ABOVE: State Representative Bjorn Olson and State Senator Rich Draheim.

FAIRMONT – State Senator Rich Draheim and Representative Bjorn Olson are taking heed of their surroundings and pathways forward as the new legislative session has been underway for a few weeks.

Draheim, District 22, has already worked on several bills, including one for the disclosure of elected officials’ assets and another that targets TV drug ads to lower prescription costs for Minnesotans.

“When you look at our nation as a whole, the cost of care is almost 20 percent of our GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and that’s a lot of money,” he said. “We’re talking trillions upon trillions, and the biggest sector of that is pharmaceuticals. This is a subject we talked about nine years ago, and we didn’t get it past the finish line. We feel, if indeed these major pharmaceutical companies are spending 25 percent of their expenses on marketing, if we could reduce some of that marketing, we could pass that on to the end user.”

With several bills already drafted, Draheim said being a state senator is a year-round job for him.

“I don’t think we’re ever not working,” he said. “We’re considered part-time, but really it’s a full-time job if you want to do it correctly, in my opinion. You’re constantly talking to constituents about what is the state’s interaction with them, and how can we make it better. A lot of people reach out with issues.”

Looking at the makeup of the Senate as a whole, Draheim said he works hard to establish mutual respect with others.

“You have to be willing to have a conversation with the stakeholders and the people across the aisle to see where you can find a common ground,” he said. “We only have a one seat differential between Republicans and Democrats, so it is as tiny as you can get.”

This differential is 34 Democrats and 33 Republicans in the 67 seat Senate.

As if the usual long hours and frantic pace weren’t enough, this is also Draheim’s last year in the Senate. He has opted not to run for re-election, having served in the State Senate since 2017. Draheim said this is due to his principles on term limits.

“I’m a term limit guy,” he said. “I think having new blood is healthy. I announced way ahead of time to make sure if anybody wanted to participate in the process, they had time to get their life together a little bit if they wanted to run. It’s a very red district compared to when I was first elected. I think it will continue to be a Republican spot. I’m not really concerned about that.”

While he reflects on his accomplishments, Draheim said he’s looking to keep pushing ahead throughout his final session.

“I just came into it with an open mind,” he said. “I’m grateful to have the opportunity. I’ve tried my best. I’ve dropped a lot of bills and made a lot of subtle changes on a lot of different things. I’ve had some big bills, and some little bills go through.”

Olson, Distirct 22A, entered this session after a six-month deployment in Kuwait with the US Army. With this being an election year for State House, Senate and the Governorship, Olson said there’s a chance not a whole lot gets done, which frustrates him.

“You’ve got a lot of people who are running for a lot of different offices, who are going to stand on their hill and shout as loud as they can so that they can maybe be heard by people who would vote for them,” he said. “Very few people are going to walk into the valley and shake hands. That’s a frustration of mine, seeing as I’m not trying to get any crazier office. I’m not running for governor or anything like that. I just want to continue to serve in the situation I’m currently in.”

Matters are, of course, complicated by both Democrats and Republicans having 67 members in the 134 seat House. Even so, Olson said they have been able to get some work done.

“There are things that we can do, like we can make tweaks to some transportation funding,” he said. “We can make changes to a couple different things, and they’re going to have to be minor changes. We’re not talking anything major that’s going to be able to occur.”

On top of all this, Olson said he is seeing increased levels of frustration and tensions, the likes of which he and members his senior have never seen before.

“I’ve only been here for five years,” he said. “There are things that members who have been here for 30 years have never seen. There have been people shouting at each other in committees, just one person calling another human, another member of the committee, a horrible person. These are things that members who have far more seniority than I do have never seen before, and that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

What does this all mean for 22A constituents? Unfortunately, Olson said there won’t be a lot of money available due to forecasted funding problems. Even so, and even with all of the concerns facing this session, Olson said he is dedicated to staying grounded and remembering why he is there.

“What I do up here is wholly and utterly in devotion to what we’re doing down back home,” he said. “That’s really all you can do when things are really frustrated, you rally around that idea and keep trudging forward.”

Overall, Olson said the priorities of the Republican caucus include combating fraud with bills to plug holes that make fraud possible, making Minnesota more affordable, improving mental health care, enhancing standards for schools and the circumstances for business creation and growth and providing some form of tax alleviation to Minnesotans.