An outspoken critic of the Minnesota Legislature’s secrecy and polarization said Monday that the next legislative session would be her last.
Rep. Erin Koegel, DFL-Spring Lake Park and co-chair of the House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee, will retire when the 2026 legislative session ends. Koegel was first elected in 2016.
Koegel said in an interview that the partisanship of the Legislature – “How people are not open to ideas because of the letter behind your name versus the content of the idea” — is what made her want to quit.
“The adversarial nature of the Legislature makes it just a very difficult place to be in,” Koegel said. “I feel like the environment is getting worse for my own mental health.”
Unlike many lawmakers, Koegel does not have a job besides being a state representative. She said that leaving the Legislature “would be kind of scary but at the same time exciting.”
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Koegel’s accomplishments in the Legislature include micro transit services in the Twin Cities Metro Transit system, and a 2023 transportation bill that indexed the gas tax to inflation and put money toward the Northern Lights Express passenger train, among other provisions.
But the lawmaker’s priorities have also been stymied by political horse-trading that deprioritizes public transit.
In the past legislative session, unemployment insurance money for hourly school workers was taken from the Northern Lights project. And during the one-day legislative special session, Koegel inveighed against legislative leaders scrapping a deal to begin designing a bus rapid transit system for the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
“All of the leaders signed the spreadsheet for the policy provision and then went back on their word,” Koegel said on the House floor as her daughter sat beside her listening to headphones and drawing. “If people saw what happened behind closed doors, they’d actually be appalled.”
Koegel was also the victim of a nationwide trend where pranksters ordered pizzas to be delivered to lawmakers and judges’ homes.
Two days after House DFL leader Melissa Hortman was assassinated, Domino’s Pizza continually delivered pies to her home, a scene made more surreal by the fact that two police cars were stationed in front of the abode to prevent a copycat attack.
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Koegel said she is quitting less because of public safety fears and more because she is not sure what she can accomplish in a divided legislature.
She joins a half-dozen other lawmakers who are throwing in the towel at the end of session.
That’s higher turnover compared to past sessions. By November 2023, for example, only one lawmaker (Republican Brian Daniels) had announced a planned retirement at the end of the 2024 legislative session.
The post Erin Koegel, victim of pizza terrorism and critic of backroom dealmaking, will leave the Minnesota House next year appeared first on MinnPost.
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