Duluth businessman Shawn Savela launches bid for Minnesota House seat
Shawn Savela has entered the District 8B race again, setting up a rematch with Liish Kozlowski in a Duluth-centered seat where housing, taxes and public safety loom large.
Shawn Savela has reopened the fight for Minnesota House District 8B, bringing a second campaign for a seat that covers parts of Duluth and St. Louis County and is already shaping up as a referendum on who best speaks for eastern Duluth.
Savela, a Duluth resident and small business owner with more than 25 years in the private sector, announced on May 26 that he is seeking the House seat now held by DFL Rep. Liish Kozlowski. He is running as a Republican and is leaning on a message of local roots, business experience and what he describes as a reform-minded agenda for St. Paul.
The district matters because its boundaries run through neighborhoods voters know well, including eastern Duluth from East Hillside to Brighton Beach. The filing period for Minnesota legislative candidates runs through June 2, leaving room for more entrants before the August 11 primary and the November 3 general election.
Savela’s campaign platform reaches well beyond the usual stump speech. He says he wants to advance safe and responsible mining in Northern Minnesota while protecting the environment, strengthen the Office of the Inspector General to prevent fraud and pursue past fraud, protect women’s sports, defend constitutional rights, and eliminate taxpayer benefits for illegal immigrants while enforcing immigration laws. He has also said his campaign is about building a future for children and grandchildren rather than personal ambition.
This is not Savela’s first try at public office. He ran for the Minnesota House in 2024 and lost decisively to Kozlowski, who won 17,440 votes, or 68.53 percent, to Savela’s 7,954 votes, or 31.25 percent. The Duluth News Tribune reported a nearly identical result, 17,443 to 7,956. Savela also ran for Duluth City Council in 2023 but did not advance out of the primary.
The race now gives voters a clear contrast. Kozlowski has framed the job around housing, safety, clean drinking water, healthcare access and livable wages. Savela is pushing a sharply different emphasis, with more attention to business regulation, taxes, fraud enforcement and social policy. In a district that blends city neighborhoods with county precincts, those differences are likely to define the campaign long before ballots are cast.
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?
