Duluth firefighter Pete Johnson to join DFL 7A race

Pete Johnson

Duluth firefighter and DFLer Pete Johnson will seek the House 7A seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Tom Huntley.

Pete Johnson will soon join the list of announced candidates for the Minnesota House District 7A seat in eastern Duluth. Johnson, a DFLer, is a Duluth firefighter and president of the firefighters’ union.

UPDATE: Pete Johnson will declare his candidacy in a press event at 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 9 in front of Duluth city hall.

Pete Johnson made it “Facebook Official” with this statement:

I am running for the Minnesota House of Representatives District 7A, which covers eastern Duluth. I will be a strong voice for middle class families.

I am running for this seat because I believe that middle class Duluthians need a strong voice at the Capitol.

I will work hard for good living wage jobs; accessible, affordable healthcare for all; and an education system that works on all levels. These things can make or break a middle class family and are critical to future of Duluth and Minnesota.

For the last five years I have served on the 7th Senate District DFL Board of Directors. In that time I have spent hundreds of hours knocking on doors, making phone calls, handing out literature, and working directly with candidates from School Board to City Council to State Legislature. I do all of this because I believe in what the DFL stands for and I believe that the success of the DFL is dependent on more than one candidate or one office. The DFL thrives when we have like-minded people serving in all levels of government that can work together to accomplish the goals of the DFL.

And to quote the late Senator Paul Wellstone: “We all do better, when we all do better.”

Analysis: Johnson seems to be another relatively new name in the rapidly changing, Gen X/Y-dominated Duluth DFL. I wonder how Johnson’s candidacy will be seen since Duluth’s other state representative, Rep. Eric Simonson, was also a firefighter and union chief when he got elected just two years ago. It is a different district, and this is bound to be a much more competitive (albeit less strange) set of circumstances.

Johnson joins announced DFL candidates Jennifer Schultz and Linda Krug, another likely DFL candidate Gary Anderson, and announced GOP candidate Donna Bergstrom.

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