Conway Stays in Race for House 14A, Will Challenge Jose in Primary

(KNSI) – St. Cloud City Council President Mike Conway is staying in the race for the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 14A, filing for the Republican primary despite not winning his party’s endorsement.

Conway told KNSI Radio’s Dan “The Ox” Ochsner that he filed paperwork at the county office shortly before appearing on the air Wednesday morning. His seat on the city council is up for election, and he is not running for a third term. John Jose won the GOP endorsement in February to replace Representative Bernie Perryman, who is leaving the seat to run for the Minnesota Senate.

The official filing period for candidates opened on Tuesday and closes on June 2nd. Conway explained why he is going to continue his campaign. “Since the endorsement process finished, I’ve had several people reach out and suggest that I should still pursue the opportunity.”

Conway argues that primaries give a larger group of voters a say in who ends up on the November ballot, rather than leaving that decision to a smaller pool of activists. “For many election cycles in the past, it seems that the outside edges of the bell has been dictating to the rest of the people who the candidates are going to be and what the discussion is going to revolve around. And I think people over the last couple election cycles have just gotten tired of it.”

On the issues, Conway says he wants to focus on infrastructure needs in the smaller communities that make up the district, pointing to water and sewer challenges in St. Augusta and St. Joseph that are holding back industrial park development. He calls those the “non-sexy projects” that often get overlooked at the state level but have a major impact on local growth.

Conway also wants to see changes to state assistance programs, arguing the current structure discourages people from earning more because a small bump in income can cost them all of their benefits at once, effectively pulling the rug out from underneath them. “Eventually, the idea is they don’t need the rug, they will be standing on their own two feet, and they’ll be doing their own thing. And they can start putting taxpayer dollars back into the coffers.”

Conway acknowledged the St. Cloud area has trended more politically purple in recent election cycles but says he believes Republicans still have the strongest message for District 14A voters, and that he is the right candidate to carry it.

Conway plans to spend the weekend with his wife, who is a military veteran, before hitting the campaign trail full-time. He says he is open to debates with the other candidates in the race.
Minnesota’s primary election is August 11th.

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