Minnesota gun debate could sway Beltrami County voters in November
Beltrami County's mix of hunters, tribal communities and Bemidji voters could make Minnesota's gun fight decisive in House District 2B and two county board races.
Gun policy is not playing out as an abstract St. Paul fight in Beltrami County. It is landing in a county that spans more than 3,000 square miles, where the sheriff’s office says it protects more than 47,000 residents and where the July 1, 2025 population estimate was 47,055.
That matters because Beltrami County’s electorate is not one thing. The U.S. Census Bureau says 21.7% of residents identify as American Indian and Alaska Native alone, while the county also includes Bemidji voters, rural townships, reservation communities and seasonal visitors who push the summertime population far above the year-round count. In a place where hunting, sport shooting and protection are all part of the firearms conversation, the gun debate could split voters less along party lines than along experience and geography.
The issue sharpened after Gov. Tim Walz and DFL legislative leaders released a special-session proposal on gun violence and school safety on Sept. 30, 2025. Walz’s office later said he became the first Minnesota governor to use executive orders on gun violence through orders 25-12 and 25-13 in December. In the 2025-2026 session, lawmakers also took up HF 5140, a broad bill that would regulate semiautomatic military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, change dangerous-weapons-in-schools and firearm-storage provisions, criminalize ghost guns and appropriate money for the effort. The Minnesota Senate passed a separate gun-violence-prevention package on May 4 by a 34-33 party-line vote, but House Republicans have stayed firmly opposed, leaving the proposal in doubt.
That statewide fight could filter down into November’s local races. Beltrami County’s District 1 and District 3 county board seats are on the ballot, and in House District 2B, Republican Rep. Matt Bliss is being challenged by Emily Thabes, who announced her candidacy on March 13, 2026 and serves as executive director of the Beltrami County Historical Society. The gun debate gives both parties a way to talk to voters who may not be thinking about party labels first, especially in a county where public safety, access to guns and the rights of lawful owners all carry local weight.
Polling cited by Everytown for Gun Safety found 61% of surveyed likely 2026 Minnesota voters supported a state assault-weapons ban and 64% supported banning high-capacity magazines. But rural Minnesotans are more likely than urban residents to own guns, and rural gun owners more often say they own firearms for protection, hunting and sport shooting. In Beltrami County, where a 2025 accidental shooting already fed local concern, that mix suggests the gun issue could shape turnout more than persuasion, with hunters and rural owners resisting new limits while Bemidji-area voters focused on public safety may be more receptive.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
