Three weeks ago, Steve Holm was concentrating on an upcoming bowling tournament.  Then he got the news that Michael Hutchinson had stepped away from the DFL and was running as an Independent in House District 20B.  “I felt we needed a Democratic presence on the ticket,” Steve says.  “I thought about it. Then I got a call from Joe Shepherd.”  Shepherd, DFL House Caucus Rural Campaigns Director, encouraged Steve to run.   Steve started taking the idea more seriously; he talked it over with his wife and with friends.  Then DFL Floor Leader Jamie Long  called after a House session and added his encouragement.  “I started to get a definite interest in running,” Steve said.  Soon he was filing papers and putting together a campaign team.

In a race where being local is an advantage, Steve is about as local as you can get.  He spent a lot of his childhood on a cattle farm in the St. Charles area, and stayed in the area for his entire career, working in Information Technology for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Later, Steve and his wife DeAnne purchased the family farm from his father, and made it their home.  He says he is typical of many folks in the area: “People that grow up in SE MN tend to stay—for family, for the familiarity of life here.  Everybody talks about how neighborly we are. If you know one person, you know their extended family.” 

Steve has plenty of experience in local government.  He started out on the Saratoga Township zoning variance committee, then served on the Township Board for a number of years.  “Next, I got involved in the Winona County Planning and Zoning Committee.  I’m also on the MiEnergy Cooperative Advisory Committee.”  These positions all helped Steve develop a solid grasp of the issues facing the district, and the need for future solutions to everything from crop planting options to climate change resilience strategies.  But Steve is also mindful of the past; he is president of the cemetery associations for both Saratoga and Sinclair cemeteries, helping to make sure the resting places of community members are cared for. 

“My entire life I’ve been a problem solver,” Steve says.  “I see something broken, I learn as much as I can about it and propose a solution.”  That’s what Steve did at Mayo, where several of his ideas were implemented to facilitate safety and efficiency.  Now Steve hopes to use that practical approach in the Minnesota House.  He worries about federal cuts to FEMA, Medicare, Medicaid, and a host of other programs that are used to support rural people.  He worries about the loss of markets for farmers, about high prices and the decline of rural clinics: “I see how much family farms and small businesses are struggling.  We need to work on economic growth and recovery so businesses in small towns stay open, so farmers don’t have to look at loan after loan to stay afloat.” 

Steve says he believes resilience and neighborliness are core Minnesota values.  He remembers the time a storm blew down a giant oak across his driveway:  “People just showed up with chainsaws to help—that’s the kind of thing you can’t find everywhere.  It makes me proud to be a Minnesotan.”  He wants neighborliness to be channeled to solve the state’s problems.  “With everything going on outside the state, I want to make sure Minnesota can take care of its own people,” he said. 

Steve knows that House District 20B is a solidly Republican district, but he says that this year people are looking to vote for the person, not the party: “I get the feeling they are fed up with the whole political atmosphere.  They want somebody they know and they can trust.”  Steve says many of his Republican friends have expressed that it is time for a change.  “I think that having a candidate who is accessible, listening to people, is more important now than straight party voting, “ Steve adds.  “I am willing to work with anyone who has a good solution.”