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The journey that brought Kaohly Her to St. Paul’s mayor's office started in a bamboo hut some 8,000 miles from Minnesota's capital city.
Her, 52, was born in the mountains of Laos. When she was still young, her family fled war, ending up in the United States as refugees, first in Illinois and Wisconsin and later Minnesota.
In the wee hours of a Wednesday in November, Her’s journey brought her to the podium in the upper room of Sweeney’s Bar in St. Paul.
“Good morning, St Paul,” Her said to her campaign supporters. “My name is Kaohly Her, and I'm proud to stand before you today as the first Asian and the first woman mayor-elect for the city of St. Paul.”
Her takes the oath of office at 1 p.m. Friday at St. Catherine University.
Her’s history-making victory included defeating her former boss, incumbent Mayor Melvin Carter, in a close race that went to a second ballot in the ranked choice election.
The win was an upset. Yet the office she'll lead won't be entirely new to the incoming mayor. After a career start in finance, she gravitated to the public sector and wound up working for Carter's first administration as a policy director.
In 2018, the mother of two was elected as a state representative for part of St. Paul.
St. Paulites will see differences between Her and Carter. Where Carter is known for his soaring speeches, Her is content talking about tax law and the intricacies of policy. While they're both DFLers, Her campaigned for mayor on a message of subtle but distinct change.
“We need a St Paul that is focused on expanding our revenue stream so that our budget isn't balanced on the backs of our residents' property taxes and rents,” Her said after that November victory. “We need to be open for business, and that means getting the nuts and bolts of our government right.”
She pledged to expand housing options and build up a public safety infrastructure.
“We need to ensure public safety goes beyond violent crime and includes giving people the services they need to address addiction and mental health in a meaningful way,” she said.
At the top of her to-do list when she gets into office, is making it easier to open a business in the city.
“I can’t control it’s snowing again, and it’s going to be hard to keep clearing the snow, but what I can control is how the city executes on its core processes, right?” she said in an interview with MPR News ahead of her inaugural.
“People will see we have businesses operating, we have storefronts opening, we have buildings going up well, that all comes from these basic processes that we have to do well.”
She’s been meeting with department leaders, city council members, constituents and others as she prepares to take office.
“There’s been a lot of work that’s happened, and a lot of touching base and making sure that we know what is the current situation of our city right now, so that we know how to move forward,” Her said.
She also said she plans to re-configure the structure of the mayor’s office, which she hopes lends itself to more collaborative decision-making with her cabinet members.
Her victory is also one for the state's Hmong community. It's been 50 years since the first Hmong family arrived in Minnesota. Lee Pao Xiong, who teaches Hmong studies at Concordia University, St. Paul, says Her's election is a notable high water mark in that history.
“With 36,000 or so Hmong in the city of St Paul, it’s just natural that we would one day be having someone like Kaohly serving in the mayor position,” he said. “And I wouldn't be surprised if in the near future we will have someone sitting in Washington, DC.”
Xiong said Her’s family has a history of leadership. Her’s father worked in the U.S. Consulate in Laos, her uncle worked for USAID and her grandfather fought for the U.S. Army and CIA in the secret war.
“So a lot of people, they know her family, they know her well,” Xiong said. “People are excited about her leadership and the opportunity to transform the city.”
Her says being the first Hmong-American mayor was not something she’d really thought about when campaigning, but she’s heard from many people in the Hmong community since.
“I’m very proud of it, and I feel really honored that I get to be the person that does that,” she said. “It’s so much bigger than me, and it's so much more powerful than me, and so, like, I just, I just get to feel so honored that I get to be a part of that.”
Her also brings another change to the office. She'll be the first woman mayor of St. Paul. And she'll work with a city council made up of all women.
“What I think is so cool about this is that nobody in the city set out to elect an all woman council. You don’t run as a slate. You don't choose all seven council members and a mayor,” said Molly Coleman, a newly elected city council member.
Coleman added, “We are the first major U.S. city to be led by women in this way is sort of a fun cherry on top.”
Former House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler served with Her in the state Legislature. He points to three qualities that he says makes Her effective: she's empathetic, has lived the struggles that many residents have, and has a background in finance, economics and taxes.
“Those three things together make her stand out as a leader in any party, and made her stand out at the Legislature,” he said.
Winkler said shifting from a legislative role into a purely executive role is a challenge, but one Her is up for.
“She learns very quickly, and if she makes mistakes or gets things wrong at a certain point in time, she will correct them and address them and fix them and move forward,” he said.
English (US) ·