Luke Gulbranson: Working People in Northern Minnesota Deserve Better

Competitive primaries are healthy - Democrats shouldn’t fear letting voters decide who is the strongest candidate

BNB Note:

While politics is often analyzed from the outside, BNB’s Guest Editorial Series aims to flip that perspective by highlighting the firsthand experiences of those working inside the political and policy arena. This includes lawmakers crafting legislation, candidates navigating the campaign trail, career civil servants implementing public programs, and political operatives shaping strategy behind the scenes.

The goal is not to litigate every claim or endorse every position, but to provide readers with direct insight into how decisions are made, how institutions function, and how power operates in practice.

Below, is a guest editorial from Luke Gulbranson, a DFL candidate running to represent Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Growing up, life wasn’t easy. At times, we relied on government programs just to get by. Things changed when my dad finally landed a good-paying union job. That job gave us stability. It gave us dignity. It gave us a future.

That experience shaped how I see politics. It’s why I’m a DFLer today.

Democrats believe nobody should be left behind. They believe working families deserve a fair shot. I needed help as a kid, and my community had my back. That matters to me. It always will.

Hockey became my escape growing up. I was two years old when my mom first laced me up in a set of skates, and I’ve been on the ice ever since. Hockey taught me discipline, resilience, and teamwork. It taught me early on that nobody wins alone. You fight for the people beside you, and when somebody goes down, you get them back up.

I don’t see those values, or that fight, in Washington D.C. today

Too many people across Minnesota are working harder than ever and still falling behind. Families can’t afford child care, housing, and health care. Even groceries and gas. Rural hospitals are stretched thin. Young people are leaving small towns because they don’t see a future there. Meanwhile, the people at the very top keep getting richer, unaffected by the policies that hit places like Eveleth so hard.

We’ve spent billions on another war in the Middle East while politicians talk about further cuts to health care programs that families like mine depend on. Good union jobs continue disappearing overseas so big, multinational corporations can boost profits and reward shareholders. The 8th District, not that long ago, had a member of congress who got it. He’d say “the rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is getting squeezed.”

When Congressman Pete Stauber first ran for office, he promised to be “an independent voice for the 8th District” He said he’d protect the middle class, defend Social Security and Medicare, and stand up to his party if it meant standing by the people of his district. But those promises have not matched reality.

Costs keep rising for ordinary families while billionaires receive tax breaks they never needed in the first place. Pete supported that. He voted to cut over 800 billion dollars to Medicare, putting a squeeze on rural hospitals. He voted against the landmark, bipartisan infrastructure bill–and then took credit for the projects in his district! Politicians in Washington talk constantly about fighting for “real Americans,” yet too many of them seem far more interested in serving lobbyists, corporate donors, and the partisan machine than the people they were elected to represent.

I got sick of complaining. I needed to do something.

I believe nobody working a full-time job should struggle just to survive. If you work hard, you should be able to afford your bills, take care of your family, get decent health insurance, and retire with dignity. That should not be a radical idea in the richest country on earth.

I believe the wealthiest Americans should pay what they owe, not use an army of accountants, lawyers, and loopholes to pass the bill onto working families. I believe members of Congress shouldn’t go to Washington to get rich through their stock portfolios–and they shouldn’t enrich their friends through fraud and cronyism. I believe immigration enforcement should be built on accountability and humanity, not fear and intimidation. And I believe America needs to stop pouring endless resources into overseas conflicts while the communities in our district are desperate for investment.

Some people are going to say someone like me has no business running for Congress because I spent time on reality television.

Here’s my response: reality TV was a job. It paid the bills. Like the people I grew up with, I have to work to earn a living, and I’m not ashamed of it.

But there’s a difference between TV drama and the chaos we see in Congress every day. One is entertainment. The other affects whether families can afford groceries, whether seniors can access health care, and whether communities survive economically.

The drama in Washington has real consequences.

And from where I sit, neither Donald Trump nor Pete Stauber is doing much to make life easier for working people in northern Minnesota.

That’s why this campaign is about more than one candidate. It’s about whether Democrats like us are willing to fight for voters we’ve lost over the last decade, and reconnect with communities that increasingly feel abandoned by politics altogether.

Winning this congressional seat will require more than energizing the people who already agree with us. It means earning trust back from people who once supported Democrats because they believed Democrats fought for them. People like my friends, neighbors, and people I skate with at the local rink.

That’s also why I believe competitive primaries are healthy. Minnesota Democrats have seen strong leaders emerge from contested races in the past. Competition forces candidates to sharpen their ideas, organize at the grassroots level, and engage with the tens of thousands of Democratic primary voters instead of solely relying on a small group of the most dedicated insiders.

Democrats shouldn’t fear letting voters decide who is the strongest candidate.

The goal here should not be protecting political turf or advancing individual ambitions. The goal must be building the strongest possible coalition to defeat Pete Stauber and once again deliver real representation for Minnesotans in the 8th District

At the end of the day, this campaign is about restoring the basic idea that government should work for ordinary people again. Not corporations. Not billionaire donors. Not political insiders or extremists.

Working people.

That’s the team I’ve always been on.