Early Voting Has Begun
Voting for the August 11 primary has begun. If you’ve chosen your candidate, we encourage you to vote early. You can do so in person Monday through Friday from 8 AM to 4:30 PM at Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services, 980 E Hennepin Ave, through July 24. Hours vary from Monday, July 27 through Monday, August 10, so check the website before you go. The office is closed Friday, July 3 for the holiday. If you prefer to vote by mail, visit the city’s Vote by Mail website to apply for a ballot. Notably, the site includes a feature that lets you track your ballot the way you would a UPS package.
Sample Ballot
Steve Simon, the incumbent Secretary of State, is the only DFL candidate for that office. His Republican challengers are Wendy Phillips and Tad Jude. Simon’s office maintains an excellent website for voting information.
We recommend reviewing a sample ballot before you vote. When we looked at ours, we discovered an At Large School Board position on the ballot. We know little about the candidates, other than that Michael Baskins ran for Ward 2 City Council last year. We also learned that the Hennepin County Attorney’s race is technically nonpartisan — something we hadn’t realized, given that most of the candidates sought the DFL endorsement.
We recognize this doesn’t fit with the hyper-partisan nature of today’s politics, but we’d prefer there be no party endorsements in nonpartisan races. What it means to be DFL isn’t entirely clear to us. We don’t know what it means to be Republican either. From what we can tell, much of the local DFL now aligns more closely with the DSA, while the state DFL more closely resembles what most people think of as the traditional Democratic platform. Those are two quite different things. The Minneapolis Times has been running an informative series of articles examining the DSA platform, which we recommend.
Who defines the party seems to depend on who shows up at endorsement conventions, and those showing up appear to be DSA-aligned. There are some DSA platform positions we support. For example, we believe the U.S. healthcare system is overdue for an overhaul. How that would be paid for and what it would cover is a debate worth having, and one where the two wings of the DFL could likely find common ground. Agreement on something like healthcare would expand the party’s reach and demonstrate to non-political-junkies that the DFL can be productive without tearing itself apart.
When it comes to candidate endorsements, however, we’d like to know which version of the party is doing the endorsing. In the case of Cedric Frazier’s Hennepin County DFL endorsement, it appears the DSA-aligned wing carried the day. We didn’t discuss this during our interview with him, but we’d welcome him back to explore whether his endorsement makes him the DSA candidate or the DFL candidate. Until the party sorts out its identity, we won’t be placing much weight on endorsement conventions. In fact, we’d prefer more candidates skip the expense and pageantry of these events altogether — the way Angie Craig did.
What Does the Hennepin County Attorney Do?
The Hennepin County Attorney is the chief prosecutor for approximately 1.3 million residents spread across Minneapolis, 44 cities, and surrounding rural communities. The office has more than 500 staff and a $92 million budget. While prosecution of criminal cases could be seen as nonpartisan that isn’t entirely true in practice. What makes the job inherently political is the setting of policies and priorities that guide prosecuting attorneys: when to charge, when to plea-bargain, when to refer someone to a diversion program. The County Attorney sets the tone for those decisions, and those decisions affect the lives of people being prosecuted, crime victims, and the broader community.
Beyond the Criminal Division, the office includes a Civil Division, which provides legal representation to Hennepin County government; Children & Families, which handles youth prosecution, child protection, and child support; and Community Affairs, which oversees victim services and community engagement. It is an important role — one we want filled by the right person. The term is six years, and the bar for recall is intentionally high: at least 25% of registered voters who participated in the previous election must sign a recall petition.
The August primary will narrow the field to the top two candidates, who will then appear on the November ballot. Whoever ultimately wins, we predict there will be controversy. This office has been a lightning rod for it for decades. Under Mike Freeman (2007–2023), the office faced backlash over its decision not to press charges in the Jamar Clark case and its slow response to the George Floyd murder. Under Mary Moriarty (2023–present), controversy has followed a plea deal involving Zaria McKeever, the decision to prosecute a Minnesota State Trooper for murder in the shooting of Ricky Cobb II, and an ongoing standoff with the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice over evidence related to the actions of federal agents — an issue that may well land in the next County Attorney’s lap.
We can’t predict what controversy the next term will bring, but we’re confident there will be one. That’s why, when we vote, we’ll be focused on qualifications and on which candidate we believe can act with fairness and composure even when the world around them seems to be spinning out of control.
Hennepin County Attorney Candidate Forum — Voter Guide Summaries
Prepared from the League of Women Voters candidate forum, June 25, 2026. All summaries are nonpartisan and based solely on candidates’ own statements. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order. We encourage readers to watch the forum to learn which of these candidates best represents the values they believe are important. Better Minneapolis interviewed each of the candidates. Links to those candidate interviews are embedded in the candidate names.
