REGIONAL — Fear can do one of two things to a person. It can freeze you in place, or it can push you toward something you never imagined doing. For Emanuel Anastos, a child welfare case manager living on the Lake Vermilion Reservation, it pushed him into a congressional race.
“I felt concern, nervous, scared, whatever you want to call it,” said Anastos, recalling how he felt after President Donald Trump was re-elected in 2024, “and I couldn’t be living in fear. I had to stand up and do something.”
That something turned out to be a congressional campaign.
Anastos is now one of several Democrats vying to unseat Republican incumbent Pete Stauber in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, a district that covers several tribal bands in northern Minnesota and has trended increasingly red in recent cycles.
Anastos is the first to admit this is his first foray into politics.
But the freshman candidate has thrown himself into the mechanics of the DFL endorsement process with the same methodical energy you might expect from someone who’s spent years navigating the bureaucratic maze of child welfare services.
The DFL endorsement process works in layers. Voters who attended precinct caucuses could sign up as delegates, who then advance through county conventions before roughly fewer delegates gather at an endorsement convention in May.
Anastos says he believes he’s the only candidate personally calling each and every one of those delegates.
“I spend multiple hours after work every day calling delegates,” he said. “It kind of makes its own name recognition. It doesn’t really matter. As long as you’re willing to put in the work, you can speak with and make your case to every single person that participates in this endorsement process.”
He’s assembled a volunteer team of about seven people, most of whom approached him after the campaign launched.
“I didn’t even know them before this race,” he said. “They just offered to volunteer. That’s been amazing.”

Not your typical
political resume
Anastos grew up on Long Island, N.Y., but found his way to Minnesota to attend Carleton College, graduating in 2021 after a COVID-disrupted senior year. He applied for jobs with tribal governments across the state and landed at Bois Forte, arriving in the middle of winter in 2022.
He’s worked on the reservation since then, first at the Vermilion Boys and Girls Club, then at Fortune Bay Casino, and for the past two-and-a-half years in child welfare case management. It’s a resume that doesn’t include stints in federal agencies or elected office, and Anastos owns that.
“I’m more of just an everyman,” he said. “I haven’t worked way up high in the federal government or anything like that. But that doesn’t mean I lack hard work, intelligence, savviness, courage, or integrity.”
He’s running against several candidates, and he speaks respectfully of his perceived strongest opponent, Trina Swanson, a former Department of Homeland Security official.
“She seems like somebody you used to see speaking — like a Kamala Harris or something like that. She does a good job at that.” But, he argues, the moment calls for someone different. “I think being a normal guy is really going to help get out those disaffected voters.”

On the issues
On copper-nickel mining, Anastos is unambiguous.
“I call it a scam, at least insofar as these foreign companies plan to do it.” He cited the potential for sulfate contamination at rates far exceeding the environmental impact of existing iron ore mining operations, and said he would push to enforce the 10-parts-per-million sulfate standard on currently operating mines, requiring tailings basin upgrades he says the industry has long avoided.
His broader platform includes the impeachment and removal of Trump, abolition of ICE, a single-payer health care system, a $20 federal minimum wage, a complete ban on private campaign financing, and cutting off U.S. funding to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“When I go through my list with delegates, they’re like, ‘That checks all the boxes,’” he said. “Here and there I might get minor criticism — ‘You might not want to totally abolish ICE’ — but generally the vast majority agree with everything.”

Going the distance
Whether Anastos receives the DFL endorsement or not, he seems to be weighing his options. He said he’d prefer to abide by the endorsement outcome, but he pushed back on the idea that a contested primary would necessarily hurt the eventual nominee.
“I think it only strengthens whichever candidate comes out on top,” he said. “It shows they’ve already won something. They’re already a winner.”
One thing he’s already decided is that if he gets to Congress, he won’t be the kind of representative who goes silent between election cycles. His personal cellphone number is already on his campaign website.
“I will be in the district talking to voters way more than Stauber is now,” he said. “And honestly, calling all these delegates has already started giving me this body of knowledge to take with me. That’s what’s going to help me in Congress.”
To learn more, go to https://emanuelanastos-dmths.org/.