In the days after St. Paul’s mayoral election, disbelief rippled through the blocks of Frogtown and Midway. Soon-to-be-former Mayor Melvin Carter, a two-term incumbent with deep roots and strong name recognition, had lost to Kaohly Vang Her, a legislator who entered the race barely 10 weeks earlier. To some, it was a political upset; to others, it was a reckoning long in the making.
Ramsey County reported 67,893 ballots cast in the contest. Carter earned 41% of first-choice votes (27,261) to Her’s 39% (26,500). As lesser candidates were eliminated under the city’s ranked-choice system, the tally shifted: Her gained about 6,400 additional votes, Carter roughly 2,800, and nearly 4,900 ballots were exhausted with no further ranking.
That swing transformed the outcome: Her ended with 47.8% to Carter’s 45%, a margin of 1,877 votes, making her St. Paul’s first Hmong mayor and only the second woman to hold the office.
On a cold, windy afternoon in Frogtown, Joseph Stewart shook his head. “They wanted a monitor,” he said. “He was doing too much for the people.” Stewart, who relies on EBT benefits, blamed national politics for compounding local pain during the federal shutdown. “The more you try to do good,” he said, “the more they try to tear it down.”
Nearby in Midway, Kevin Rudolph, 62, offered a simpler explanation. “We expected him to win,” he admitted. “Everybody figured he’d be fine. But if 10,000 people think that way, that’s 10,000 votes gone.”
Pierre Smith, 38, said Carter’s problem was communication. “Not bad policy,” he said, “but bad policy explaining. You can have the right ideas and still not reach people.” Smith didn’t vote at all. “I knew it was an election,” he confessed, “but I didn’t know where to go.”
Several residents described Carter as growing distant from the grassroots. A man rushing to catch the Green Line at Hamline and University Avenue offered a blunt assessment: “He stopped going to the churches.” Once his hallmark, Carter’s community visibility had thinned.
Coffee Black, who spends time in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, reflected a broader fatigue. “Maybe the people just didn’t come out,” she said. “I thought highly of him, but this ain’t good for our Black community. They already got this community sold up.”
“Maybe the people just didn’t come out. I thought highly of Carter, but this ain’t good for our Black community.”
For Jamir Williams, 19, a first-time voter, the result represented a generational shift. “More Hmong and Laos people are moving in,” he said. “You see more diversity now. Most young Black folks don’t vote. They don’t think it helps them.”
Williams ranked Carter first, but only him. “I didn’t put nobody second,” he said. “Life is life.”
Her’s support mapped closely to St. Paul’s changing demographics. On the East Side, precincts in Payne-Phalen and Battle Creek recorded record turnout among Hmong and Southeast Asian voters. Across the river, turnout surged in Summit Hill and Macalester- Groveland, where white, college-educated voters responded to Her’s technocratic message of “partnership and progress.”
Carter still won Frogtown and Hamline-Midway, but by narrow margins. According to the Star Tribune, Her “flipped Union Park and parts of Mac-Groveland that Carter carried in 2021.”
The ranked-choice system amplified these shifts. CBS Minnesota reported that of the 14% of votes transferred after candidate eliminations, Her claimed about 45%, Carter 20%, and the remainder were exhausted. Transfers from eliminated candidates, especially Yan Chen, became Her’s winning margin.
For many residents, the election was about more than numbers. Antonio Durham viewed it through a historical lens. “We were built, we had our own ships,” he said, recalling Marcus Garvey and the Black Wall Street massacre.
“Now they want us to march to their beat.” For Durham, Her’s rise signaled the continuing shift of political power away from Black communities.
Others see possibility in Her’s victory, the chance for new alliances between Hmong and African American communities. “Maybe this will wake people up to vote next time,” Rudolph said. “Maybe that’s the lesson.”
Inside City Hall, Her now faces the challenge of proving that the second-choice votes were more than a quirk of the system but rather a mandate for connection. On the streets of Frogtown and Midway, residents remain wary. Representation means little if it doesn’t reach home.
Scott Selmer welcomes reader responses at sselmer@spokesman-recorder.com.
Many Asian Americans in Saint Paul voted for Carter in the past. He was a wonderful person and great leader. It is time for new leadership. Many Asian Americans waited for a capable Asian America leader from the community, and Her was that leader. Carter was inclusive and Her also is inclusive. We are Saint Paul together. Do not let politics or the media divide Saint Paul. Do not be afraid of each other, but rather, embrace each other. Leaders come and go but the community will always remain. Saint Paul citizens can all be proud of this historic election. Congratulations to Mayor-elect Her.
Not voting is dereliction and has consequences!
Or maybe people were thirsting for a change after watching their city deteriorate. The homeless, poor infrastructure, poor schools, rising property taxes, rising rent, the trash fiasco, all contribute to wanting a change. People have to get off the identity politics and start paying attention to what matters. People didn’t even vote in this article, exacerbating the laziness of identity politics.