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The Politics Chicks is a progressive politics podcast and politics news show hosted by Christy Branham and Monica Healy.
Every week, we sit down with candidates, elected officials, journalists, historians, policy experts, advocates, and everyday Americans shaping the future of our democracy. We go beyond the headlines with thoughtful interviews, fact-based analysis, and candid conversations about the issues that affect our lives—from elections and public policy to healthcare, education, civil rights, and the economy.
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@ThePoliticsChicks
CHRISTY: Welcome to the Politics Chicks podcast. I'm Christy Branham
Monica: And I'm Monica Healy
CHRISTY: Today we're joined by Mark Legvold, candidate for Minnesota Senate District 58. Mark's career has been defined by service as a farmer, military veteran, educator, firefighter, law enforcement officer, and community leader
Monica: One of the things that stood out for us about Mark is that every chapter of his life seemed rooted in helping other people. Whether serving his country, teaching students, or advocating for his community, he spent decades putting service before self
CHRISTY: We also wanted to talk about leadership, respect, and community. Recently, Mark spoke out after the cancellation of an event honoring women who died while serving their country, reflecting a deep respect for women, military service, and the people who strengthen our communities every day
Monica: Today we want our audience to get to know the person behind the
Monica: campaign and learn more about what he hopes to bring to the Minnesota Senate. Welcome to the show, Mark
MARK: Thank you, Christy. Thanks, Monica. I'm really thrilled to be here
Monica: Good to have
CHRISTY: we're so excited to have you. We've been looking forward to this interview because we've gotten to know you a little bit, We've met you at, the event that we hosted, and we've had a couple conversations, and you're
CHRISTY: just, you're such an engaging person. I can't wait
CHRISTY: for our listeners to get to know you a little bit better.
MARK: Let me just say that event
MARK: was so much fun. What a blast. You guys put on
MARK: a great party
Monica: We had fun too. It was so out of our wheelhouse to organize something like that, but we were happy with how it turned out. We were glad you were there
MARK: It was awesome
CHRISTY: And we were saying
CHRISTY: that your speech was one of the barnstormers of the event, so Yeah,
MARK: tr- I try. With hair like mine, you, gotta know how to
MARK: speak
CHRISTY: Yeah.
Monica: Well done
CHRISTY: Well, well, why don't we give our listeners an opportunity to get to know you a little bit better? So tell us about what it was like growing up on a
CHRISTY: Minnesota
CHRISTY: farm, and what did that experience do to shape you into who you are today?
MARK: Oh, yeah, absolutely. So, uh, we moved out to the farm in 1976. Great time for Dad to just say, "We're gonna buy a farm." Uh, he was a educator, drove up to Richfield every day, taught elementary school kids, then came home, and we worked on the farm. And Dad grew up on a farm, and, uh, I also was a farmer, uh, as I was growing up.
MARK: Kind of pass it along generation to generation. So,
MARK: uh, when Dad's dad would come out,
MARK: Ole, uh, we knew how to work hard. Of course, you know, there's an Ole Legvold out there.
CHRISTY: without telling us you're Minnesotan
MARK: I, I know. The, the other grandpa's name is Gus,
MARK: so
MARK: we, we got it covered on both ends. But, um, loved being outside, loved being out working on the farm.
MARK: We had, uh, cattle that we were raising, plus corn, soybeans, hay. So my summers really consisted of riding around
MARK: on the back of a hay rack with,
MARK: uh, family primarily, uh, baling hay. We had a neighbor that also raised cattle, so we all
MARK: pitched in as a community, helped one another, put a bunch of hay in
MARK: both of the barns so we could make it through the winter.
MARK: learned how to feed the cattle, run the tractors. I think at age,
MARK: uh, 12 I was out
MARK: plowing. Uh, yeah, 'cause you're just going
MARK: back and forth and it's not that hard, so they set you out and away you go.
MARK: just had a really, really great
MARK: time, but learned some invaluable lessons
MARK: that just kinda continued to serve me. Loved to work hard every single day.
MARK: Uh, there was always that great feeling of you put in a good hard day of work and, um, at the end of the day, uh, you feel good that you got something accomplished, and that's one thing I love about farming today. You can look back on a day's worth of work and actually see you
MARK: accomplished something,
Monica: There's a lot of Minnesota that is devoted to farmland, and my husband and I come from
Monica: farming families and, and I can't imagine farming. It is, it is a, a tough way of life. And what do you wanna tell people who don't understand what it was like? You know, what, what is-- what was growing up in rural Minnesota that might be misunderstood?
MARK: Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's,
MARK: um, there are joys with it and there's also
MARK: hardships, right? You don't have the neighborhood full of kids with all the friends. If you wanna visit with your friends, you're going into town hanging out. Usually that meant, uh, biking down a gravel road on my 10-speed. Uh, you learn how to be pretty quick with steering, uh, when that's the case.
MARK: But you don't have friends next door, uh, but you have a whole lot of nature around you. So, uh, some joys, some challenges there.
MARK: the other part about growing up on a farm is you learn what, uh, running on a pretty tight budget looks like. Uh, Dad was an educator, which means, you know, they don't make a whole lot.
MARK: He's driving up to Richfield every day, driving home, and,
MARK: uh, you know, we learned how to keep good track of a dollar bill
MARK: and, and work really really hard to earn
MARK: them. And at the end of the day, we had, uh, a good corn operation, a good soybean operation, and a good cattle operation. So I learned about, uh, risk, reward, and diversification of your efforts so that you're not relying on one thing or another.
