2028 Election — Mayor of Saint Paul
Saint Paul Mayor · 2028 · educational cover · city-run action · American Future Type
This is Side Two
This page is the arena for this office, this cycle. Unique teaching for the job lives on the office twin.
It is not a campaign. Names belong on the official sample ballot. No crown.
The 2028 clock — not 2026, not 2029
- Next regular Mayor election: Tuesday 7 November 2028 (presidential even-year municipal clock after the 2024 charter amendment)
- Last Mayor election: 4 November 2025, for a three-year transition term written into the amendment
- Not 2026. Saint Paul does not elect a Mayor in the midterm even year. Minnesota’s 2026 statewide ballot is a different hiring. Do not invent a 2026 Mayor race for this city.
- Not 2029. A stale odd-year habit is what the 2024 voters retired. Ballotpedia and old calendars that still print 2029 for this Mayor are wrong for this city. The city’s own 2025 adopted budget and the City Council’s own term page say: after 2025, all offices are up in 2028.
- Council is on the same 2028 line. Councilmembers elected 7 November 2023 serve a five-year transition through the end of 2028, then stand with the Mayor.
Confirm the current charter text — Chapter 7, city elections — with the City Clerk. A news recap is not the clock. Ranked-choice counting is how this city hires; there is typically no August partisan primary. Filing dates belong on the Clerk’s and Ramsey County’s notices, not on memory.
This is not a Governor race. Minnesota’s Governor clock is a different office. The 2026 statewide ballot is not this Mayor’s hiring.
Official sample ballot
Do not take names from a news comment or a text thread.
- Official candidate list / sample ballot — Ramsey County Elections and the City Clerk
- Minnesota voter lookup / sample ballot — Minnesota Secretary of State
- Current Mayor of record — Mayor’s Office
- City Hall: 15 Kellogg Boulevard West, Saint Paul, MN 55102
If a site and the official sample ballot disagree, the sample ballot wins.
You are hiring the Mayor of Saint Paul for this city — four years after the transition, strong-mayor charter, seven ward councilors as the check, ranked-choice ballots. Read the office page first. Politics, law, technology, justice, ministry, education, intelligence, and outreach on this land are the job. Not a slogan.
When a night went wrong
A resident who was mistreated files on the city’s official complaint doors, not on a comment section.
- Saint Paul Police — Internal Affairs Unit, reporting to the Chief: 651-266-5577. Internal Affairs
- Police Civilian Internal Affairs Review Commission (PCIARC) — civilian oversight of civilian-initiated complaints, through Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity. Electronic and in-person filing. PCIARC
- Non-emergency police: 651-291-1111 (Ramsey County Dispatch)
- Department of Safety and Inspections information and complaint line: 651-266-8989
- Claims against the city: City Clerk
- Courts: Ramsey County district court is a county docket; federal court is not the Mayor’s complaint box
A comment section cannot discipline. Send people to stpaul.gov. This county’s sheriff complaint box is a different office. Minneapolis Internal Affairs is a different city.
Flood, ice, snow emergency
Mississippi ice, a snow emergency on Kellogg, a water-main break on the East Side, a wreck that dumps I-94 onto city pavement, a heat day that opens cooling centers. Mutual aid with Minneapolis and the inner-ring suburbs is real. Minneapolis is not Saint Paul’s firehouse. The Governor’s emergency desk is later. This hydrant is first.
Public Works moves snow and water. SPRWS restores mains. 911 is the life call. 651-266-8989 and 651-266-9700 are the next morning’s work order. A resident who waits for a statewide press conference has waited too long. Confirm snow-emergency status on official city products — 651-266-PLOW — not on a group chat.
What the people are buying
Four years of a full-time chief executive after the three-year transition. Police night shift. Fire and EMS. Plows. Trash. Sidewalks. A municipally owned water utility. A complaint line that actually closes tickets. A budget the Council can see and amend. Papers the city has to serve. Transports. A ladder company on an East Side duplex. Streetlights on a Frogtown block that never makes a postcard.
The staff is the office. A serious Mayor is a serious principal: clear priorities, honest 651-266-8989, no rumor as policy. You are not hiring a Governor. You are not hiring a sheriff. You are not hiring Minneapolis.
The clock on this desk
Arrest, booking, presentment, property, permits, hearings, civil service, union clocks, ranked-choice tabulation. The Constitution does not pause because a radio is busy. Minnesota’s voter-ID, absentee, and registration rules are rights with a procedure, not slogans. Charter, ordinance, and state election law set the filing dates. Do not teach a shortcut.
A vacancy is written: next general, or a special if the wait is more than 180 days before that general, when the opening is before July 1 of the third year. A recall, if anyone files one, is a Minnesota statutory machine — confirm with the Clerk and the Secretary of State, not with a thread.
Rights this office must not run over
Counsel. Property. Peaceable assembly on the Capitol lawn and in the neighborhoods — the lawn is state ground; the neighborhoods are city. Equal protection from the East Side to Highland, from the West Side south of the river to Como. Speech. Religion. Disability access at the clerk’s window. Language access on the complaint line. The right to file a police complaint with Internal Affairs and with PCIARC. The right to a sample ballot that is Ramsey County’s and the Clerk’s, not a PAC’s. The right to rank candidates on this city’s ballot.
The Mayor is a servant of this city, not a brand. Minneapolis is not this vote. Duluth is not this vote. 2026 is not this race. 2029 is not this race.