Meet Kobey & Paul
A candidate for governor and her running mate — two Minnesotans who believe government should work for ordinary people.
Meet Kobey Layne
I was raised in Walker, Minnesota, in a rural community where people believed in local control, personal freedom, responsible spending, and taking care of your neighbors. For a long time, I thought those values belonged in Republican politics.
The first time I learned what public power could mean was not in a classroom or at the Capitol. It was in Walker, when the city planned road construction that would have cut off access to the business and farmers market where I worked during the summer season our town depended on. We organized a petition, fought back, and won. That experience changed me. I saw what happens when everyday people stand together and demand to be heard.
That fight pushed me toward public service. I studied politics and policy at Hamline University and earned my master's degree in public policy. I learned how to analyze problems with discipline, evidence, and humility. I also learned how much I had not been taught, and how important it is to keep listening to people whose lives are shaped by systems most politicians only talk about from a distance.
After college, I worked at the Minnesota Senate for Senator Jim Abeler, then chair of the Human Services Reform Committee. There, I saw how complex state government is and how deeply people depend on it. I learned about disability services, DHS, group homes, nursing homes, and the real consequences of underfunded care. I also learned that sometimes responsible government means spending what it takes to keep people safe, housed, cared for, and alive.
I own that I used to work with and vote for Republicans. I also know why many working people still do. Many of us were taught that conservative politics meant community, freedom, and fairness. But over time, I had to be honest about what the party had become, and what it had long been. In becoming a Democrat, I did not leave my values behind. I followed them somewhere more honest.
My own journey as a transgender woman deepened that understanding. It showed me how often society is organized to protect powerful people while punishing everyone else for not fitting the mold. I am running because too many Minnesotans are being asked to survive systems that should be serving them.
Why I'm Running Now
Minnesota is being tested, the federal government is becoming more dangerous to the people Minnesota is supposed to protect. Operation Metro Surge showed what happens when federal power comes into our communities without accountability. Workers missed paychecks. Families missed appointments. Small businesses lost customers. Child care centers saw families disappear from classrooms because parents were afraid to leave home. When Operation Metro Surge began happening, I organized with my neighbors. Working with my neighbors lit a spark to my soul. When the Governor's race began to seem uncontested by a progressive candidate during such an important moment in history, I knew that I needed to step up. That is why I am running for Governor of Minnesota.
When everyday people stand together and demand to be heard, they can win. I am running for governor because too many Minnesotans have stopped believing that is true, and I do not blame them. As a working person, I understand that rent climbs faster than your paycheck. Groceries cost more every month. Care for a child, a parent, or yourself is hard to find and harder to afford. It does not have to be this way. It is a set of choices, and a governor is a public servant who can make those choices. With needing a progressive candidate in the race, I decided to step up.
I lead with three fights.
First, lower what your costs. More homes. Rent that stops outrunning paychecks. Lower medicine and medical costs. Rural hospitals that stay open. Utility regulators who answer to you instead of automatically profiting the corporations. Your monthly budget is the report card.
Second: Clean government- make this office answer to you. A Day One ethics order, a ban on insider stock trading, public conflicts of interest statements, protected whistleblowers, and a public dashboard with names, backlogs, and deadlines are visible to everyone.
Third, protect your land, water, and freedom. Protecting the Boundary Waters. Cleaning drinking water by beginning work clearing out nitrates from rural farm wells because no family should fear the water from their own tap. Protecting the Right to Choose- without the government interfering between you and your doctor. Welcoming and protecting our new LGBTQ+ neighbors. Being good neighbors with our Immigrant communities.
I will not make promises I cannot keep. Every promise I make comes with the power that delivers it and a way for you to check my work. Minnesota should work for ordinary people, not just those with wealth and connections. That is why I am running for governor.
Meet Paul Ference
Paul Ference is a Minnesota maker. He founded a cookie manufacturer — the first in the state to make its products with Minnesota Grown ingredients — which sold to schools and charities. He loves to tinker, too. — in his spare time he's working on a machine to make small-batch baking more affordable for cottage bakers on a tight budget. Paul believes government should run on what he runs his business on: invest in people, share power, and put community ahead of self.
Paul has always been willing to help his community when they needed him. For years he has raised money for children's hospitals and domestic violence shelters. In 2012 he joined a grassroots charity founded by women as a volunteer; he organized for it, and when the group needed steady hands he took the presidency in 2020. He stepped down in 2022 so a woman could return to lead — and stayed on as treasurer, to continue to assist.
He brings that same instinct to his party work. He joined in 2018 he has served on the Saint Paul DFL arrangements committee, he continued to volunteer to help for work that needed to be done, becoming the Secretary for the Fourth Congressional District, in 2023, and in 2025, ran for and won its Outreach and Inclusion officer position so he could work on making sure there was an active communication to connect our caucuses and unions to the work we were doing.
Why I'm Running Now
I'm running because life costs too much, and it doesn't have to. Rent climbs faster than paychecks. Child care is out of reach for too many families. The Minnesota I want is one where a family can live on a single income and charity isn't necesary, because our needs are provided for — and while we won't get there overnight, we can start right now, by building more homes, bringing costs down, and making sure a week's work pays enough to raise a family on.
These have been hard years, and I won't pretend otherwise. When Donald Trump was re-elected and began targeting our most vulnerable neighbors, I didn't wait to be asked twice. I told my Senate District that we had a responsibility to be the snowplow that clears a path for them through a hard winter, and that we show up for the families being targeted. A state protects its people best when it works for them every day, not just in a crisis: it listens to the people closest to the problem, keeps the everyday services running, and moves fast and on their side when trouble hits. That is the government I want to help build.
That is why I'm joining Kobey Layne's ticket as her candidate for Lieutenant Governor. I came to know Kobey throughout the campaign, and after the state convention, I wanted to help her win. I also know what this office asks: to open the lines between everyday Minnesotans and the government that is supposed to serve them, to do the quiet work behind a governor, and to be ready to carry the full weight of this office if our state ever needs me to.
Together, Kobey and I will build a government people can trust. On day one we will sign our own ethics orders, and ask everyone we appoint to do the same: conflicts of interest disclosed in public, and no insider stock trading by the people who serve you. I want a government that works for people — not for CEOs, not for private equity, and not for anyone who turns a profit by exploiting the people under them.
My whole life, I've believed the work is simple even when it's hard: take care of your neighbors, keep your promises, and never be too proud to do the small things — whether it's showing up to the fundraiser with a tray of cookies, or simply making sure folks have a hug when they need it. I'm not in this for the title, my job is to help Kobey earn the Governor's office, and to help build a Minnesota where an honest week's work is enough to raise a family. Let's get started.
The plan
See what Kobey will do on day one.
Not a vision statement — a numbered list of commitments, with dates, deadlines, and deliverables. Check her work.
Read the First 100 Days →