It’s been nearly 40 years since anyone other than Gene Pelowski has represented the city of Winona and its neighboring communities in the Minnesota House.
The moderate DFLer announced in January that he was retiring from elected office after representing the southeast Minnesota river city in the legislature for 19 terms. Since then, politicos across the state have dubbed the newly up-for-grabs 26A state House seat as a true swing district race. The winner could help determine which major party controls the legislature in January.
House District 26A was +5 for Gov. Tim Walz in his 2022 re-election bid. But the area has long been represented by the moderately pro-life Pelowski, regarded as one of the more pragmatic Democrats in the legislature in recent years.
While two Winona natives are competing to fill Pelowski’s shoes, voters are faced with a choice. Do they trust Republican Winona City Council member Aaron Repinski? Or professional DFL activist Sarah Kruger?
It depends on who you ask.
Raised in Winona, but does she really live there?
In August, Kruger, a graduate of Smith College in Massachusetts, squeaked out a DFL primary win over Winona County Commissioner Dwayne Voegeli by just 164 votes.
While Kruger leans on being raised in Winona as one of her key bona fides in her race against Repinski, it’s not clear how often or how long Kruger has lived in her hometown in recent years.
When the 38-year-old filed for office earlier this year, she listed the home of her parents, Howard (an attorney) and Tess Kruger (a former college administrator), as her residence.
Kruger had also listed her parents’ home as her filing residence during her 2020 Minnesota Senate campaign (which she lost to Republican incumbent Jeremy Miller). Both Howard and Tess Kruger have held fundraiser gatherings for southern Minnesota Democrats at their home in recent years.
Alpha News reached out to Kruger’s campaign about her recent residency history, which included a series of questions asking Kruger to confirm if she has lived at a residence in Winona over the last five years other than at her parents’ home when running for office and between runs for office, and whether she has split time living in St. Paul and Winona while campaigning. Kruger didn’t return requests for comment on that subject.
She told the Winona Journal in a February interview that she had returned to Winona, saying she “wanted to be closer to family, especially to help care for my uncle Bill, who is intellectually disabled.”
“It is important to our family to have Bill live at home so that we can spend as much time with him as possible,” she said.
Questions about her residency were the subject of a recent letter to the editor in the Winona Post, which included an editor’s note stating that “Kruger said she lives in Winona and spends 1-2 days a week in St. Paul for work.”
“One thing that really [surprised] me is the fact that Sarah Kruger does not work or reside full-time in Winona County and does not pay property taxes in Winona County, and is allowed to seek a seat in the Minnesota House 26A,” wrote the author of the letter, Bruce Reed.
Alpha News also asked Kruger’s campaign to address allegations made by a conservative political action committee, Renew Minnesota, that she was a “live-in” nanny in St. Paul for former DFL legislator John Lesch. While Kruger didn’t return requests for comment to confirm or deny those allegations, recent court documents have shown that Kruger hired Lesch to represent her in a criminal complaint for alleged destruction of property in Winona County.
The complaint was dismissed by the county attorney, but involved the next-door neighbor of Kruger’s parents alleging that Kruger destroyed a fence post that abutted the yard. Twice last year Howard Kruger paid John Lesch and his law firm for “legal services” on Venmo.
In a separate inquiry, a different attorney for the family told Alpha News that the neighbor “admitted under oath that the allegation in the complaint that Sarah Kruger removed her fence post was false.” An attorney for the neighbor declined to comment.
A civil case between Kruger’s parents and the neighbor was dismissed last month. Kruger objected to being deposed in person in that case, according to court documents.
” … my current employment is located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, for an employer which requires my presence in and around the Minnesota Capitol; I routinely work odd hours including weekends; and to travel to Winona for a deposition as demanded by [Defendant] is extremely difficult considering my work responsibilities,” she wrote in an April 2023 affidavit.
Professional DFL activist vs. Mississippi riverboat captain
In her campaign finance report, Kruger lists her job as chief of staff for St. Paul-based FairVote Minnesota in her economic interest statement. Although Kruger doesn’t report her income in the filing, she did report that she receives compensation from the 501c4 organization “for services as an independent contractor or consultant.”
FairVote Minnesota is officially a nonpartisan organization that holds itself out to advocate for voter outreach and improvement in voting laws in Minnesota. In practice, the organization is mostly funded by out-of-state dollars and has almost exclusively partnered with Democrats to push to turn Minnesota into a ranked-choice voting state. It also regularly highlights and promotes DFL candidates for elected office who pledge to support RCV.
While Kruger doesn’t mention in any of her campaign materials or publicly-available work history the length of time she’s worked with FairVote Minnesota as its chief of staff, she is listed on several of its public-facing webpages, albeit with a name that is spelled differently—“Sarah Krueger,”—than what she uses in almost all other forums. Prior to working for FairVote Minnesota, Kruger helped run DFLer Jeff Ettinger’s campaign for Minnesota’s First Congressional District seat in the U.S. House. Ettinger lost his race to Republican Brad Finstad by more than 11 percent.
Kruger’s Republican opponent, Repinski, alluded to questions about Kruger’s residency during a candidate forum last month hosted by the Winona Chamber of Commerce.
“I pay taxes here, I work here,” said Repinski, who owns a tour boat company. “Some of these faces I have seen over and over again, month after month in grocery stores and businesses. I don’t just come and campaign here. I’m from here. I don’t plan on living in the cities. I live here. My family grew up here. I grew up here. My kids grew up here. I attended Winona schools. I went to Winona State. I got my associates degree from Winona State University. I am a very proud Winona person.”
Differing philosophies on government spending
At that same forum, Kruger and Repinski sparred over the growth of government spending.
Kruger, who says her campaign slogan is “meet me in the middle,” professes to be a political centrist and said “I believe the role of a state legislator is to balance a budget, at the end of the day, and to make sure that budget is being used in the best way possible for our local communities here.”
Repinski has pointed out the need to reign in the trajectory of government spending that has ballooned under two years of a DFL “trifecta” at the Capitol.
“Everybody talks about the economy and how we increased our budget by 38 percent over two years, with having a surplus,” Repinski said. “Government needs fiscal responsibility and transparency.”
On Oct. 8, Kruger spoke to local media after a forum with the League of Women Voters of Winona.
“I’ll be voting in a way that is always based on the needs of the district; not necessarily based on a caucus; not based on a party that I’m affiliated with,” Kruger said.
Repinski advantage in campaign cash
As of the end of July, Kruger had raised about $60,000 in her race, but had spent most of it leading up to her competitive primary contest with fellow Democrat Voegeli. Some of those dollars came in the form of donations—both cash and in kind—from her parents. Her pre-primary campaign finance report shows she had about $3,000 in cash on hand heading into August.
Repinski has raised more than $68,000 since he announced his candidacy last fall. He reported nearly $52,000 in cash on hand at the end of July, as he was nearing a Republican primary where he cruised to a win capturing 87 percent of the vote.
This article is part of a series called “Swing-District Spotlight” in which Alpha News examines competitive state legislative seats across Minnesota.
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.
