Julia Coleman announced on Wednesday that she plans to run for the Minnesota Senate District 47 seat in the legislature for the 2020 election and is seeking the endorsement of the Republican Party.
Coleman made the announcement on Facebook saying that the opportunity had been placed before her to serve more people with the seat being vacated by current Senator Scott Jensen who announced his retirement in July.
Coleman worked as a journalist for Alpha News, and lated worked as a public relations manager for a medical innovation nonprofit, was elected to the Chanhassen City Council in 2018. During her tenure on the council Coleman has championed empowerment of small businesses. She was instrumental in helping to establish a new Economic Development Commission which operates in an advisory capacity to the council the Economic Development Authority of Chanhassen to help guide economic development in the city and work to retain and improve existing businesses as well as attract new businesses to the city.
In her public and personal life, Coleman has worked to create awareness about suicide prevention. In her former role as Miss Minneapolis 2014, Coleman (nee Schleising) took part in a video series titled “Call Me Mental” and spoke about her own struggles with depression and encouraged others to speak out and ask for help. Through her work as an ambassador for Suicide Awareness Voices for Education (SAVE) she spoke to groups of people to spread education to help change the stigma of mental illness and depression.
The press release on Coleman’s campaign website states that her priorities if elected to the senate will be “putting power back into the hands of parents when it comes to their child’s education, protecting our constitutional rights, changing how we address healthcare costs, opposing a gas tax increase, and holding bureaucracies – like the Department of Human Services – accountable for how they spend our hard-earned tax dollars.”
SD47 includes the cities of Chaska, Victoria, Waconia, Carver, Hamburg, Cologne, Mayer, New Germany, Norwood Young America and parts of Chanhassen, as well as the townships of Camden, Watertown, Benton, Hancock, Young America, Watertown, San Francisco, Hollywood and Laketown in addition to others.
Coleman lives in Chanhassen and is married to Jacob Coleman, a volunteer firefighter and the son of former Senator Norm Coleman, and they are expecting the birth of their first child shortly.
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