Duane Quam is the incumbent running on the GOP ticket. He has served in the Minnesota Senate since 2010. I have lived in the community for almost 50 years. Duane is married and he and his wife Pat have two sons and two grandchildren. His dad and many uncles/cousins live, farm, work in the area.
Duane is an experienced problem solver, with extensive experience in the private sector. Managing large-scale projects, developing new products/innovations, fixing issues, and planning ahead to prevent unintended consequences. (IBM, Motorola, Bosch).
He has served on the Byron School Board, Zumbro Education Governing Board and the Minnesota state house. Duane authored the first bill to pass in the historic tied house, 133-0.
His core beliefs are God, country and community. “I’m Christian, and babies are people, even before birth. One grandson was born about six weeks premature. I could have held him in one hand” Duane comments. “America is not perfect, but is the best country to be part of. SE Minnesota has great people and communities. We need to work together and help each other.”
Duane states his priorities for the next session. “I want to continue to legislate rules and procedures that prevent and stop fraud, ensuring that the people needing help get it. We need to fix our Department of Education to focus on providing our children with the skills and knowledge to pursue their dreams and succeed in life. We have many great schools in our area, but mandates are crushing them with debt, and diverting classroom time and resources from core education. We need business cost and regulations to be competitive with our neighbors.”
His goals for the community are to: Strengthen the local schools, by replacing mandates with options to best help their students pursue their dreams and succeed in life. Return government to being a servant of the people, decreasing the property tax burden by passing on the savings for decreasing fraud, and improving local power by giving more power to the people that actually know you and live in our community.
Heather Holmes is the DFL candidate.
I have lived in Byron for just about 20 years. We moved here in November of 2006. My husband Amos and I are high school sweethearts and have been together since we were 16. We have one kiddo, Jay, who is off to college this year. We’ve also got two tree frogs and a tortoise named Yoda at home.
I’ve got a degree in biology, and I have over 20 years of experience working in biological research. Early on in my career, I worked in environment science (the Great Lakes, coral reefs in Belize, and Sequoia National Forest), and agriculture. My time since then has been spent on research in the biomedical sciences and most recently radiology. I love learning about the world and how things work.
I served on the school board for Byron Public Schools for a few years before running for this same position for the Minnesota House back in 2024.
I believe everyone should be able to live their lives authentically and with dignity. This includes the ability to provide for yourself and your family. I believe our economy should work for everyone, not just those at the very top. Our government can do great things, but we need to ensure we have elected officials willing to put people first over politics.
My biggest goal is ensuring that our communities in Greater Minnesota feel like they’ve got a seat at the table when decisions are made in St. Paul. Since 2024, our campaign has knocked on over 10,000 doors. I’ve heard from far too many people that the needs of their community get ignored. I want to see that change. As a former school board member, adequate funding of our schools is incredibly important to me. We’ve seen so many of our school districts in the area have to rely on levies and referendums to keep up with rising costs. This puts an unfair burden on the taxpayers in these communities. Another issue that I would like to focus on is access to healthcare, and this includes our ambulance services. So much of Greater Minnesota (and all of Dodge County) rely on ambulance services staffed by volunteers. Many of these services are struggling to remain operational. We need to ensure that people have access to the care they need regardless of their zip code.
I believe we deserve vibrant rural communities where we can live, work, and raise our families. Too many young people end up moving away from where they grew up because they aren’t able to find jobs, housing, or childcare. Many older residents have to leave their communities when they can’t get home care or a place in assisted living or a nursing home. I want to see the legislature work on policies that ensure people have what they need to stay, and that small businesses can thrive. What works in one town may not work in another, so we need flexible solutions that fit the needs of each community.
