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While State Sen. Grant Hauschild (D) addressed numerous issues during a town hall session Tuesday in Ely, copper-nickel mining clearly overshadowed everything else.
Joined by Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Hauschild fielded questions for nearly 90 minutes before a packed house of roughly 250 people inside the theater on the Vermilion campus of Minnesota North College.
But health care, ambulance service, housing, education and the state budget took a backseat to the hot-button mining issue, which was raised time and again by a largely anti-mining audience.
Hauschild walked a political tightrope of sorts, reiterating his support for projects such as the Twin Metals Minnesota initiative near Ely, if it can meet environmental standards set by the state.
“My position is that I don’t think mining decisions should be determined by presidential election politics,” said Hauschild. “This concerns me. I would like there to be a process at the state level that determines whether or not an individual mine plan can happen safely, effectively and in an environmentally friendly way.”
That response came to a question from longtime wilderness advocate Becky Rom of Ely, who railed against executive orders issued by the Trump Administration and asked Hauschild to “protect the Boundary Waters from the Trump Administration” and support state proposals to permanently protect the wilderness.
While Hauschild’s response came less than 10 minutes into the session, he answered similar variations of the same question several times during the event.
He voiced opposition to the moratorium on copper-nickel mining and exploration on national forest land, issued by the Biden Administration, but was also critical for Trump for going “too far from the objective process we have in the state of Minnesota.”
“What I don’t agree with is the Trump Administration on is expediting permits, opening all federal land to mining and not looking at policies that protect our environment,” said Hauschild. “I think we have done mining well in Minnesota and can determine whether Twin Metals can happen, or Talon, or NewRange.”
Hauschild said he regretted writing Trump a letter on the mining issue, saying “given what I’ve seen I don’t think it was the right thing to do, but I still have the same position that I want there to be an objective process.”
Later, Hauschild heard from speakers who supported a ban on copper-nickel mining projects in the region and another who mistakenly charged that mining was proposed inside the federal wilderness area.
Megan Brooks asked Hauschild “what is your stance, are you advocating for or against it?”
After Hauschild reiterated his position, Brooks said “So yes or no?”
“I’m for it if it’s analyzed by the DNR and goes through the process,” said Hauschild.
The change in administration in Washington was another hot topic, with Hauschild blasting Trump for “across the board firings (of federal workers) and cuts coming down the pike on Medicare and Medicaid. These are things that I think will impact our lives most directly and I’m not afraid to call out bad ideas.”
Murphy agreed and said “what the current president is doing is outside the boundaries. He’s often breaking the law, stripping away the responsibility of Congress. We are in a place that I hoped we would never be. The first Trump Administration was not this cavalier or reckless.”
State budget talks were also a point of contention, amid questions about funding for rural ambulance services and housing.
Hauschild took issue with the House budget, which maintains a $1.3 billion deficit.
“I really think we have to be responsible and balance our budget,” said Hauschild. “The House’s budget, at least in my opinion, is fake. They’re putting numbers in housing or transportation that in my opinion look pretty phony when you have a deficit hanging out there.”
Hudson Kingston of Fall Lake Township told the legislators “we are getting our butts kicked up here with climate change. Last winter wasn’t even winter... this is a problem. We need to address climate change.”
Reid Carron asked “that you do everything you can to support the University of Minnesota,” noting that the Trump Administration has identified “15 or so major universities as the targets of their wrath. By the strangest of coincidences they all happen to be in states that Trump lost.”
“We have taconite mining in Minnesota because of Dr. Davis and the team that he led,” said Carron, who added that he had clips on a valve in his heart that were installed by a doctor who trained at the University of Minnesota.
A question related to oligarchy and the Trump Administration brought this response.
“There is an oligarchy right now,” said Hauschild. “If you look at the top point-one percent. Not the top 10 percent, the top five percent, not the top one percent. But the top point-one percent. They own more wealth right now than the bottom 90. That is an oligarchy.”
In response, Hauschild touted a plan to tax social media companies in Minnesota.
“This would go after Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk,” said Hauschild.
Hauschild pointed to the state’s business climate and said “it’s not just about mining. I would argue it’s about far, far more than mining. In the state of Minnesota, we have to be competitive. And I’m a Democrat. I believe in government. I believe we can impact people’s lives in a positive way using government. But if I believe in government, I also have to make sure that it actually works for people on the ground.”
James Devine of Ely took issue with a contention that few young people are interested in mining jobs, noting that his son is pursuing a career in mining engineering and pointing to another high-achieving Ely student who went on to the South Dakota School of Mines.
Devine also said he wished that “one-20th” of the town hall audience was at the Ely School Board meeting the night before, when school officials in Ely made over $450,000 in budget cuts in response to higher expenditures and declining enrollments.
Hauschild responded with concerns about the challenges rural schools are facing and noted his efforts to pass legislation that would make cabin owners responsible for operating levies in the school district where their property is located.
“This is an incredible inequity,” Hauschild said of the current law. “It’s an issue created by the Ventura and Pawlenty administrations when there were budget problems.”
Hauschild also noted an array of efforts to help rural ambulance services, including legislation passed in 2023 that provided an infusion of aid for services in small communities including Ely.
The town hall was part of a busy day in Ely for both Hauschild and Murphy.
Before the town hall, they toured the Pulsar Helium site near Babbitt, while they also visited Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital.