MARK: Uh, if the cattle were doing really, really great, uh, usually corn and soybeans
MARK: weren't, uh, but that balanced out the risk and the reward. So running a farm, whether it's a small family
MARK: farm or it's the big corporations, they're thin margins. There's a lot of risk to it
CHRISTY: And just to be clear, you're still farming today. Like, you just posted
CHRISTY: about the cost of diesel last week on your Facebook, so
MARK: planting season, those, those beasts get, uh, pretty thirsty for
MARK: diesel. just finished up planting. The corn's up. Uh, we'll have knee-high corn by the 4th of July out on the farm, which is, is a wonderful thing to, to have happen because you know that some of the risk is, is gonna
MARK: pay off most of the time if, uh, pending hail, knock on wood.
MARK: Uh, but it's a struggle. Last year I, I sold soybeans out of
MARK: the, uh, out of the field right at the end of the season for the same price that soybeans were in 1978,
CHRISTY: Oh my gosh
MARK: a thin margin, and the cost of diesel keeps going up, and the cost of fertilizer keeps going
MARK: up,
MARK: and, and yet our commodity prices aren't rebounding. There's a lot that
MARK: we can do to help farmers, uh, but starting out with, um, reestablishing our markets, uh, internationally, that would help farmers the most.
CHRISTY: So did the tariffs impact the pricing on the soybeans? Is that why they were so low?
MARK: Yeah. When, when your biggest customer is China and suddenly you say
MARK: we're gonna tariff you like crazy, they stop buying soybeans from us and they start buying soybeans from Brazil, and that means we lose a major market. That's probably what impacted, uh, farming and soybean farming especially.
Monica: what
Monica: what lessons in farm life would
Monica: you like to see in elected leaders? and you already mentioned a bunch of those things that our, our leaders really could take to heart
MARK: Yeah, it's, it's getting up in the morning and, and doing the
MARK: hard work that
MARK: You need to. Sometimes, uh, uh, your boots get stuck in something that's sticky and doesn't smell really good and, and you gotta
MARK: keep on working and getting, get the
MARK: job done. Uh, but you also learn how to
MARK: cooperate. I talked about what it's like in the summertime to hay as a community, which means, you know, the neighbor owns the hay baler, we own the hay
MARK: racks, and all the labor is, uh, provided. We share that
MARK: effort. Uh, you learn how to cooperate with people, and you might disagree about how to get stuff done, but at the end of the day, you gotta bale the hay and you gotta put it in the barn or nobody lives through the winter. So it really taught me about w- how to be cooperative in a, in a community and focus on the task that needs to
MARK: get done and do the work, regardless of whether you agree with the person or not
CHRISTY: Okay. I just learned something new because I didn't realize that you did not own all your own equipment and that it was a community effort for you to bale hay. I mean, You live in a somewhat red part of the state, Your neighbors may not think politically the same way you do, and yet you guys have to kind of overcome that in, in order to work together because it's a survival thing, correct?
MARK: Yes, absolutely. And Christy and Monica, this is one of the joys of running for office right now is I, I've learned how to get along with people that disagree with me politically or philosophically. Uh, you have to do that just to get any mission accomplished or any job done. My neighbor has a bunch of Trump stuff up in his shed,
MARK: um, but I still go down there and talk
MARK: with him like human beings, neighbor to neighbor.
MARK: Uh, at the end of the day, if he's got a flat tire on the side of the road, I'll stop
MARK: to help him, but I also know he'll stop to.
MARK: help me. Politics is one thing, but being neighbors, I think that's what we need to get back to in our
MARK: political discussions. How can we learn to get
MARK: along? And
MARK: I've found that knocking on people's doors out in the middle
MARK: of, uh, what you would consider a red community, and I have great conversations with folks that
MARK: still have their Trump stuff up.
MARK: But at the end of the day,
MARK: in, in
MARK: this country, we gotta learn how
MARK: to love one another regardless. That's how we get to move forward. As much anger as we have about the policies and the politics and the cruelty and the chaos, at the end of the day, we gotta hold the elected people responsible for
MARK: making those decisions.
MARK: But the voters, we still need to care about them as neighbors
Monica: I think Minnesota has really exemplified exactly that, and that's where the
Monica: whole term neighboring came from during Operation MetroSearch, where we take care of each other. It doesn't matter what they look like, what they believe, what church they go to We are gonna take care of our neighbors
MARK: Absolutely. You know, I'm, I'm running on five core values, and the last one's probably the one that served me the best, and that's, uh, everybody deserves to be treated with care and respect. And I know we'll talk more about that as we go
MARK: along, but I learned that growing up on a country road and sharing equipment with my neighbors and getting the hay done.
Monica: Yeah. Well, tell us
Monica: about those since you mentioned it. What are your five core values you're running on
CHRISTY: Yeah, absolutely. Um, uh, they were all shaped by the different jobs that I've done, especially my time on the farm, the military, and working in public schools. We get up in the morning, we work hard.
MARK: I think Minnesotans like to work hard and see what they've accomplished, but they also believe that they want their government to work hard with them. Uh, we want our public people to act with integrity, but we also expect our neighbors to act with integrity. So that's my second core value, always act with integrity.
MARK: We believe in serving others. Uh, this has been a winter, um, like we have never seen in Minnesota, but we've
MARK: seen how Minnesotans step up. They serve others in their community,
MARK: uh, and that's what we want from our "
MARK: public servants, uh, as well. Valuing learning. As a recovering educator, uh, and as someone that taught, taught kids, taught airmen in, in the military,
MARK: uh, and tried to
MARK: work in the community to teach people to be better leaders, uh, we value learning in Minnesota.
