Minnesota and North Dakota Voter's Guide

Forum Communications Co., in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Minnesota and of North Dakota, is providing this voter guide to help keep you informed ahead of the 2024 election.

  • Learn where candidates running for office in your community stand on the issues.
  • Build your ballot before voting. Print or email the information to use as a reference when you actually vote.

We do not save your information; it will be lost when you leave this page. Only candidates that appear on your ballot will be listed. Additional information may be available for your area so be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for other voters’ guides.

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Voter Guide

St. Louis County Commissioner District 3

County commissioners are the county s key policymakers. They oversee the administration of the county, set county budget, and participate in county long-range planning. County services that they oversee include a wide variety of social service and welfare programs, as well as certain public health programs. Learn more about the day in the life of a county commissioner in this video from the Association of Minnesota Counties.

Click a candidate icon to find more information about the candidate. To compare two candidates, click the "compare" button. To start over, click a candidate icon.

  • Candidate picture

    Ashley Grimm
    (NP)

  • Candidate picture

    Janet Kennedy
    (NP)

Biographical Information

If elected, what will your top three priorities be and why? (750 characters)

How would you ensure election laws do not create barriers to Minnesotans’ freedom to vote while also ensuring safe and secure elections? (500 characters)

What do you see as the biggest challenges to mental health and social services in your county, and how would you address them? (500 characters)

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The county deeply impacts our lives, and my top priorities are continuing to increase housing, expand access to mental health supports, and support the front-line county staff who make all of our work possible. Local leaders need to show results. I’ve helped bridge north-south divides to make real progress on these issues, including investing in over 100 affordable housing units as well as emergency shelter options like the American Indian Community Housing Organizations domestic abuse shelter. I’ve also helped launch the county’s first Mental Health Urgent Care and make state-wide changes to mental health billing that will make desperately needed mental health beds possible. Big things are happening at the county.
I work with and have supported candidates like Representative Kozlowski who have re-enfranchised voters getting out of incarceration, and I helped ensure that the county notified these community members. I’ve been vocal against disinformation about our elections, and have supported safe, upgraded equipment for our polling locations.
The biggest challenge is overcoming decades of inertia on this issue. I’ve been a leading voice for mental health in the county and state: supported our Mental Health Urgent Care, actively revamped our crisis response and increased mental health services, helped replace for-profit jail healthcare with a local provider that expanded mental health supports, and worked statewide on billing changes that will make more mental health beds possible. I will continue this fight over the next four years.
I have listened and watched the county board from my vantage point on the city council and serving as the current president of the Public Health and Human Services Advisory Committee, we cannot afford to wait another four years, I will step into the work with lived, educational and work experience keeping us focused on the core issues. Priorities: economic stability, education and workforce development, complete communities. My very first priority is to foster a consensus for county board members in understanding that county policy, ordinance, and budget decisions work better through a framework that considers factors that affect a person’s health outcomes. These are a few of the conditions in which we are born, grow, live, work, and age.
My mother, neighbor and I experienced actions that did not allow us to engage in the local democracy process. I have family members who didn’t have the right to vote. Voting Rights Act of 1965, aimed to overcome state and local legal barriers that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote. We need diverse leaders who recognize that it begins at the local level. I created Annie’s Amendment; language changes to local practices that allow fair, safe engagement for everyone.
Increased county government aid funding for programming and direct care worker’s support, including ancillary support staff. We need to ensure that the city and the county have excellent intergovernmental policies and practices that allow for response and actions that have good outcomes.
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The League of Women Voters of Minnesota and North Dakota crafted the questions sent to the candidates in the Spring of 2024. They reached out to candidates based on contact information in their public candidate filings. Candidates with email addresses were invited and reminded with emails. Candidates with only mailing addresses were sent a letter. Candidates with phone numbers received a phone call as well.

Candidate responses are published as they responded and have not been edited, except when responses were longer than the given character limit. In those cases, the responses are truncated.

VOTE411 is brought to you by the League of Women Voters Education Fund and League of Women Voters of Minnesota Education Fund. The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose any political party or candidate for office.