2026 Election: Minnesota Senate District 53

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We talked with Paul Cumings and Todd Podgorski, the two candidates running for Minnesota Senate District 53. Our candidate questionnaire covers priorities, local funding, fraud, housing, and more.

• More: See our full voter’s guide for information on other local races.

Race profile: Minnesota senators are elected to a four-year term. District 53 represents the southern half of West St. Paul, Inver Grove Heights, South St. Paul, Sunfish Lake, Lilydale, Newport, St. Paul Park, Grey Cloud Island, and parts of Mendota Heights and Cottage Grove.

Who’s running:

• Paul Cumings – DFL – Currently a South St. Paul School Board member, Cumings works as an executive assistant with the State of Minnesota.
• Todd Podgorski – GOP – Currently a South St. Paul City Council member, Podgorski works as a peace officer.

Candidate Questions

We asked the candidates a series of six questions and asked them to respond in 250 words or less. The questions cover priorities, local funding, fraud, housing, immigration, and transparency around Flock cameras.

Priorities: What are your two to three top priorities as a statesenator/representative and how will you address those issues and actually accomplish something?

Paul Cumings: While we are in particularly contentious times, I am more confident than ever that when communities come together, we can accomplish anything.  We are Better Together. Here are the four main priorities I have been talking to neighbors about when I am doorknocking:

• High Standards for Accountable Government – A lot of people don’t trust their government anymore – and I get it. I led efforts to pass anti-fraud bills when I worked in the Dayton administration.  Moving forward, I will work to ensure that every dollar is accounted for and that anyone who steals from state programs gets prosecuted.
• An Affordable Life for All Minnesotans – I am working to increase housing supports, advance housing regulatory reform, ensure all people have access to low barrier primary care, and to provide low or no cost child care.  I also support regulations on price fixing for groceries.  
• Strong, High Achieving Fully Funded Public Schools – I will fight to fix the compensatory aid formula hurting schools in Senate District 53 and will ensure that we are keeping educational standards high in the new age of artificial intelligence.  
• Clean Water, Air, and Land for Generations to come – I will stand up to polluters and ensure we have abundant, clean drinking water. We need to ensure we are providing resources to local units of government to deal with inflow and infiltration issues, PFAS contamination, and increased tree coverage in our communities. 

Todd Podgorski: First, from listening to our voters, they want us to focus on reducing fraud and holding not just those who committed the fraud accountable but also those who work in state government who seemed complicit in allowing it to occur to such a large extent.   Second as someone who is working for justice we must do more to improve our criminal justice system by focusing on recidivism and doubling the number of state ran mental health beds so our jails and prisons are no longer one of the largest treatment centers for mental health. We need to have the state offer grants for Peace Officer training to cities that want a cadet style training option to get non-traditional applicants that already have a college degree to apply.  There will soon be a significant number of retirements from law enforcement.  The third priority is affordable housing and property taxes as they are related.   I do believe that for many working-class families owning a home is one of their primary ways to acquire wealth. We can stop adding new unfunded mandates on cities, counties and school districts to reduce our property taxes.  Property tax reform is needed.  We can have new zoning laws for new developments that require more new lots be 40-50 feet wide. 

Local funding: Education funding continues to fall short, and more burdens are being shifted to local counties. What, if anything, will you do to address these local funding gaps and unfunded mandates

Todd Podgorski: The local funding gaps are caused by the state shortfall in paying for education.   The federal government should pay more for special education costs as well.   We have seen both small rural districts and large districts like St. Paul recently pass voter approved learning levies to help pay for their schools.  Now ISD 197 is asking its voters to approve a capital project levy to help with its budget struggles.  I have always supported School Board’s that go to the voters for local funding knowing the alternative is often times cuts that can impact the classroom.   SSP Special District #6 saw its May building bond question fail.  I publicly supported the SSP bonding question and was disappointed in the SSP School Board’s lack of assisting with a vote yes committee.   The state should have used more of it’s 18 Billion dollar surplus to better fund education.  When special interests take over the interest of providing basic government responsibilities we run into budget issues.  If we do have budget surpluses, we should prioritize giving some of that money to school districts that need deferred maintenance and building safety upgrades.  I would consider expanding the sales tax base and rate if needed to protect education funding.  With any increased funding should come increased accountability.   The three-legged stool in education is often considered the school, parents, and community.  Accountability should not be placed on teachers alone.  We must do better.