MARK: We put our money
MARK: where our people are, especially our public schools. But it also means we value learning enough to listen
MARK: to experts, listen to economists,
MARK: listen to doctors, listen to scientists, so
MARK: that
MARK: we make the best decisions possible, and we're not relying on conspiracy theorists to make
Monica: Amen.
MARK: Yeah, and then-- Yes, absolutely. And then the last one's
MARK: probably the most important. Treat everyone with care and respect. It doesn't matter where you live, what you do
MARK: for a living, who you love, treat everyone with
MARK: care and respect
Monica: You know, I taught public school for 30 years, and the last decade or so, I always told the kids, "We have one rule because it encompasses everything else. Be kind." If you are being kind, that truly means no other rule is needed.
CHRISTY: Yes
Monica: thank you for your service as a public school teacher.
MARK: Gosh, yeah, absolutely. You too.
MARK: it's
MARK: it's hard work. Y- uh, but again, it's kinda like, uh, baling hay all day. You go home tired,
MARK: but you feel like you accomplished something 'cause you impacted a kid's life
Monica: I loved it
CHRISTY: and thank you for your service in the military because that's where we're going next. you spent three decades serving in the US military. So why don't you tell us what inspired you to serve and how that's impacted the person that you've become?
MARK: Christy, the in inspiration to serve came on a turkey barn just outside of Northfield in February. It's cold up there. I'd, I'd left my first college. I was not a good student right out of, uh, out of high school. I thoughtIf you just work hard, things are gonna go okay.
MARK: And so I liked working hard. So I, I left my first college, started working in construction, roofing a turkey shed in February up on a hill.
Monica: Hmm.
MARK: this is cold. I needed a, a different way of going about life, and so found an Air Force recruiter and, uh, said this would be a great way to, uh, shape my life, learn a new skill, uh, see part of the world, uh, have some adventure, um, and then come back to, to Northfield and get back to work on the farm.
MARK: So joined the military in 1990. Uh, went down to Lackland Air Force Base through basic training, and
MARK: They picked my job for me. Now imagine signing up to do something for four years,
MARK: but you don't know what it
MARK: is. You're just gonna go on this adventure. And I'll let the government tell me what I'm gonna do for four years.
Monica: That's quite the leap of faith
MARK: It was a leap of faith, absolutely. I just knew I wanted to serve my country, and I, I knew I wanted a different way of life than where I was
MARK: heading, and they assigned
MARK: me to be a firefighter, which was such a great job. So I learned how to be a firefighter, got stationed in Altus, Oklahoma, uh, got married there, had my first child, moved up to Alaska, had another child up there, all serving as a firefighter.
MARK: And, uh, really learned a- another part of what hard work looked
MARK: like, hard work learning how to be a good airman and a good firefighter. It, it really, really helped shape
MARK: me.
Monica: Well, that perfectly segues into my next question because you had a number of leadership roles. So how does that experience teach you about responsibility, leadership?
MARK: Yeah. You know, when you're, when you're just barely
MARK: 20 and you're, you're entering the military, y- you know a whole lot, right? You're super, super smart, especially smarter than your parents. Uh, but they teach you, they teach you pretty quick that you don't know
MARK: much. Uh, but I showed up at my first fire department and had wonderful mentors.
MARK: Uh, I had
MARK: wonderful, wonderful trainers and people that had been in the career field for a whole lifetime,
MARK: teaching me how to be a good
MARK: firefighter, but also teaching me how important it is to work together as a crew of people because your life is gonna
MARK: depend on
MARK: the people to your left and to your right, so you better treat
MARK: them well.
MARK: We're a family at the end of the
MARK: day. Uh, you gotta treat the people to your left and your right like your brothers and like your sisters because you're gonna rely on them to save your life someday, And there really was a sense of urgency. That, that taught me about leading myself, becoming a smart firefighter, but leading others just on
MARK: that
MARK: small team. And eventually, as you stick with the job,
MARK: pretty soon you're leading a pretty big, big organization.
MARK: It was a good segue, but it's, it's a step-by-step-by-step process.
CHRISTY: You know, it, it should be noted the military actually does that very well at least they did, I don't know if it's been broken, the whole system's been broken, but they do such a good job of testing and analyzing recruits to see what their strengths are and putting them in positions where they're going to succeed. And I think that that's probably why you had that experience. They, they could see in you that you fit this mold and that you would thrive there. So I think that's really cool.
MARK: I I would like to think that they saw something, but they were also very purposeful
MARK: in the, in the development of me as a, as an airman,
MARK: as an individual. And as long as you bring that subject up, I have such good faith in the young men and women and the people that I left behind in my unit when I
MARK: retired three years ago.
MARK: They're good human beings with a huge heart, and I know that they're put in difficult situations. They've been put in difficult
MARK: situations for years, and I know that it is hard right now, but their heart remains. They're still good people. When you saw the pictures of the National
MARK: Guard showing up during
MARK: Metro surge this past winter, you know, they didn't show up to oppress their neighbor.
MARK: They showed up with hot
MARK: chocolate. They did
CHRISTY: I know, and handing out hot chocolate and donuts
MARK: Yeah. They did the same thing after George
MARK: Floyd was
MARK: murdered. They protected the neighborhoods. They protected their neighbors during the evenings, and then they showed up on the Capitol lawn during the heat of those days handing out water to the protesters.
