Election results are in for the fall election, with many winners.
Winning a fifth term to make history, Mayor Myron Bailey took 94.87 percent of the vote with 18,174 votes to 983 write-ins. The victory sets Bailey to become the longest serving mayor in Cottage Grove history, surpassing Roger Peterson.
Also in results from Cottage Grove, Justin Olsen and David Clausen were elected to council seats. Olsen received 41.4 percent of the vote or 12,112 votes total, while Clausen received 9,310 votes or 31.82 percent of the three way vote split. Polling third was Tony Khambata with 7,320 votes total or 25.02 percent of the total, with 512 write-ins also cast.
Finally for Cottage Grove, Monique Garza won her special election council seat with 15,058 or 97.28 percent of total votes to 421 write-ins.
Up at Woodbury, meanwhile, Kim Wilson and Donna Stafford were elected to Council, Wilson receiving 14,592 votes or 24.52 percent of the total while Stafford received 9,601 votes or 16.13 percent of the total, out of a field of eight candidates. There were 630 write-ins for Woodbury Council, totaling 1.06 percent of the total.
Over at Newport, Mayor Laurie Elliott won reelection with 96.16 percent or 1,627 votes to just 65 write-ins, while Marvin Taylor won reelection to Council with 1,016 votes or 33.97 percent of the total in a field with four candidates. Also at Newport, Josh Schmidt will take the seat of Kevin Chapdelaine with 752 votes or 25.14 percent of the total. Chapedelaine’s terms expires Dec. 31 of this year. Paul Hansen received 655 votes for Newport City Council while Brian Xiong received 525 votes.
As for township races, Richard ‘Dick’ Polta won Grey Cloud Island Township Supervisor Seat B with 141 votes to 18 write-ins, while Jake Jones won Supervisor Seat C with 138 votes to nine write-ins.
Keshia Jones won Town Treasurer with 149 votes to two write-ins.
At Denmark Township a similar result prevailed, with Peter J. Flock winning Supervisor Seat 1 with 868 votes to 26 write-ins, while John Strohfus won Supervisor Seat 3 with 892 votes to 38 write-ins. Hassan Sahouani won Supervisor Seat 4 with 835 votes to 28 write-ins.
Located partly in Washington County, Wendi Shilts-Johnson won Washington County vote for Hastings Ward 2 Council, receiving one vote to zero for Mya Beck. Overall the race went to Beck, who received 1,343 votes in Dakota County to 1,135 for Shilts-Johnson.
In county level races, Bethany Cox defeated Mark Wiens for District 3 Washington County Commissioner, Cox receiving 14,348 total votes to 13,685 for Wiens.
On the state level, Wayne A. Johnson narrowly defeated Lucia Wroblewski for State Assembly District 41A, polling 15,167 votes to 14,480 for Wroblewski.
In Seat 41B, Tom Dippel defeated Jen Fox among Washington County voters with 5,475 votes for Dippel to 5,261 votes for Fox. This mirrored the overall results, with Dippel winning Seat 41B.
In Seat 53B embracing southwest Washington County, Rick Hansen defeated Aaron M. Brooksby with 4,643 votes two 3,929 for Brooksby. Seat 47A went to Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger with 10,845 votes to 7,218 for challenger Teresa Whitson, while Seat 47B went to Ethan Cha, who received 14,202 votes to 11,867 for challenger Dwight Dorau.
As for state judicial races, Supreme Court Chief Justice went to Natalie E. Hudson with 1,529,064 votes to 872,727 for Stephen A. Amery, with 9,023 write-ins. Karl Procaccini won Associate Supreme Court Justice with 1,322,182 votes to 1,003,984 for opponent Matthew R. Hanson. A total of 8,908 votes were write-ins. Other judgeship races were uncontested.
On the federal level, Angie Craig was reelected to U.S. House District 2 with 20,537 votes or 56.82 percent, while Amy Klobuchar was reelected to the U.S. Senate with 1,789,118 votes or 56.20 percent of the total. Of these, 96,677 votes were from Washington County. Kamala Harris won Washington County with 90,374 votes to 75,271 for Trump, also taking Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes.
As for ballot questions, voters statewide overwhelmingly approved a State constitutional amendment for Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund Renewal, with 2,526,209 ‘yes’ votes statewide to 530,506 votes against. A total of 206,691 voters were estimated to have left the question blank, for an estimated total vote of 3,263,406 votes, with 77.41 percent being in favor.
A referendum related to the public safety campus at Woodbury passed with 24,106 votes or 54.38 percent in favor to 20,226 votes or 45.62 percent against, while all three city parks referenda in Cottage Grove were voted down by voters.
For precinct level election results, head to https://electionresults.sos.mn.gov/.