Brian Hobson announces run for District 5A

Brian Hobson of Park Rapids, chair of the Hubbard County DFL, was endorsed to run for Minnesota House District 5A in a virtual District 5A session Saturday, June 11.

When DFLers convened for the Senate District 5 convention in April in Wadena, no one came forward to be endorsed for the House seat carved out in the newly redrawn 5A boundaries. Hobson said he decided the Republican-endorsed candidate needs to be challenged and the DFL needs to gain House seats in St. Paul.

“I am rural Minnesotan through and through,” Hobson said in a news release. Hobson stated he grew up in Pine City, where his dad was school superintendent and his mom worked in the county attorney’s office.

“You can well imagine that I learned very early on about responsibility and doing the right thing. It was crystal clear that my name had better never cross either of my parents’ desks,” Hobson stated.

He reported he also was a worker from a very young age, adopting a mowing business from his older brother when he was 12 and growing it from a few lawns into a nearly full time spring-summer-fall job.

After attending Gustavus Adolphus College, Hobson taught elementary music in Hinckley, was a dean of students at a charter school, taught younger students about technology, design and engineering in Menahga, and lived and taught math, science and technology in Sweden for two years.

Throughout his teaching career, he continued to expand his abilities and professional credentials with a master’s degree and additional licensure areas. Hobson currently teaches in the Laporte School and reports he will have a class of expectant, busy and ingenious third graders ready to learn in the fall.

“I am running to represent the people in Minnesota House District 5A because when I see a job that needs to be done, I step up,” Hobson said. “I am running because I think young people deserve the promise of a top notch education that each generation promises to the next generation even if they live in a small town. I am running because I am a teacher and as a teacher I watch my colleagues get to school early, stay late, engage with each and every student, and work through challenges that most people never see or know about; I try to live up to that example of professionalism, diligence, grace and hard work.

“I am running because we in rural Minnesota know the value of hard work and know that work should be valued and rewarded. I am running to try to make our rural towns places where young people can stay, return to or move into to have meaningful and enjoyable lives near people they love, with careers of which they can be proud, and the economic stability they need to prosper.

“Can I be a part of the solution, listen to good ideas, work with people who share an interest in solving problems, improving lives and working toward our best ideals? I will do my best.”