MARK: I was so proud to be a part of that organization because I know its heart. I know they're developing good leaders,
MARK: but they're also developing good human beings, and those human beings remain today
Monica: Well, and you have such a personal relationship from your own service, but you shared with us before we started recording that, um, you have another family member. Uh, you wanna talk about that?
MARK: Yeah, my, my, uh, stepson Tyler, youngest
MARK: stepson, Uh,
MARK: he's gonna enlist in the same organization that I spent most of my military career in, uh, here in the Minnesota Air National Guard. So it's out of the six kids in our blended family, we got five grandkids. Um, some of them explored, uh, getting into military service, and Tyler's kind of pulling the trigger today, uh, and he's gonna enlist.
MARK: And the great thing is he's gonna be, uh, part of the flying organization, and he's working with one of the
MARK: firefighters that I worked with for a good long time. So it's kind of this, uh, my fire department family And my
MARK: family family are, are merging a little bit in this organization that I cared so much about.
Monica: Full circle
CHRISTY: like your life is coming full circle,
MARK:
MARK: Christy, I am seeing that more
MARK: And more today. It's,
MARK: it's like I'm gonna run for Minnesota State Senate. What do you need?
MARK: What are the characteristics that we really want in our senators and
MARK: the people in public service? You want a lifetime of experience. You want them to be able to see a bunch
MARK: of different perspectives.
MARK: Uh, you want a diverse, uh, experiences that have shaped their core values. I
MARK: mean, I've, I've, done a little bit of
MARK: everything. Um, and
MARK: so it all seems
MARK: like it's all coming together. First and foremost, taking care of
MARK: people, uh, and I still have that
MARK: ethos today. So it feels
MARK: like, yeah, everything is coming full circle in this run, too.
CHRISTY: so you also served as a law enforcement officer, so why don't you give us a little bit of how that
CHRISTY: also impacted who you've become?
MARK: Absolutely. and this, this-- in order to go from being a firefighter to doing cop work, uh, in the military, it kind of-- I gotta fill in the blanks between, uh, 20 years as a firefighter and then how did I end up going into, uh, security forces i-in the military. my career, my military career, and my education career, um, the cool thing about being in the Air National Guard is you get to do two different jobs.
MARK: In my case, three, 'cause I was farming on the side. But, uh, for 10 years of my military career, I was what they would call a traditional Guard member, and that means one weekend a month, two weeks a year, uh, I would do a civilian job. That's when I was working in St. Paul schools. On the weekends and during deployments, I was a firefighter.
MARK: It was great. Um, loved the work, loved the, my brothers and sisters, but then on Monday morning, there you are with the kids, uh, y-you know, helping the runny noses and helping them learn at the same time. Uh, it was all good public service. Uh, but in 2007, after I'd finished my master's degree, I was working in a, a public school in a assistant principal position.
MARK: The Guard came back and said, "Hey, how would you like to be the full-time fire chief?" And so 2007, I traded in the tie for camouflage and went back active duty, assigned to the same unit I was traditional Guard in, so right here at the airport. And I did that till 2013 when my fire department closed. Um, found all my firefighters new jobs, new occupations, and stuck around.
MARK: Um, and they said, "You don't have any people anymore. Would you like to work with people?" I said, "That is my jam. I love working with people." They said, "How'd you like to be a cop?" I went , "Oh, that's gonna be a stretch for me." Uh, but they needed some good leadership, and I needed the opportunity to
MARK: work with human beings again. So at age
MARK: 45, um, got a phone call, uh, middle of the day. They said, "Hey, we got a, um, school you can go to." "Great, great. When does it start?" They said, "In two days you have to be down in San Antonio, Texas." So Lisa and I weren't married yet. She packed up her house and two of her boys, moved down to my place. I mean, military
MARK: spouse, you talk about public service, right?
MARK: Uh, but she pa-packed up her boys, her dog, moved down to my place and took care of the one kiddo I still had at home. And, um, I took off for Texas and stayed there for three months, learned how to be a, a member of security forces. So that's our law enforcement and security division here on base. And came back and, um, strapped on the gear every single day.
MARK: We armed up every single day to guard the base and make sure people were safe and following the rules and the laws that we have here.
MARK: And, uh,
Monica: big leap of faith to jump into that and mid-career, midlife to just make that leap. That's, that's impressive
MARK: It was, uh, it was really, really tough. It was like kind of starting over, but in the military, you keep your rank, um, when you go someplace. So I, I outranked my instructors and was older than all of them, but, uh, yeah, it was a huge leap of faith, and I knew that it would be a challenge for me physically, but it would also be a challenge for me mentally and emotionally.
MARK: I learned how to appreciate the work that our law enforcement, uh, officers do out on the streets in our cities, in our counties, our sheriff's
MARK: department, and in the military. I
MARK: learned how to really appreciate the hard
MARK: work and all of the learning that they
MARK: have to do just to do that well. But I also learned how important it
MARK: is if you are gonna be charged with the, use of deadly force, you need to know when
MARK: to use it, how to use it,
MARK: where to use it, when it's appropriate, and all the things that you do
MARK: before you even pull that gun out of its holster. And I checked in with my folks, um, that was one of the, the key
MARK: responsibilities as a leader throughout the shift and at the beginning of the shift before they're handed a
MARK: weapon. Needed to know if they had a good meal, if things were okay at home, if
MARK: they were getting enough sleep, if they were mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically able to carry that weapon,
MARK: ' cause we're, we're all doing this
MARK: hard work together. We don't have that checkout in the, in our public streets, do we?