Anders Folk is a lifelong Minnesotan and University of Minnesota graduate who served as a Marine Corps lawyer before becoming a federal prosecutor. He later served as Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, in which capacity he signed the indictment charging Derek Chauvin with civil rights violations, and subsequently worked under the U.S. Deputy Attorney General in Washington, D.C. Folk frames his candidacy around “compassion and consequence,” arguing that effective prosecution requires experience navigating the full criminal justice spectrum. On key issues, he supports proactive community education on gun violence alongside vigorous enforcement, advocates for diversion and restorative justice programs to reduce racial disparities, and proposes establishing a federal prosecution task force to pursue state-law violations by federal agents. He emphasizes transparent and consistently applied plea policies, a victim-centered approach he plans to codify in a “Victims’ Bill of Rights,” and regular public office hours as county attorney. Folk points to his leadership experience at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and in the Marine Corps as preparation for managing the 500-person office.
Cedric Frazier is the DFL-endorsed candidate in this race, having received over 61% of the vote at the party convention. He came to Minnesota to attend college on a football scholarship. He grew up in a high-poverty, high-violence neighborhood on Chicago's South Side and was the first in his family to earn a college degree. He went on to gain his law degree. His professional background spans public defense, legal counsel for Minneapolis Public Schools, labor law with Education Minnesota, service on the New Hope City Council, and three terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives, where he was vice chair of the Public Safety Committee and co-chaired the Ways and Means Committee. Frazier authored Minnesota's Extreme Risk Protection Order (red flag) law and championed additional resources for investigating non-fatal shootings. He emphasizes a broad, systemic view of public safety — stressing accountability alongside prevention and rehabilitation — and plans to address racial disparities through school partnerships, diversion programs, and juvenile justice reform. He commits to transparent public dashboards, clear charging policies developed collaboratively with office staff, and has the endorsements of Attorney General Keith Ellison, U.S. Senator Tina Smith, and the union representing county attorney office staff.
Diane Krenz is the only candidate in the race with direct prosecutorial experience inside the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, having worked there for over 40 years — from a law clerkship in 1983 through April 2025, most recently leading the fraud unit and serving in union leadership. She argues the office has become politicized under current leadership and pledges that, if elected, partisan considerations in prosecution decisions would end the day she takes office. Krenz emphasizes following sentencing guidelines, reinstating clear and consistently applied charging policies, and rebuilding relationships with law enforcement across all Hennepin County departments. She supports prosecuting felons in illegal possession of firearms to the statutory maximum (60 months) and charging gun cases arising from traffic stops that she says are currently being declined. On racial disparities, she advocates a race-neutral application of the law while acknowledging that most victims of the crimes she prosecuted were people of color. She also pledges to restore victim communication practices she says have deteriorated, reinstate website publication of case results, and reinstate community victim impact statements.
Hao Nguyen came to the United States as a refugee, was raised by a single mother, and learned English as a second language. He worked as a correctional officer and police officer to put himself through college, then became a career prosecutor. He currently serves as Division Director of the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office — the second-largest prosecution unit in the state — where he oversees more than 40 attorneys. Nguyen highlights concrete results from his current role: raising the clearance rate for non-fatal shootings from 33% to 67% through a collaborative law enforcement program; co-filing a lawsuit against Glock over illegal machine-gun conversions; developing a traffic stop policy with law enforcement that reduced racial disparities in stops and searches by more than half; and launching a “Reimagining Youth Justice” program that reduced racial disparities in youth recidivism by over 53%. He is endorsed by Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt and describes himself as the only candidate already actively prosecuting cases arising from Operation Metro Surge. Nguyen also points to personal lived experience — a brother who faced deportation proceedings, an LGBTQ transgender child, and a decade of leadership at a domestic violence shelter — as informing his commitment to balancing public safety with fairness.
Matt Pelikan has spent nearly 15 years as a civil litigator, including extensive pro bono work representing victims of harassment and domestic abuse in obtaining protective orders. He describes himself as the only candidate running from outside the political and prosecutorial establishment, arguing that restoring public trust requires new leadership and fresh perspectives. Pelikan resigned from his law firm in January over its representation of a federal agent involved in the Operation Metro Surge shootings, and has since advised municipalities nationally on accountability for gun industry actors and federal agents. He frames his campaign around the dual pillars of safety and justice, arguing neither is achievable without the other. He is critical of what he views as inconsistent charging decisions and a lack of written policies under the current administration. He cited the contrast between how a Tesla-keying incident and a first-time offense by a young Black woman were handled in the same week. Pelikan supports data-driven diversion programs — noting the current office has nearly halved youth recidivism rates through such approaches — while pledging to reclaim public spaces from untreated addiction and mental illness. He proposes a dedicated task force to pursue prosecutions of federal agents who violated state law during Operation Metro Surge, and emphasizes that these cases will require experienced, independent legal judgment.
Summary
In addition to interviewing each of these candidates, we have seen them speak at two separate forums. Each time, different aspects of their platforms have stood out to us. Hennepin County residents may find this a difficult race to call.
