It was a good night for most incumbents in area elections on Tuesday night as two of the four Crookston City Council members won reelection, all three Crookston School Board members won reelection, State Representative Deb Kiel, and State Senator Mark Johnson all won reelection.
CROOKSTON CITY COUNCIL
Crookston City Council will have one new face and three familiar faces in 2021 with long-time City Council member and former Mayor Wayne Melbye winning the City Council At-Large spot by beating incumbent Bobby Baird by 402 votes. “It feels pretty good,” said Melbye. “I think there is some room for improvement and some different ideas and get everybody on board. It will be a lot of work, but I hope with my experience I can help.”
Kristie Jerde won the Ward 1 race by beating incumbent Jake Fee by 116 votes to give the council the first female since Cindy Gjerswald was on the council a few years ago. KROX tried to contact Jerde on Tuesday night, but there was no answer.
In Ward 3, Incumbent Clayton Briggs narrowly defeated Blake Royal by 27 votes. “I would thank the residents of Ward 3 for voting for me,” said Briggs. “I think we have to work together and that is what I am hoping for.”
In Ward 5, Incumbent Joe Kresl won reelection by beating Casey Anderson by 51 votes. “It feels pretty darn good,” said Kresl. “I have been on the council for eight months and I am hoping to do whatever I can to move Crookston forward. Our new City Administrator is doing an amazing job so far and I think Crookston should be able to move forward.”
| At-Large |
Votes | WARD 1 | Votes | |
| Wayne Melbye | 1391 | Kristie Jerde | 298 | |
| Bobby Baird (I) | 989 | Jake Fee (I) | 182 | |
| Morgan Hibma | 623 | |||
| WARD 3 | WARD 5 | |||
| Clayton Briggs (I) | 261 | Joe Kresl (I) | 243 | |
| Blake Royal | 234 | Casey Anderson | 192 | |
| Marc Palmer | 54 |
CROOKSTON SCHOOL BOARD – (3 spots)
The Crookston School Board had all three incumbents win reelection with Dave Davidson receiving the most votes, 22 votes better than Mike Theis.
The leading vote-getter Dave Davidson said he was humbled. “First of all I am very grateful to all the citizens that voted for school board and I think education is important,” said Davidson. “What really makes me really happy is that all three incumbents were re-elected to the board. I think we have a good school board and it is time to buckle down and face a lot of challenges.”
Current School Board Chair, Frank Fee had the third-most votes. “I think the people like where we are, as far as the school district is, and what we have done so far and have the confidence in us to keep it going,” said Fee. “As a school board we currently get along and we have a great superintendent.”
KROX tried to reach Mike Theis Tuesday night, but there was no answer.
| Candidate Final |
Votes |
| Dave Davidson (I) | 2326 |
| Mike Theis (I) | 2304 |
| Frank Fee (I) | 1971 |
| Marcia Meine | 1558 |
| Jason Klinnert | 1337 |
POLK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS –
Jerry Jacobson won reelection by almost doubling his opponent’s votes in the Polk County Commissioner District 1 race.
In District 3, Gary Willhite was unopposed in his reelection campaign and will get four more years.
In District 5, Don Deidrich announced he wasn’t going to run for reelection and Mark Holy beat Tim Finseth by 348 votes to become the District 5 Commission in 2021.
| DISTRICT 1 Final |
Votes | DISTRICT 3 Final |
Votes | |
| Jerry Jacobson (I) | 1806 | Gary Willhite (I) | 2201 | |
| Travis Johnson | 962 | |||
| DISTRICT 5 Final |
||||
| Mark Holy | 1532 | |||
| Tim Finseth | 1184 |
MN HOUSE DISTRICT 1B AND MN SENATE DISTRICT 1
Republican incumbents Deb Kiel and Mark Johnson easily won the House District 1B and Senate District 1 races as expected.
Kiel, of Crookston, had just shy of 71 percent of the vote to win and will serve her sixth term. “I appreciate all the support everybody has given me,” said Kiel. “I am hoping to work on healthcare issues and more importantly we will have to get the budget in line and to make sure we are safe, especially in the Twin Cities, and support our law enforcement.”
Johnson won with just under 70 percent of the vote to get his second term. KROX tried to contact Johnson on Tuesday night and wasn’t able to get a hold of him.
| District 1B 123 of 123 |
Votes | District 1 277 of 277 |
Votes | |
| Deb Kiel (I) | 13,896 | Mark Johnson (I) | 27,943 | |
| Cindy Ansbacher | 5,680 | Reed Perkins | 12,147 |
U.S. CONGRESS AND SENATE RACES
| Rep. District 7 Final |
Votes | Senate 4105 of 4110 |
Votes | |
| Michelle Fischbach | 193,312 | Tina Smith (I) | 1,544,781 | |
| Collin Peterson (I) | 144,460 | Jason Lewis | 1,376,617 |
AREA ELECTION RESULTS-
CLIMAX MAYOR – FINAL
Jim Litch – 78
Duane Midboe – 28
CLIMAX SCHOOL BOARD (Elect Three) FINAL
Molly Paulsrud – 202
Brad Erickson-193
Beth Rarick-187
EAST GRAND FORKS SCHOOL BOARD (Elect Three) FINAL
Eric Useldinger-3274
Brandon Boespflug-2586
Lynn Brott-2285
FERTILE-BELTRAMI SCHOOL BOARD (Elect Three) Final
Nathan Stuhaug-1276
Kylie Strem-1188
Nathan Rasch-1011
Zina Ivanov-401
FERTILE MAYOR FINAL
Daniel Wilkens-222
Brian Nephew-207
FISHER SCHOOL BOARD (Elect Three) FINAL
Josh Korynta-336
Lance Reitmeier-334
Sara Quirk-283
Isaiah Henderson-181
Chrysti (Sander) Nielsen-113
Jennifer Mooney-82
FISHER MAYOR FINAL
Emily Tinkham-137
Elizabeth (Liz) Barrett-50
RED LAKE FALLS SCHOOL BOARD (Elect Three) FINAL
Chris Cardinal-830
Mike Swendra-743
Beth Keller-723
Matthew J Knutson-656
STEPHEN-ARGYLE SCHOOL BOARD (Elect Three) FINAL
Steve McGlynn-690
Dustin Grabowska-679
Katie Adolphson-599
Johnathon J. Kazmierczak-566
Christopher Kuznia-366
WARREN-ALVARADO-OSLO SCHOOL BOARD (Elect Three) FINAL
Sally Roller-1327
Darby Boe-1142
Mark Jones-1019
Joe Pierce-912
