Paul Wikstrom joined Liz Collin on her podcast to talk about how he ran for a school board seat and then the Minnesota House in District 40B against Curtis Johnson—and how both elections involved fraud.
WATCH:
The interview also marks the first time that Wikstrom has spoken publicly about the “Curtis Johnson story.”
Wikstrom told Collin how he first became involved in politics starting with the Mounds View School Board.
School board spending fraud complaints
“In 2021, I started speaking to the school board and they changed the policies where they shut off public input at the board meetings. And that’s when I started considering running for school board,” Wikstrom said.
That led to Wikstrom filing for candidacy in 2023.
“I was on a parent slate with three other candidates and then opposed the incumbent slate with one new candidate on their side. The incumbent slate included Jonathan Weinhagen, who was chair of the Mounds View School Board at the time.”
As Collin pointed out, it was “the Jonathan Weinhagen” — the former CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce who was charged with five federal crimes.
Wikstrom said he noticed something odd regarding the election contribution report that Weinhagen filed.
“We saw some money from their campaigns that was contributed to the local Senate District DFL party and we had no idea where that money went or how it was used. In that timeframe, we saw several websites go up against us that were very well done,” Wikstrom said.
He also explained that he “didn’t know what really happened until 2024 when the required political operating unit reports came out from the Senate District DFL 40 and the state central committee … they had contributed $1,947 out of their campaign accounts to the local DFL party that was recorded as personal contributions.”
“And so we filed a complaint against them in the Office of Administrative Hearings in Minnesota. And that complaint got rejected in three days in March of 2024,” Wikstrom said.
The experience inspired Wikstrom to move beyond the school board and run as a candidate for Minnesota House.
“I had conversations with Jonathan Weinhagen leading up to that election in ’23. He even told me that Gov. Walz had called him several weeks before the election. And so I knew that there was some level of communication that took place between Weinhagen and Walz,” Wikstrom explained.
🚨BREAKING: Jonathan Weinhagen, the former CEO of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce, was charged with wire fraud, attempted bank fraud and more in a multi-count federal indictment that was unsealed on Thursday.
According to court documents, Jonathan Weinhagen caused… pic.twitter.com/NAehMB6j7j
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) October 23, 2025
He further explained how “that was the precursor to the complaint that I filed. And all of that information was taken from public filings and that’s the documented trail that shows the linkage between those school board candidates in ’23, three of them incumbents, and the DFL party where fraud seems to be very popular.”
“I really started to develop a fire in my belly to challenge the wrongdoings that I was seeing. And I was really surprised at the shenanigans that took place in the ’23 school board run,” Wikstrom explained.
Candidate eligibility fraud
Wikstrom then ran as a Republican to represent District 40B in the Minnesota House. His DFL opponent was Curtis Johnson. Six months before the election, he discovered Johnson did not live in his district, as required by state law.
“Through the summer people mentioning to me that Curtis Johnson did not live in the district. We did not have any hard information other than just some cursory information available on the internet, property tax records, and so forth. But I got a very strong tip on Sept. 7,” Wikstrom said.
“That’s where the investigation really began … And that’s when I felt like we had something actionable that we could actually pursue an investigation against Curtis Johnson. And we went up to the election. We lost that election. And then we ended up going into the December hearing, after I filed the notice of contest,” he said.
Meanwhile, in October, Wikstrom was told he needed open-heart surgery.
“And Nov. 13, a week after the election, I went into the hospital to get that surgery performed. And I filed my notice of contest against Curtis Johnson three days after I got out of the hospital very early in my recovery,” Wikstrom said.
He added, “That’s the depth of my commitment to Minnesota to confront fraud, shine a light of truth, and really try to make a positive difference for the state.”
And while he may not have won the election, Wikstrom’s fight led to some extraordinary results: “Lisa Demuth became the Republican speaker of the House … a House fraud and oversight committee was formed with Kristin Robbins at the head of that committee.”
Wikstrom also explained how Rep. Walter Hudson told him about “a rule change to the conference committee that really gave the Republicans real power in controlling bills before they go back to the House floor.”
“The sum of those things are what stopped the DFL from their runaway spending and really started to bring visibility to what’s happening in the state in terms of the fraud,” Wikstrom said.
Yet he shared something more important with Collin: “The thing that is really important for people to know is that one person, one team can make a difference.”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary "The Fall of Minneapolis" and "Minnesota v We the People."
