Anders Folk, a former Marine Corps JAG officer and one-time interim U.S. Attorney in Minnesota, announced he’s running for Hennepin County Attorney on Thursday.
The Hopkins native joins an increasingly competitive race to replace far-left Democrat Mary Moriarty, who announced in August that she won’t seek reelection.
When reached by Alpha News on Thursday, Folk described himself as a “pragmatic DFLer, like my successor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Andy Luger.” On Thursday, Luger, a Biden appointee, endorsed Folk for Hennepin County Attorney.
Folk said he’s spent nearly his entire life as a resident of Hennepin County. He earned his undergraduate and law school degrees at the University of Minnesota before joining the U.S. Marines, where he worked as an officer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps.
Following his military tenure, Folk worked for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and then was hired by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, where he says he took on “fraudsters, terrorists and gang members.”
As interim U.S. Attorney in 2021, he brought the federal prosecution against Derek Chauvin “for violating George Floyd’s civil rights.”
“Our community needs a prosecutor who has taken on the hardest cases, and won,” Folk said in a campaign launch video he released this week.
“I want everyone to feel the same safety and fairness I’ve fought for in the courtroom,” he added. “It’s time to bring back common sense, to make public safety a priority and to keep our communities safe.
Folk is a partner for the Minneapolis-based Jones Day law firm, where he specializes in investigations and white-collar criminal defense. He’s also an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where he teaches international anti-corruption law.
Candidates seeking to replace Moriarty range in political involvement
Folk said he intends to seek the DFL endorsement, but added, “(t)his is a nonpartisan office and I expect support from voters and leaders across the political spectrum.”
Folk’s political donor history shows just two instances during the 2008 election cycle where he donated to Ashwin Madia, a former DFL candidate for U.S. House in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District. Both Madia and Folk served as Marine Corps JAG officers and were classmates at the University of Minnesota in the late 1990s.
Folk worked two separate stints for the Minnesota office of the U.S. Attorney. The latest came in 2021 when he was named interim U.S. Attorney following the election of Joe Biden, filling the gap between Trump-appointee Erica MacDonald and Biden-appointee Andrew Luger.
On his campaign website, Folk doesn’t list any past political involvement.
The three other candidates for Hennepin County Attorney — Cedrick Frazier, Hao Nguyen and Matthew Pelikan — are also aligning themselves with Democrats. When Pelikan entered the race last week, he described himself as the “common-sense” alternative to Frazier and Nguyen.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