CHRISTY: I was just about to bring that up,
CHRISTY: the fact that
CHRISTY: you're talking about all of the care and, fail-safes that?
CHRISTY: are there, including the leadership checking in with people before handing them a weapon. And to see what happened in our streets in Minnesota, twice, not once, but twice,
Monica: Three times. One, one non-lethal
CHRISTY: Right. it's very troubling, to even think about that?
CHRISTY: so
MARK: And I, I, I, am in favor of the Second Amendment. I, I think it's important, but I also think there are some guardrails that we have to have in place as, as a community, um, to make sure that
MARK: the,
MARK: weapons that have no business being on the city streets aren't
MARK: being carried by people that are inherently dangerous to
MARK: carry lethal force
Monica: Well, since you bring that up, I'm gonna veer off script a little bit because recently there was, uh, gun legislation brought to the floor, that-- Well, it passed the Senate and then it, didn't go anywhere in the House. So where would you have stood on that?
MARK: Yeah. that bill that, uh, that got passed through the Senate and then, uh, got stuck in a drawer in the House, um, I, I would've voted for that. it put some good guardrails on, uh, protecting our city streets and protecting our school children. Um, and that's something that We can agree on, and not everybody had an easy vote on that.
MARK: It would've been, uh, a tough one, um, because we're limiting something that people are very, very passionate about. but at the end of the day, as legislators, if you're not focusing on how to keep people safe in the city streets, you're really not doing a primary job and a primary
MARK: responsibility of that position
CHRISTY: And one of the reasons that that bill came about was, Senator Zeynab Mohamed introduced it after the school shooting in her district. And so our next question kind of segues into your work in
CHRISTY: education.
CHRISTY: How do you feel about the fact that they buried that bill,
CHRISTY: which was, written by
CHRISTY: someone in response to a school shooting? How did that fail our school children?
MARK: Uh, it, it didn't just fail our schoolchildren, it failed our, our entire political structure. Um, another key core value, right? Act with integrity. Uh, and when you just put something in the drawer, if you use procedure to limit voices from being heard,
MARK: I know it would've been a
MARK: tough vote for a lot of folks, but at the end of the day,
MARK: your integrity should guide the fact that that should've seen the floor, uh, in the House, and they should've had an up-down vote on it.
MARK: It's, it's, it's not serving our school kids well. People didn't wanna go on the record with it. Um, I, I,
MARK: know the guy that's serving me in the House right
MARK: now, it-- I know how he would've voted on that 'cause he's a
MARK: Second Amendment purist. Uh, to me, pure adherence to the Second Amendment, I had a guy tell me that he should be able to own an F-15 fighter jet if he could afford
MARK: it 'cause the Second Amendment
MARK: allows him
MARK: to, and, uh, yeah, I-- that's not my
MARK: barometer of freedom.
MARK: I think we can, uh, turn the dials, uh, one way or another on things, and,
MARK: getting an up-down vote on that one would've been a way of, uh,
MARK: finding out where the dials would've been turned.
CHRISTY: I'm a firm believer that your freedom
CHRISTY: should not impede upon someone else's
CHRISTY: freedom
Monica: That
MARK: Yeah,
MARK: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and yet we're s- we're seeing our individual freedoms,
MARK: um, exercised every day, and it's hard, hard work here in Minnesota, isn't it?
CHRISTY: Yes. and then after the military service, you went into education because you just-- I don't know if you
CHRISTY: were a glutton for punishment or what.
MARK: Yeah. S- so
CHRISTY: Talking to two teachers here, but
MARK: Um, so I was, I was serving traditionally in the Air National Guard and, um, worked in, in the elementary school on the east side of St. Paul, uh, kindergarten through six, science and, and, and, uh, gifted ed.
MARK: and then had a wonderful, wonderful mentor, Shirley Pickett was her name. Uh, this is one of those things, when you listen to smart women and they give you good advice and you follow it, things usually turn out pretty darn well. Shirley said, "Hey, you got some leadership potential. You should become a school administrator."
MARK: Maybe she didn't like me, um, but, but maybe she saw something, right? Uh,
Monica: all my years of teaching, I would never be an administrator, so bless you
Monica: for that
MARK: it's-- It was good. It
MARK: was really good hard work. Uh, but I I went back to school, uh, and got my master's degree in, in, school leadership and administration,
MARK: finished my principal's license at the University of
MARK: Minnesota, and, uh, tried working my way in.
MARK: And, and
MARK: I was, uh, just in that AP position. Um, still
MARK: loved working with kids. It was a struggle every single day. You saw what kids were struggling
MARK: with, especially in St. Paul. going on a home
MARK: visit, to visit a dad and a son who's, living in a hotel 'cause they
MARK: lost their home, and yet the dad still was
MARK: just as passionate about making sure his son got to school and learned every
MARK: single day.
MARK: our, our kids that are living in poverty
MARK: are facing insurmountable, circumstances in their life, and yet they still show up to get an education, and they have to work so hard at it. It's another reason I am so in favor
MARK: of feeding our kids at school, 'cause I saw how
MARK: hungry some of my kids were when they showed up on Monday
Monica: I don't know how anybody can be opposed to, you know, feeding a kid. I just... Yeah, any opposition to that just baffles me.
CHRISTY: We're one of the only westernized countries that does not have universal school breakfast and school lunch too. I'd like to bring that into the conversation because most European... Yep. Yep, we are.