Paul Cumings: The state needs to do more to support local units of government – no question.  We need to ensure we continue to support local government aid, county program aid, compensatory aid for school districts, and the special education cross subsidy.

We also need to keep an eye on mandates to local governments.  There are some mandates that produce good outcomes that we need to continue to fund.  In other cases, mandates no longer produce the outcomes originally intended and we should remove them.  We just learned from the Office of Legislative Auditor that the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program doesn’t achieve its intended outcomes.  We should either reform it or remove the mandate.   

Let’s not forget that the large increases we are seeing in property taxes for Dakota County are the direct result of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.  That bill provided billions of dollars in tax cuts for billionaires, only to be made up for by property taxpayers.  The federal budget bill passed by Congress is expected to result in almost $1 trillion in cost shifts and budget cuts for cities, counties, states, school districts, and other municipalities over the next 9 years. 

I commit to doing my part to carefully review every mandate and work to fund our local governments adequately.  Minnesota’s communities should be able to count on the state to keep its commitments.

Fraud: With overwhelming bipartisan support, last session the legislature created an Office of the Inspector General to combat fraud. Is there more the state should be doing to stop fraud?

Paul Cumings: Fraud is unacceptable, plain and simple. It steals from taxpayers, undermines trust in government, and most importantly, takes resources away from the Minnesotans who depend on public programs.  I believe that developing and maintaining trust in government services is Job #1 for anyone entering public office right now.  

When I worked in the Dayton Administration, I championed anti-fraud measures by identifying possible fraud pathways, developing legislation to stop it, and moving that legislation through the process. 

Creating an Office of the Inspector General was an important step. Minnesota’s new law is designed to coordinate fraud prevention across agencies and investigate credible allegations of fraud and misuse in state-administered programs. 

But we should not stop there. We need stronger front-end safeguards, better data sharing between agencies, regular audits of high-risk programs, and faster action when warning signs emerge. I believe we should ban any politician convicted of fraud in Minnesota from running for office.  We should also make it easier and safer for employees, providers, and members of the public to report suspected fraud and provide enhanced protections for whistleblowers.  

At the same time, we have to distinguish between protecting taxpayer dollars and making it harder for eligible Minnesotans to access services. Strong oversight and strong public programs are not competing goals—they go together.

Todd Podgorski: Yes.  Protecting and serving is not just a motto for me it’s a way of life.  I will work to protect our tax dollars against the unprecedented amount of fraud, waste and abuse that has occurred over the years here in MN.  The lack of accountability for state employees and elected officials that are responsible for safeguarding our hard-earned taxpayers should be concerning no matter what our political leanings are.  Department heads of state agencies and their staff that distribute state grant funds need to be held accountable if they do not follow the proper safeguards and procedures.  We should conduct more audits of departments that hand out state grants to ensure they are being used as intended.   We must protect whistleblowers who have the courage to step forward when the state bureaucracy begins to follow its own ideology instead of following the rule of law. 

Housing: In the last several sessions, various proposals have sought housing reform with the goal of increasing affordable housing with measures that often take away local control. What, if any, housing measures will you support?

Todd Podgorski: Affordable Housing is critical to our local economy and to our citizens’ wellbeing.  It saddens me to read about the data and see anecdotally that first time homeowners are now nearly 40 years old.  For many people a part of the American dream is owning a home.  It should not be a surprise that so many young people today are frustrated with both our economic and political system.  I hear them and I am listening.  My wife and I have two adult daughters still living at home as they struggle to save up for an affordable home of their own.  We need to do several things at the state level to make homes more affordable.  I will support new developments required to have smaller more affordable lots in the 40-50ft wide by 125ft dimensions.  This will upset a number of my colleagues on City Council’s as they believe in local control.  I do believe in local control, but I also believe that doing the same thing again and again is insanity and we must make some reasonable changes to do more for housing.   I will support down payment assistance that can either be a low interest loan paid back at the future home’s sale or grant in nature.  I would have this be sunset after a number of years.  We also need to review and see what changes in new construction requirements can be adjusted to make affordability better. 

