that’s going to put that data center there must comply with the rules and regulations, the permits, meet or exceed that permit.”
Kania did add that current regulations have struggled to keep pace with data center expansion, also adding that NDAs should not be allowed in the decision-making process and that labor used to construct data centers should be adequately compensated.
“I think our rules really haven’t kept up with the scale of what we’re seeing with data centers statewide. So, I think there’s some ground-level stuff that we need to do immediately. First off, no tax breaks for billionaires. Number one, they don’t need it. They’re very profitable. Number two, ratepayer protection,” Kania said.
Voter ID and
mail-in ballots
The upcoming election itself was also a topic of debate for the candidates. Zupancich came out strongly in favor of voter ID.
“An ID shouldn’t be that big of a deal because we need IDs for absolutely everything. We need IDs to go to the liquor store. You need IDs to get on the airplane. You need IDs to go everywhere else. I really think it’s a privilege of being able to vote in the United States,” Zupancich said.
Skraba supported greater transparency around voter rolls and said people should be able to inspect voter-roll information to prevent deceased people from receiving ballots.
“I know we’ve asked Secretary of State Simon to please purge the dead people from the ballots, and he’s done some, but not all of it that we’re aware of,” Skraba said.
While studies have found deceased people on existing voter rolls, intentional fraud using these ballots is both a felony and extremely rare. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, found a single instance of someone casting a vote for a deceased voter in Minnesota in 2011.
Mail-in ballots have been subject to increased scrutiny as federal changes to mail-in ballots have moved throughout the judicial system, causing confusion ahead of the election.
“Mail-in ballots are under attack, and we are in a rural area. And a large part of the people in this room need mail-in ballots,” Kania said.
All four candidates will be on the ballot on Nov. 3.
Another forum is taking place for Ely mayoral and City Council candidates on Sept. 10 from 7 to 9 p.m., also at the Minnesota North-Vermilion Campus theater.