MARK: Yep. I, I think, I think that was really a good way of making sure that not only are we feeding our kids, right, so that they can show up and have food in their tummy and so their brains are working more effectively, but it also shows those kids when they show up to school, this is a place that cares about you and respects you
Monica: Absolutely.
MARK: Yeah. I- it broke my heart when
MARK: kids just got a cheese sandwich going through the line.
CHRISTY: Yeah
MARK: Yeah. Sad
Monica: So quite the varied,
Monica: career you have had and many different roles, many different hats. So what prompted you to decide to run for office?
MARK: Thanks. Yeah. Um, so retired from the military
MARK: about,
MARK: two and a half, three years ago, and I still have this heart for public service. I've, I've done some jobs where you show up, you, you look at what's, uh, dangerous or wrong, and you do something about it. Firefighters do something about something that's dangerous.
MARK: Law enforcement officers do something about things that are going on in their communities that's wrong. and I served during the first Trump administration, uh, as the command chief. I was a senior enlisted leader in my organization. Had 1,200 people. shepherded them through COVID, where one person in the shop believed COVID was a hoax and wasn't gonna wear a mask, and another person had,
MARK: a child at home, uh, with health issues, and I had to help them balance their emotions while making sure they were following
MARK: the rules, right?
MARK: Uh, it was hard work, and we got through it. We got through it as a family, and,
MARK: and,
MARK: it was still tough. So getting out of the military, I still had a heart for service, still
MARK: wanted to teach people how to be good
MARK: leaders. Uh, but when I saw what was going on in our federal politics
MARK: again, uh, when Trump got reelected,
MARK: started looking at what's going on
MARK: in the state government as well.
MARK: I've always been a believer
MARK: that you have to do what you can, where you
MARK: can, how you can, and to stand by and watch something dangerous and wrong happen, whether it's at the state level or at the federal level, and not do everything
MARK: I can, that doesn't fit the core values
MARK: that I, I grew up developing, and it didn't fit where I was in my life at that time
Monica: I think we're seeing more And more of that, people that are responding to what they're seeing i- by running for office, people that never would have before. And Christy and I have said for a long time that people like you that have experience in the real world, not just the political world, are so valuable as leaders, and I think we, we need more of that
MARK: Yeah. I agree. It, it takes a very, very diverse, life to make a good public servant because you can really, really empathize where people are in their lives. I mean, I've, I've lost sleep at night 'cause I was worried about making the next house payment. It's awful. how can you empathize if you've never been in that situation?
CHRISTY: Yes. And you live-- You're from southern Minnesota, so it's fairly agricultural area of the state, fairly rural area of the state. And so your district has some pretty unique needs compared to someone, say, from the Twin Cities or even someone from up north in the Iron Range. So what do you believe District 58 needs most from its next senator?
MARK: Great question. Uh, I think district 58 needs from their next senator the same thing every place is needing, and that's somebody that shows up to work with the core values that most Minnesotans
MARK: share. That's why I'm running on core values. District 58's pretty darn unique. we, uh, just have that transition zone between the suburbs and the rural communities of Minnesota.
MARK: Uh, it's northern New Prague, Lonsdale, Northfield, Farmington, southern precinct of Rosemont, all the way out to the
MARK: Mississippi River on both the north and the south side of Hastings. So I got a lot of rural country, but I also have suburban, and small towns. And so all of those different, uh, communities have similar needs in that they want somebody that reflects their core values, but they also have very unique needs, so you have to show up,
MARK: ready to do the work and ready to understand what those communities really need,
MARK: and it starts with listening and understanding and just being a good neighbor
Monica: So if voters only remember one thing about your campaign, what do you want that to be?
MARK: Great question. Um, if voters could remember one thing about my campaign, it's gonna be he won in November, because he showed up to the campaign with a lot of--
MARK: Yep, yeah. So they'll remember that of this campaign, but they won't
MARK: remember it just because I was a Democrat running in a year where we're expecting a lot of Democrats to do well.
MARK: They'll remember it because we kicked this campaign off over a year ago.
MARK: just started, uh, getting organized. We've been running since August. So they're gonna remember about me that I ran on the big core value of we
MARK: work hard. In District 58, in the rural communities, in our suburbs, people are working hard every single day, and I bring that work
MARK: ethic to the campaign.
MARK: Uh, all winter long, knocking doors when
MARK: it was 24 degrees or better, cause your hand freezes if it's, uh, colder than that. and showing up in the farmyards and having hard conversations with people that maybe still have that Trump sign up in their garage, or maybe they just took it down last week.
MARK: Having s- having
MARK: the courage to show up and have the conversations with neighbors. That's what they'll remember
CHRISTY: Out of curiosity, are you noticing-- Because I, we, I live close to Buffalo, so we will drive out, you know, past Corcoran, and a lot of the homes out there that once had Trump signs and tattered Trump flags waving for years, they're now gone. Are you seeing more of that down your way also?
MARK: Yeah, I, I am seeing that, and maybe
MARK: it's
MARK: just the fact the flag finally, uh, got too tattered to recognize or maybe they've had a change of heart. Um, I do know, uh, one house that's in my district.
MARK: Uh, they've had a Trump sign
MARK: on their, front yard. It's gotten a little bit smaller, then it got a little bit smaller, and now that big, uh, piece of plywood that used to have a smaller sign on it, it's just painted flat white.
