Thank you for having a great to have you.

Absolutely well, the retirement of a House member last year could be seen as bonkers to use a phrase coined by representative and new Brindley time to meet her quotable replacement from North branch.

Why did you want to run?

I don't think anybody in my community expected my predecessor and new Brindley to retire.

Basically Mary, what I just saw was like, there's an opportunity here.

I've been involved, I kinda know how this process works before I even get down to St. Paul.

I talked to my wife, we prayed about it a lot.

It was actually kind of a delayed process 'cause they wanted to move things real quick, but it was like, I need to have a little bit of time here to process this with my family, and I'm glad I'm down here.

I'm glad it's me, I'm glad the voters chose me, and basically I've been able to hit the ground running just because I did have a little bit of knowledge about how the political process worked down here.

- Yeah, you are not a political neophyte.

We should let people know, like, I've known of your name for a long time.

Tell our audience who might not have known you before.

I own a marketing agency.

We work with real estate agents.

In my previous agency that I started, we worked in a lot of non-profit work.

We worked with a lot of politicians, both in Minnesota and out of Minnesota.

So I've run statewide campaigns.

I've kind of gotten, I think I did a headcount and I've worked with a third of our caucus already on their websites, on their Facebook ads.

I've always been a little bit vocal on social media and expressing my opinion.

I've done regular radio segments on conservative news talk channels.

- You can hear your maker tell you, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

- You mentioned Ann New Brindley.

She's probably up there in like the top three of the most loved lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Do you know that and how hard is that to follow?

- She was very good at disagreeing without being disagreeable and she was very kind.

My style's a little bit different.

I'm probably a little bit more confrontational in this role.

So yeah, it's been interesting to get to know people on both sides of the aisle, and they'll both tell me, "Oh, we loved Ann, we loved her so much."

And I was like, "You're gonna love me a little less.

"I'm sorry about that."

- You're just owning it.

- I am who I am, Mary.

- How does it reflect the district?

What do you think is kind of the pulse and mood of your district now?

- My district is really interesting.

So it's Chisago County, so think about cities like Taylor's Falls, North Branch, Lindstrom, there are some townships in the district, Wyoming.

It's really a district that wants to be left alone, mainly blue collar people who just want the government to kind of get out of the way and stay out of their daily business.

And I think I reflect that pretty well.

You know, I'm like the government plays a really limited role in our lives.

And I think that resonated with voters.

busy, beautiful district though, too.

I mean, it's like the place you want to go for a day trip.

The place like North Branch is more of a commuter city right now.

That's changing with work from home and that kind of thing.

You're having more young families move up to a place like North Branch for a place like Taylor's Falls.

Taylor's Falls is one of the most beautiful places in the entire state of Minnesota.

So you do have more tourist traffic, more tourist interest there.

And a state park, which is state government that people love, right?

I mean, you gotta love your state park, right?

And want that funded.

Is that good government?

- That's good government, yeah.

That's good government.

And we don't, in Chisago County, we don't ask for a lot.

You know, I think that's the biggest thing.

When I get like bonding requests and things of that nature, it's like, hey, North Branch hasn't asked for anything in years.

You know, or Taylor's Falls hardly asks for anything, despite it being a tourist city.

- What do you think they want?

What did you hear?

'Cause when you're a candidate, you're knocking a lot of doors, you're hearing a lot of opinions.

What came through of the things they do want you to do?

I think the biggest thing as I was at the door is this.

I have a population of people who again think that government has really overstepped its bounds when you talk about an $18 billion surplus, spent all of that, raised taxes.

Now we're staring down the barrel of a $6 billion deficit.

That exact mentality is what my voters don't want.

We have good schools up in the district.

They want to make sure they're adequately funded, but they're not asking for the moon.

Do you think they asked for a tie?

Not my district.

Not my district.

Statewide though, I mean you know politics.

I'm guessing you knew the math that it was mathematically possible.

Can you believe you are serving in a tie?

If any place could vote for a tie, it would be a place like Minnesota.

Because right now, the dynamic in this session is we truly are having to figure out how to work together.

And right now, the way that I view it, you have one side that is totally entrenched and used to being in the majority.

So I don't know what movement looks like with a budget deal that gets cut or what have you.

We have a few weeks to figure it out.

I do believe that Minnesota voted for this.

I believe that they wanted us to have the hard conversations and have kind of some sloppy outcomes, but we had to put a little bit of the toothpaste back in the tube from the trifecta.

So it's obviously kind of a slow, bumpy start with the boycott and the lawsuits and everything, but it does seem like the House is kind of getting its rhythm.

Do you feel that in committee?

What can you tell our viewers on the inside about how things are starting to kind of click?

What I would just say is the things that we're passing out of committee are broadly bipartisan agreements.

I think that some of these omnibus bills that we're going to pass out of committee, I think they're going to be small.

I don't think we're going to be having a 1,700 page monstrosity.

It's just the stuff you can agree on, right?

And it's minimal because your side wants minimal, right?

- Yeah.

- The hard part is in the backdrop, there being a $6 billion deficit, we are gonna have to have some hard conversations.