Paul Cumings: Minnesota has a housing shortage, and we need to build more homes that working families, seniors, young people, and people with disabilities can actually afford. I support Senator Klobuchar’s goal of building 100,000 new homes in 4 years.

I support policies that remove unnecessary barriers to housing, encourage a greater variety of housing types, and invest directly in affordable and workforce housing. 

There are items we need to review and fix to better allow housing to be built.  For instance, there are some communities that allow houses to be built if the plans from the developers only include 3 car garages for each new residence.  That just doesn’t make sense for young families trying to get into the housing market and we shouldn’t allow it.  In addition, we see communities like Newport disincentivized from investing in housing.  After they worked to create more housing units, their state aid decreased as a direct result of expanding housing.  That doesn’t make sense.  These are examples of the types of fixes that we can make to provide more housing that is abundant and affordable.  We can establish statewide goals while giving communities flexibility in how they meet them. 

I would also prioritize public investment in affordable housing, preservation of existing affordable units, housing stability, homelessness prevention, and programs that help first-time buyers. Housing is a basic necessity. Our policies should make it easier to build enough homes that Minnesotans can actually afford.

Immigration: Minnesota saw significant impacts from the increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations earlier this year, including closed businesses, students missing school, protests, and law enforcement conflicts. What was your reaction and what changes, if any, should the legislature implement to address future conflicts?

Paul Cumings: I believe in the rule of law. It is why I am running for office – because I believe that laws are what bind us together.  They are the promises we make to one another.   

Earlier this year, the federal government occupied our streets and carried out operations that – in too many cases – were not supported by the law.  In our communities, our local law enforcement have worked for decades to build up trust with our communities.  The federal government swooped in and tried to pull at the fabric of our community.  Operation Metro Surge disrupted our schools, health care facilities, small businesses, farms, families, and local law enforcement. What happened was unacceptable. 

The State of Minnesota can do more to protect our residents.  

• I support proposals to ban ICE agents inside schools, child care centers, health care centers, and college campuses if they didn’t bring a warrant signed by a judge.
• Enforcement of immigration laws should not be done by a secret police force.  I support requiring visible identification of agents and mandating that marked law enforcement vehicles be used to transport detainees – not rental cars without license plates.  
• We also should update restrictions on Automatic License Plate Readers in order to ensure we don’t have unaccountable mass surveillance.  

The goal should be straightforward: uphold the law, protect public safety, respect constitutional rights, and avoid unnecessary conflict between federal authorities and Minnesota communities.

Todd Podgorski: As a longtime local Peace Officer I can say, “No one despises bad policing more than a good cop.”    There was far too much bad federal policing going on with Metro Surge and what appeared to be poorly trained federal officers in our communities.  When my Hmong friend and coworker, Thao, said his oldest daughter was not walking to school anymore because she did not want to be followed by federal officers, I knew the impact was not just affecting non-citizens but American Citizens as well.  To avoid future Metro Surge overreach actions by the federal government that end up causing chaos in our streets we need to keep them off the streets by having them work with our county jails for those people arrested by local law enforcement and who happen to be non U.S. citizens.  This will be controversial and unpopular with some of my friends on the left, but I believe government has a responsibility to protect its residents and follow the rule of law. Local police do not focus on immigration crimes; they focus on local and state law. The reasonable compromise here is to not deport those people immediately who are non-U.S. Citizens after the initial local arrest but to have them wait in a MN DOC facility instead of an ICE facility awaiting their local charges to be satisfied.  This time will also give them the ability to work on any legitimate federal immigration issues they may have regarding their status.

Transparency: Data privacy is an increasingly important issue with concerns about Flock cameras and sharing data with the federal government. Do you support the continued use of Flock cameras in Minnesota? Why or why not?

Todd Podgorski: Like many things in life both moderation and balancing the good with the bad requires some nuance.  While I support Flock I do also listen to my residents and friends who are from both the left and the right on the political spectrum and have concerns about privacy and data protection.  I am willing to restrict access to who gets access to the data and how long the data is available to law enforcement.  New technology brings about growing pains in how best to apply the technology while balancing the concerns. We are in that stage of how to balance the good of protecting our residents from crime with the bad side of misuse concerns of making sure the data is not misused by Flock and/or Law Enforcement.  I can say that licensed Peace Officers in MN go through yearly training on appropriately using criminal justice data and if they are in violation of state law and their local police policies on inappropriately accessing law enforcement data they can be disciplined up to termination.  The data on the number of crimes Flock help solves and the victims it helps prevent is well documented.  Our Senate district has historically had a higher than state average amount of car thefts and Flock helps with bringing justice to those who have been victimized.  We should not throw the baby out with the bath water we should clean up the water and stay safe. 

