FAIRMONT– On Tuesday evening the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce hosted its first round of candidate forums at Fairmont City Hall. At this time the public had the opportunity to get to know four Minnesota House of Representative candidates.

Candidates include two running for District 22A, which covers the majority of Martin County, which are Marisa Ulmen and incumbent Bjorn Olson. Those running for District 21B include Jon Wilson and incumbent Marj Fogelman.

Each candidate had two minutes to introduce themselves and then one minute to respond to each question and two opportunities for rebuttal with one minute allotted for a closing statement.

Moderator Chris Pierce first asked the candidates to introduce themselves.

Ulmen is a fifth generation farmer from Watonwan County. Ulmen went to Minnesota State University-Mankato and lived out state for a number of years but moved to Madelia in 2006 with her son. Ulmen said for a time she was a single mother and understands the difficulties of being “poor” in the United States, but also knows the opportunities there are to help people.

Olson has represented the district for four years. He said he is a teacher, farmer, solider, former mayor, father and husband. Olson said his family has farmed in the district for about 130 years. He is currently the

assistant minority leader in the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives. He has also spent time on the transportation, taxes and veterans committees.

Olson said over the last four years he has brought back $35 million to this district.

Fogelman lives and works in Fulda and represents four townships in Martin County as well as all of Jackson County, four townships in Cottonwood County, half of Watonwan County and two-thirds of Nobles County. She has also served on the transportation committee and bonding committee.

She said she has experience working with community members and has volunteered at her church and with the local hockey association. Fogelman said she works with her husband at their small business.

Wilson has lived and worked as a teacher in St. James for the last 18 years, though he’s a Fairmont High School graduate. In 2022 he ran for St. James mayor and has served in that capacity for the last year and a half. During that time Wilson noted that he’s expanded the work in a multi-cultural community.

For the first question, the candidates were asked to identify three areas they felt needed to be focused on.

Fogelman identified maintaining roads and bridges, keeping public safety as a priority and working on improving education.

Wilson said that he felt the top three focuses should be allotment of local government aid, infrastructure and affordable housing.

Ulmen mentioned education, including vocational and technical training school, rural broadband and affordable childcare.

Olson said he felt that housing and childcare were well-known issues, but also that state and federal spending is a big problem that has been getting worse over time.

The candidates were also asked to identify emerging issues in agriculture that could create challenges for the local economy and what the legislature could do to respond.

Wilson said he sees a lot of family farms around Watonwan County and that there are few new people involved in faming.

“I think legislature could do more to make sure that, whether it’s tech schools or ag education in our schools… new farmers into the industry would be a valuable asset to our communities in rural Minnesota,” Wilson said.

Fogelman noted that both agriculture and small businesses are important to Minnesota and she thought that lowering taxes and fees would keep the economy thriving.

“Minnesota has 67,000 farms and 26 million acres of farmland representing over half of the state’s total land area. We need to focus on helping all that we can to make a better economy in our state for everyone,” Fogelman said.

Turning to District 22A candidates, Ulmen said, “Since 2016 Minnesota has lost 500 farm families every year. Every year that’s 500 families that aren’t shopping at our grocery stores, aren’t on our main streets.”

She said that she thought Minnesota could do more to make it easier for farmers to get their product to market.

Olson talked about environmental policies that have deterred operations here.

“It will be devastating to our state if they( democrats) continue down this path of preventing farmers from doing what they do best, which is taking care of the land,” Olson said.

Next a question from the audience was put forth to the candidates. The question had to do with rural healthcare, specifically the divergence of the OB department at Mayo Clinic in Fairmont which “puts at risk the lives of mothers and babies.” The candidates were asked if there was any help with the situation from the state level.

Wilson said that healthcare is important, not just birthing but aging.

“We have to make sure that we do have affordable healthcare for people that may not have it,” Wilson said.

Fogelman said that the more the government gets into healthcare the more expensive it is and the harder it is to obtain.

“We need to let private industry get back into healthcare and stop all the mandates…,” Fogelman said.

Olson recalled a phone call he got about a month ago from someone at Mayo in Fairmont who wanted to let him know about the birth center being moved out of Fairmont.

“I said, ‘this is very concerning.’ When I got that phone call I immediately called the CEO of UHD who said he was aware of the fact and that they were discussing how they could move and flex to provide the necessary coverage to Fairmont and Martin County because everyone agrees that a rural healthcare system that’s strong and vibrant is necessary to the continuation of southern Minnesota,” Olson said.

Ulmen said she is lucky to live in Madelia where they have maintained their own hospital and clinic.

“It’s sad to see that the OB-GYN center has left,” Ulmen said. “United Healthcare, my understanding is they only have 25 beds so how will that expand to provide more OB-GYN… I don’t know,” Ulmen said.

Finally, the candidates were asked what methods they would use to communicate with constituents.

Ulmen said she was once the city clerk of the city of Lewisville and that she had the opportunity to talk to many people there. She said an important part of communicating is listening.

Olson said his cell phone is readily available and that there are email updates and Facebook messaging opportunities.

“There are many, many ways you can get a hold of me,” Olson said.

Fogelman said that one of the biggest things they do is legislators is listen to constituents. She said that she tries to get back to everyone to the best of her ability and has helped with passport issues and insurance issues, along with other issues over the past year.

Wilson said that in his role as mayor of St. James one thing he’s implemented is sending out a monthly newsletter to constituents. He also said he is open to receiving emails and phone calls.

“Your job is the constituent and you have to be there for those people no matter what– if they agree, disagree, same party, non-party, your job is to listen,” Wilson said.

The entirety of the candidate forum can be seen on local public access channel 13. A full list of dates and times it will be broadcast can be found at fairmontchamber.org/events/forums