BABBIT — This town needs a dentist.
“We have a remodeled dentist’s office, but no dentist,” lamented Andrea Zupancich, Babbitt’s mayor and the Republican up against state Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, in the race to represent Minnesota’s Senate District 3, which spans 14,809 square miles and industries swaying between prosperity and peril. “We can’t find a dentist to come up here.”
I sit across from Zupancich in her z’Up North Realty Office. Before me are a painting of a moose, a moose silhouette and a placard that reads, “Not a creature was stirring, not even a moose.”
I ask Zupancich what is left to discuss. She brings up the dentist again.
“If someone wants to be a dentist here, it would be easy peasy to get new clients.”
I spent three days in late July in the third district, driving from Knife River to Ely to Babbitt back to Ely to Biwabik, and spent time with Zupancich and Hauschild.
Their race, one of a handful that might dictate which party controls the Minnesota Senate next year, is a sequel to the 2022 race for the then-open seat. Hauschild won 50.8% to 49.2%.
If money tells all, Hauschild will win again.
Hauschild, who worked full-time as a fundraiser for Essentia Health before he joined the Legislature and now is a part-time consultant for the healthcare provider, reported to state officials $230,000 cash on hand as of July 20, a total propelled by $75,000 in individual contributions in 2026 so far.
His opponent had $79,000 available through the third week of July and had raised $26,000 in individual donations. Zupancich, who does not enjoy raising money as much as Hauschild, dismissed the funding chasm.
“The Iron Range is ready for a senator that will put them first, not liberal party bosses,” a Zupancich spokesperson said.
Here is what I learned on my trip and why local issues could play an outsized role in the race.
A district on fire
I visited Ely as fires in the nearby Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness disrupted the usually buzzing summer tourist town.
“The story here is the wildfires,” Paddle Inn proprietor Jeff Bogart told me.
I joined Bogart at a “customer appreciation night” along the parking lot that had a grill, potato salad and cookies in grocery store shrinkwrap, and Bemidji IPA.
The customers Bogart was thanking were forest service personnel who had traveled from New Mexico to New Jersey to put out blazes erupting just north of Ely.
(The appreciation appeared mutual. The Paddle Inn was likely more comfortable than the tents that lined Ely softball fields, which other firefighters stayed in and were expecting to camp in until the end of August.)
Firefighters plus evacuees kept the lights on at Ely hotels as tourists canceled trips after the U.S. Forest Service shuttered the Boundary Waters, portions of which have since reopened.
A meeting at the Vermilion Community College auditorium focused on the economic impact of the fires. Business owners such as Jason Sabortosky, who runs Ely Outfitting Company, said that they had hemorrhaged tens of thousands of dollars due to cancellations.
Said Ely Chamber of Commerce President Tanner Spicer, “The driving force of our economy here is tourism and just tourism.”
Why we’re not polarized
Sharing the stage at Vermilion were Hauschild and state Rep. Roger Skraba, a Republican and former mayor of Ely.
“The beauty of what makes northern Minnesota special is that we are lucky to have both sides of the aisle represented down at the Capitol,” Hauschild said. “Both Roger and I can go to our caucuses and say this is really important.”
If Aaron Kania, Skraba’s expected DFL opponent, took exception to Hauschild’s remark, he did not show it when he took the mic at the event and personally thanked Skraba for his service over the past week.
Yes, politicians can be more inclined to cooperate in a peacetime emergency, which is what Gov. Tim Walz declared the fires to be in a July 12 executive order. But diverse viewpoints abounded in the towns I visited.
On Sheridan Street in Ely, a “My dog is smarter than Trump” sign in someone’s window was three doors down from a banner that read, “This is Ultra MAGA country.”
Over my chai latte and his ginger lemon Olipop at Northern Grounds in Ely, Hauschild said his district is “special” and “unique,” with a history of political independence.
“I get to represent some of the most beautiful, well-recognized places in Minnesota,” he said, noting the Boundary Waters, North Shore and Voyagers National Park.
But are Hauschild’s actions really different from a garden variety DFLer?
“His voting record speaks for itself, and I don’t think that necessarily aligns with how the district truly feels,” Zupancich said.
Zupancich discussed Hauschild’s vote in May to ban assault weapons. In tears, Hauschild said then on the Senate floor that he sought to honor the wishes of families affected by the fatal shooting last year at Annunciation School and Church in Minneapolis.
Hauschild cast the deciding vote to pass the ban, but the bill predictably died in the House. Zupancich said that residents in Babbitt are suspicious of any gun control legislation.
“This town, like all the towns up in the Iron Range, the kids would bring their guns to school and then have practice afterwards,” she said. “And there weren’t any school shootings then.”
Hauschild has heard “from both sides of the issue” since his vote, and said it does not come up often when he knocks on constituent’s doors.
The state lawmaker said that he votes on gun measures on a case-by-case basis. He supports the red flag gun law, which lets someone petition a court to take away a family or household member’s gun. But the senator opposes a bill to keep firearms unloaded in a locked storage unit.
“I don’t think that makes sense for northern Minnesota,” he said. “We have people that do have their guns out to protect from wildlife.”
Hauschild listed off ways in which he claimed to have helped the third district through bipartisan legislation.
One was work on rural ambulance aid and helping to secure $6 million specifically toward the Iron Range. Another involved work on new rescue ships at Grand Marais following the 2022 departure of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Different in background and personality
Hauschild earned a master’s degree in public policy analysis from George Washington University and worked in Washington, D.C., for the Obama administration and former U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.
His answers to my questions were quick, polished, verbose and fairly concrete. For example, as one should expect from an Iron Range legislator, he lucidly discussed taxes from mining and his district’s share of that revenue.
Zupancich acted more laid back.
When I asked how her campaign is faring, she said, “Good,” took a pause, and added, “yeah, lots of good stuff. Lots of really good feedback.”
Zupancich’s husband is the fifth-generation owner of Northern Minnesota grocery chain Zup’s.
Across the Babbitt Zup’s parking lot is z’up North Realty where Zupancich deals with a combination of seasonal and year-round property owners and houses priced from $148,000 to $3 million.
“We have the big lakes, the smaller lakes, the recreational lakes. It all depends on the water wants,” she said.
Zupancich lamented a decline in resources in Babbitt.
Besides a shortage of health care professionals, there is also a dearth of plumbers and electricians. When someone came into the realty office to write a home inspection check, Zupancich called him the handyman everyone’s been talking about.
She also evinced a weariness of the tourism economy.
“Tourism is so cyclical and weather dependent and fad driven,” Zupancich said. “I don’t want to be a sherpa to someone. And sometimes I feel like that’s how people treat us.”
An economic turning point
If the 3rd District were to pivot away from tourism, Zupancich would like to see a greater focus on timber and helium. Pulsar Helium escalated its drilling near Babbitt over the last three years.
Hauschild also mentioned helium, and spoke well of Mesabi Metallics, the first new mine set to open on the Iron Range in decades.
An issue that has garnered statewide attention is whether Hauschild’s hometown of Hermantown should accept Google’s proposal to build a data center.
Hauschild called for state regulations on data centers, such as banning secret agreements between a company like Google and a city government like Hermantown. Zupancich said she was still learning about the issue.
To be sure, the state Senate race could come down to voter enthusiasm about the gubernatorial or U.S. Senate election, or just how voters feel toward President Donald Trump. But there is more than enough happening for the contest to boil down to local issues.
“What keeps me up at night, frankly, is kind of what is happening now, which is that things that are out of my control, like a natural disaster, would throw our economy into a tailspin that could really impact people’s lives,” Hauschild said.
