Hauschild files for re-election in key North Shore Senate race

Grant Hauschild’s filing for re-election put Minnesota Senate District 3 on the board as one of Northern Minnesota’s most closely watched races heading into 2026. The seat stretches across the Iron Range, the North Shore, the Canadian border and communities outside Duluth, giving Lake County voters a direct stake in who carries their concerns to St. Paul.

Hauschild, a DFLer elected in 2022, is seeking a second term after first winning the seat in a close race against Republican Andrea Zupancich. The rematch already has the outline of a campaign that will be fought in familiar terrain: local taxes, roads, health care and the day-to-day cost of keeping rural communities functioning when the tax base is thin and distances are long.

Hauschild has made his pitch around results and bipartisan leadership, tying his record to property tax relief, support for rural ambulance services and efforts to stabilize rural hospitals. Those are not abstract issues in Lake County, where emergency response times, school funding and highway investment often depend on state decisions because local governments have limited room to raise money on their own. For residents in Two Harbors, Silver Bay, Isabella and the surrounding North Shore communities, the next Senate term could shape how much attention those needs receive in the Capitol.

His campaign also signals that the contest may become more competitive than a routine incumbent defense. Zupancich, now mayor of Babbitt and a local business owner, has already said she will run again as a Republican. That gives the race a built-in storyline from 2022, when Hauschild edged her in one of the district’s tightest recent contests after Tom Bakk retired.

Hauschild’s role in the Minnesota Senate also gives him a larger profile than a typical freshman lawmaker. He is serving his first term, was elected in 2022, and now holds the post of assistant majority leader. He also sits as vice chair of the Labor and Taxes committees and serves on Education Policy and Environment, Climate and Legacy. Those assignments point to the issues likely to define the campaign: jobs, taxes, schools and stewardship of the North Shore’s land and water.

Minnesota has 67 Senate districts, each representing about 85,172 people, and Senate terms run four years unless redistricting changes the cycle. In District 3, the early filing marks the start of a race that could again test how well each party speaks to mining towns, small businesses, tribal communities and North Shore residents who want state government focused on roads, emergency services and the rural economy.