MARK: I've got a nice blue sign I'd love to put on that for them. Um, but
MARK: it does, Christy, show the evolution of people's thoughts, and we, uh, as good-hearted Minnesotans need to understand these are still our neighbors. We might not have agreed with either of the votes that they made, all three of the votes that they made in some of these elections, but we gotta love our neighbor and, uh, and give people, uh, the ability to change their mind and come back and, and say, "You know, maybe that was a mistake.
MARK: Maybe I'm glad I made that vote, but now I'm just hurting like heck and, uh, I'm looking for
MARK: something better in our politics." So we've gotta treat people with care and respect at the end of the day.
Monica: What would, what would be your top priority upon being elected?
MARK: My top priority
MARK: kind of fits my, uh, em- my, employment resume, and that is all of it all the time. Uh, I've done a little bit of everything, and so there's so much to do. But top priority is show up to the Senate, build relationships. Um, obviously, I want our agriculture, um, and our ag community to have a strengthened, diversified economy,
MARK: uh, one where we grow such great crops in Minnesota.
MARK: We feed our people, uh, but we
MARK: also use our commodity crops to, uh, produce some energy right here in Minnesota instead of shipping it off. I wanna make sure our public schools are strong. As a recovering educator, uh, that's one of my key priorities. I've, I've got, uh, grandkids that are gonna be going to school in District 58.
MARK: so this is a, a personal thing for me. but it all comes down to making sure that Minnesota is an affordable place to live. I talk to folks in rural communities. They want their kids to be able to move home, uh, and their kids wanna move home. Uh, and I mean home not to mom and dad's basement, but to the house down the road that the kids wanna purchase.
MARK: And right now, it's unaffordable for them to commute, it's unaffordable for them to buy that house, and it's unaffordable for them to
MARK: even put food on the table. So we've gotta address
MARK: those basic needs.
CHRISTY: Yeah, and I, I wanna circle back because there's a, a through line through every conversation that we've had with you, every interaction that we've had with you is about treating people with respect. We
CHRISTY: just talked about that. Um, you recently spoke out, about the cancellation of an event honoring women who died serving our
CHRISTY: country.
CHRISTY: And Monica and I fondly call you an
CHRISTY: honorary chick because you're just--
CHRISTY: you've spoken so strongly
CHRISTY: and
CHRISTY: s- and so passionately about respecting women and the contribution that they make to society.
CHRISTY: And, um, we're gonna credit Lisa with part of that because,
CHRISTY: you know, she's, she's definitely a good influence, but we, we suspect that a lot of it is intrinsic with you.
CHRISTY: So why don't you share a little bit about that? Because I
CHRISTY: could tell you felt
CHRISTY: pain from that, that that
CHRISTY: event was canceled.
MARK: Yes. We'll circle back to, uh, giving my wife some credit. Um, abso- I wouldn't be where I am in this campaign without her. She, she, uh, runs, manages this campaign.
MARK: She's passionate. She keeps telling people, "I, I want him to be my senator." and it's not because I'm her husband. I think it's just because she thinks I'd be a good one and I'd serve people, bring the heart to it.
MARK: So,
MARK: uh,
MARK: back to the downright anger that I have, uh, about how military service members that gave their life for their country, How this new movement is saying we can't give them honor and respect if they're women or because they're women, because that somehow takes away from the honor res- and respect for all.
MARK: military service is a great way of serving a great country. I still believe our country is a great place because of the people that are in it. So taking away the honor and the respect due to the women that gave their,
MARK: lives and gave service to the country, yeah, that, that's hard. That's a personal thing for me.
MARK: Uh, I lost a really, really dear
MARK: friend, uh, to cancer caused by the burn pits. She was a fantastic mentor. She was a wonderful, wonderful human being.
MARK: And so by saying s- we're gonna t-take away that ability to lay a wreath at
MARK: somebody like her grave, yeah, it hurt. It was, it was a personal point of pain for me, and it showed how low that we have to step where
MARK: We can't honor one person or one group without feeling like we're dishonoring another person. Uh, honor, decency, and kindness is not a zero-sum
MARK: game. the more you show, the more you get
CHRISTY: We're interviewing Kristy Janigo on Thursday, who's another candidate for Senate who herself is a veteran, so I'm interested to hear her take on that as well.
MARK: I'm gonna give
MARK: props Kristy. She's, she is a strong, military veteran running for a, a really, really
MARK: tight Senate race, uh, up there, and I cannot think of a more bright, capable, wonderful human being to represent
MARK: that area. It just shows the caliber of candidates that we're getting out
MARK: there. Um, it, it,
CHRISTY: Yep, and she'll be my senator
MARK: Oh, aren't you so lucky?
CHRISTY: Mm-hmm
MARK: Yeah.
MARK: The, the DFL Party has done a great job diversifying the, the people
MARK: that are running. We've got veterans, we've got farmers, we've got, uh, teachers, folks that, uh, step away from a career that's usually pretty darn hard and wanna do this public service
MARK: work, and I, I think Kristy's a fantastic candidate.
MARK: I'm looking forward to serving with her
CHRISTY: She thinks very highly of you too. You two have been-- I know that you've been communicating and kind of partnering on things, so we're excited to interview her
CHRISTY: on Thursday.
MARK: I think that'll be great
CHRISTY: Yeah. And you've been such a strong supporter of women in general. At our event, you told a story about a woman who was your superior, I believe.
MARK: No, she was, She was my-- she was in a subordinate position to me, but she was still a mentor of mine. Yeah. Uh, I, I learned so much from her. Uh, she had so much different life experience all poured into one human being. she had been serving for a really, really long time. Still continues to serve today.