Paul Cumings: I have serious concerns about the continued use of Flock cameras in Minnesota. I understand the argument that license-plate readers can help solve crimes, but public safety cannot come at the expense of everyone’s privacy.

The biggest issue is that these systems collect information about where people travel, even when they have done nothing wrong. Minnesota law places important restrictions on how automated license-plate-reader data can be used and shared. Yet reporting has shown that federal immigration authorities were able to access Flock data through law-enforcement data sharing agreements during the recent ICE surge. 

That should be a wake-up call. If Minnesota is going to allow this technology, we need much stronger safeguards: strict limits on data retention, a clear prohibition on sharing data for civil immigration enforcement, independent audits, transparent contracts, and meaningful penalties when agencies or private companies violate the rules.

Until we can guarantee those protections, I would be very skeptical of expanding Flock cameras.  Technology that makes us safer should not quietly create a permanent record of where ordinary Minnesotans drive.

Lightning Round

We asked candidates a series of 10 simple questions and asked them to respond briefly in 25 words or less.

1. Do you have a library card? When did you last use it?

• Paul Cumings: Yes, I just checked out an audiobook in the last couple of weeks.  I also regularly use the meeting rooms in our libraries.  
• Todd Podgorski: I had a library card.  I believe it expired.  Years ago.

2. Do you support restrictions on data centers?

• Todd Podgorski: Yes, reasonable restrictions are a must.
• Paul Cumings: Yes, including protections for water, energy costs, energy reliability, noise, and workplace protections.  I also think data centers shouldn’t be allowed near residential zones.  

3. Have you volunteered in your community in the past year? Where?

• Paul Cumings: Yes, serving meals for senior citizens, volunteering at youth events, and organizing events in support of immigrants. 
• Todd Podgorski: Yes, at our Church St. John Vianney.  Red Cross.

4. Do you support legalizing sports betting?

• Todd Podgorski: No.  Can cause problems like addiction and significant financial loss. Why did our forefathers restrict it?
• Paul Cumings: I have reservations.  We have seen a rise in high-risk gambling and deceptive marketing techniques.  Any approach moving forward must contain consumer and health protections.

5. Have you attended community events in a non-campaign capacity in the past year? Which ones?

• Paul Cumings: Yes, I try to go to as many school based events as possible including sporting events and theater performances.  
• Todd Podgorski: Last year On the Road Again in SSP

6. Do you support the new state flag?

• Todd Podgorski: I’m not a big fan.  Is it worth reviewing again or move on to other pressing issues?
• Paul Cumings: Yes, our state flag is rich with iconography that honors our rich heritage and our natural beauty.  

7. What’s your favorite local park?

• Paul Cumings: I love walking at Thompson County Park, seeing youth sports at Veterans Field, and taking in the sights at the Rock Island Swing Bridge.
• Todd Podgorski: Kaposia Landing

8. Do you support partisan gerrymandering?

• Todd Podgorski: Partisan gerrymandering is dirty politics in action.  Stop it.  Look at our SD 53 Map?
• Paul Cumings: I support a national standard for non-partisan map drawing.  All states should have consistent standards.  

9. Who is someone that inspires you?

• Paul Cumings: Carol Bidwell from South St. Paul – she is relentlessly positive, caring, curious, and lives out her values as a vocation.  
• Todd Podgorski: President Lincoln. Teddy Roosevelt.  My wife and three adult children.

10. Do you support mail-in and early voting and same-day voter registration?

• Todd Podgorski: Yes. 
• Paul Cumings: Yes, these tools have safeguards to protect election integrity and have made Minnesota a leader in electoral participation.

More Information

• Ballotpedia: Podgorski
• East Metro Voter’s Guide
• Town Square Television Candidate Forum

See our full local voter’s guide for information on more races and candidates.

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