A progressive member of Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board who cast the lone dissenting vote among her colleagues in March 2022 to end masking requirements for students won a competitive DFL primary contest on Thursday for a vacant south metro seat in the state legislature.
Bianca Virnig beat out three other candidates all competing to affix the Democratic-Farmer-Labor label next to their name on the Dec. 5 ballot for the House District 52B special election.
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A metro area DFL legislator who is also the CEO for the regional Planned Parenthood chapter based in the Twin Cities is continuing to navigate rough waters in her day job.
Ruth Richardson was named the top executive of the Planned Parenthood North Central States chapter in September 2022 — just weeks before she was re-elected to the Minnesota House to represent the southeast metro suburbs of Mendota Heights, Sunfish Lake and part of Eagan. Her recent appointment as CEO of the most powerful abortion rights lobby organization in the upper Midwest drew criticism from some conservatives in Minnesota political circles who suggested a state legislator shouldn’t also lead such an organization because of inevitable conflicts of interest she would face in votes at the Capitol.
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The CEO of Minnesota’s largest abortion provider is also a sitting legislator who is sponsoring and voting on bills to expand abortion access.
Rep. Ruth Richardson, DFL-Mendota Heights, voted in favor of the “Protect Reproductive Options (PRO) Act” last week, a bill that would enshrine the “fundamental right” to abortion in Minnesota law.
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A sitting DFL legislator plans to continue serving in the Minnesota House despite just being named the new CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which provides abortions to women in the Upper Midwest.
Rep. Ruth Richardson defended her new position in a statement Wednesday, saying she won’t “oversee political work or lobbying for Planned Parenthood while I hold this legislative seat.”
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A Minnesota House committee approved a resolution Tuesday declaring racism a statewide “public health crisis.”
The resolution passed out of the House Rules Committee and now heads to the House floor for debate, with a final vote expected for July 20.
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