MARK: uh, came out, as a open lesbian woman serving in the military, uh, right at the tail end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, so right before it was repealed. That takes some risk. Uh, but man, I tell you, she's got, she's got courage in spades. Uh, works in a l- in the security and law enforcement, uh, agency on base and
MARK: and that takes some, that takes some risk to work in a male-dominated field as a
MARK: woman and as a Native American serving
MARK: in the United States military.
MARK: Sometimes that's difficult. But no community honors military veterans more than the Native American community. So to her, it was a big point
MARK: of pride, not just for her, but for the community. And we had a lot of long conversations 'cause I'd go out and I'd check on her when she was
MARK: working post, and, uh, a
MARK: lot of long conversations about her life
MARK: journey.
MARK: And if I needed perspective on things that I, as a man, as a white straight male, uh,
MARK: could not understand or wanted to
MARK: uns- understand more
MARK: about, she always knew I approached her with
MARK: an open heart and a mind that wanted to learn, learn her perspective so that I could serve her well. Uh, and I just, I
MARK: learned so much, respect her so much
Monica: There's a lot in what you just said there about learning from each other and learning from other people's perspectives. So thank you for bringing that to, to your campaign and just to humanity in general.
MARK: I try, I try hard at it every single day. Some days I don't get it right, but, uh, I, I need to learn how to listen, listen a whole lot
MARK: more than I speak
CHRISTY: I love hearing that because I think a lot of times we forget that it is straight white men who often have the least number of barriers to cross to actually be successful
CHRISTY: in
Monica: a billionaire, so
CHRISTY: right, Right. That
MARK: I certainly don't want to be one either
CHRISTY: I
CHRISTY: don't think I would either. And I say that honestly because
CHRISTY: it is just, it's, it, it's too much of everything. Like when you have too much of everything, you you don't have the opportunity to
CHRISTY: find joy in something that's few and far between. I think that that is underrated
MARK: And, and to me, you, you lose the,
MARK: uh, you lose the
MARK: value that you put on relationships and relationship building when you feel like Everything's transactional,
MARK: right? And, and to me, I've been building relationships professionally. It's
MARK: just been such a gift to be able to do what I have done in my
MARK: life 'cause everything has been
MARK: about building relationships with people and trying to understand where they're at so I could lead them well.
MARK: And right now, this is a
MARK: fantastic opportunity to continue to build relationships, continue to build community,
MARK: and try and serve people as best I possibly can as their next senator
CHRISTY: Absolutely.
CHRISTY: So Mark, the, the world is
Monica: is kind of wonky right now, a little topsy-turvy. What's giving you hope?
MARK: Man, I te- I I tell you what, Monica, uh, what gives me hope every day is when I'm out knocking on people's doors and having good conversation. H-hope comes from the people in our country. It doesn't come from the policies and the politics. And the more people, the more human beings you meet, you listen to their life circumstances, sometimes you have
MARK: disagreements, and they tell me
MARK: I, I'm kinda middle of the road.
MARK: I'm, I'm unlike everybody, and I
MARK: am-- get the opportunity to reassure them
MARK: most people are pretty middle of the road. Most people want government that works, government that's a little bit boring, and doesn't have the high drama and the chaos and the cruelty that we're seeing
MARK: right now. so what gives me
MARK: hope is that there, there are more people out there that believe that we can get back to kindness, decency, uh, and some sense of calmness in our, in our government and our politics so that people can just focus on getting up in the morning, going to work, doing something that they love, and coming home to the people they care about and love in their community.
MARK: So it's-- That gives me hope every single day. This is a joyful run. I am loving this every single day 'cause there's always hope
MARK: every single morning.
CHRISTY: I love that. I absolutely love that. And why don't we talk about where people can learn more about your campaign, get connected with you, find out how they can help out and volunteer?
MARK: Yeah.
CHRISTY: if people, wanna learn more about me, uh, they can go to my campaign's website. It's legvold, the number four, mnsenate58.com. That's L-E-G-V-O-L-D, the number four, mnsenate, the number 58.com.
MARK: I've got all my core values there. You can learn how I was shaped and influenced, but I've also got some key policy points that I'm passionate about.
MARK: Uh, and otherwise, shoot, hit me up on Google. I hear that thing works pretty darn Well,
Monica: and we'll make sure to put links in our show notes
Monica: too, so people can find you through the podcast too
MARK: Love that
CHRISTY: Mark, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your story with our audience. We really
CHRISTY: appreciate the time. We know
CHRISTY: that you're busy between running for Senate and running the farm and all your other responsibilities, and it really was a
CHRISTY: privilege to talk to You today,
CHRISTY: and we just feel so honored to have you here
MARK: Thanks to you both. This has just been fantastic
Monica: Good to have you on
MARK: And keep up the good
MARK: work that you're doing
CHRISTY: We're
Monica: trying. To our listeners, if you are finding meaning in the stories we're sharing, if something moves
Monica: you, challenges you, makes you see the world a little differently, please like, comment,
Monica: or share. It helps more than you
Monica: know
CHRISTY: and follow
CHRISTY: us everywhere at the Politics Chicks on Substack, Threads, Blue Sky, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook
Monica: Thanks for being a part of our community. Keep shining your light so we can find each other in the dark
CHRISTY: And remember, we're stronger together. Thank you so much, Mark, for being here today
Monica: Thanks,
MARK: Thank you