Skraba, Kania differ over economic development paths

REGIONAL- As northeastern Minnesota faces rising costs, housing shortages and challenges in rural health care, state Republican Rep. Roger Skraba and Democrat challenger Aaron Kania are facing off for the Minnesota House of Representatives District 3A seat.
Skraba, who has served four years in the state House, argues that boosting the economy by expanding natural-resource industries, reducing unnecessary regulations and strengthening oversight of public spending are the best ways to ease those pressures. Kania, a former U.S. Forest Service district ranger, emphasizes renewable energy, workforce development and policies designed explicitly to make essential goods and services more affordable.
“Really, it’s about the economics of the area. You know, it really does come down to jobs,” Kania said of his platform.
For Skraba, the region’s economic future depends on developing the natural resources that have supported its communities in the past.
“If you take it off the table because it’s bad and it’s evil and it’s not good, then how are you going to get those jobs here?” Skraba said, referring to mining.
He argues that tourism, while important to the region, cannot provide enough well-paying jobs to sustain communities and attract younger residents. Wages for many tourism workers, including hotel employees, are not enough to support a household, Skraba said.
“If you’re working there, you’re making 20 bucks an hour maybe,” he said.
Skraba pointed to population decline in Ely as evidence that the region needs more high-paying jobs.
Kania also sees the regional economy as closely tied to its natural resources, but he advocates a different strategy that connects existing industries with emerging markets.
“We have to look at our whole economy,” he said.
Kania sees green energy as a potential economic driver for the region. He cited biomass energy produced from waste wood, iron-air batteries and expanded iron processing as opportunities to create jobs while making use of resources already available in the region.
He also argued that state leaders should help create demand for locally produced materials rather than focusing exclusively on increasing production.
The candidates diverge over how the state should approach development proposals and environmental regulation.
Skraba opposes restrictions he believes unnecessarily limit economic development. He argues that the region cannot afford to rule out mining and other resource-based industries without considering their potential economic benefits.
Kania, drawing on his time in the Forest Service, emphasizes scientific review, properly staffed state agencies and compliance with existing law. He said economic development and environmental protection do not need to be mutually exclusive.
“I was right in the middle of the mining controversy,” Kania said, describing his work on permits for mineral exploration. “That involved working with environmentalists, working with industry, working with the tribes, and working with the communities.”
Kania sees a similar challenge in the debate over data centers.
“The 3B side of the Senate district has been all about data centers, and the 3A side has been all about mostly copper-nickel mining,” he said. “And I really see broadly that there’s not much difference, right? It does come down to: We must follow the law.”
Kania added that he opposes tax credits for data centers and supports project labor agreements and ratepayer protections.
Skraba doubled down on local decision-making. He explained a recent discussion with residents of Marcel, where he said there was vehement opposition to a potential data center.
“They were rabid about not having data centers in their community, and it was like, okay, you know, okay, that’s your prerogative. There’s another community right next door that says no, we’ll take them,” Skraba said.
Despite their differences over economic development, the candidates agree that affordability threatens the region’s ability to retain residents.
Skraba described residents struggling to pay heating bills, maintain older homes and cover basic expenses despite working multiple jobs.
Skraba acknowledged that rising costs have multiple causes, including international energy markets, but returned to fraud as something that should be addressed first and foremost.
Skraba said he supports an Office of Inspector General with prosecutorial authority, which he said could help prevent misuse of public funds.
Kania likewise emphasized responsible spending, drawing on his experience overseeing a substantial federal budget as a district ranger.
“I think everybody who’s elected, from the federal level down to our local governments, is responsible for fraud, right?,” Kania said, adding, “As district ranger, I had a very large budget. There was a lot we did to ensure that it was being spent properly and being spent well, and we were accountable to the taxpayers.”
Kania also argued that taxes collected in the area need to stay and help the area.
“A lot of the taxes that we generate leave our area. School trust is a good example. Minntac, right? They pay into the school trust fund, and that goes into the state trust and then gets dispersed throughout the state. So, for what goes in for their contribution, that doesn’t exactly come back locally,” Kania said.
Heating fuel is another concern as households prepare for winter, Kania said. High diesel prices also affect loggers, contractors, farmers and other businesses that depend on transporting goods across the region.
“Using renewable energy that’s created here insulates us a little bit from that global market,” Kania said.
He pointed to a proposed “plug-in solar” bill that has been proposed in the state Legislature that would allow apartment residents to connect solar panels to existing electrical infrastructure.
“How do you get renewable energy to people, even if they don’t own the home or the business, right? And so that’s an option,” Kania said.
Housing is central to both candidates’ economic plans. Kania cited housing initiatives in northeastern Minnesota that he said had helped recruit workers.
“We’ve seen this play out in Grand Marais. They added 100 housing units to their housing stock, and they’re able to hire nurses, deputies, teachers, you know, people that work at the hospital,” Kania said.
Kania said similar projects could help communities such as Babbitt attract workers needed to sustain essential services.
Skraba said that the jobs in the area can no longer pay enough for people to buy homes. He supports expanding workforce housing and reducing regulations that he believes drive up construction costs.
“How do we get the price of these houses down? We’re finding that there are regulations. There are a lot of regulations that we can eliminate that will bring that thing down,” he said.
Rural health care presents another challenge. Both candidates identified the recruitment and retention of qualified medical workers as priorities.
Skraba said preserving the 340B drug-pricing program for critical access hospitals is a top legislative priority. The program allows eligible hospitals to purchase certain outpatient drugs at discounted prices.
Skraba also supports retaining Minnesota’s paid family and medical leave program, while arguing that it needs adjustments to account for the burden on employers.
Kania emphasized hospital reimbursements, medical transportation and workforce training. He also pointed to the distance rural residents must travel to receive care as an issue that needs to be solved.
“Sunday I was talking to a woman who’s getting ready to have her second child. She has to drive two hours to get to a hospital, right? And like when minutes count, two hours is a long drive,” Kania said.
Beyond policy, the candidates drew distinctions over transparency and the role of money in politics.
Kania has made transparency a central theme of his campaign, criticizing Skraba for signing a nondisclosure agreement as an elected official, a move that Skraba later said he regretted.
Both candidates were in agreement that there needs to be less money in politics.
Skraba said the government should provide candidates with $75,000 in public funding after they secure their party nominations, with no additional fundraising permitted.
Kania focused on outside spending in elections, pointing to ads in the state that have been paid for by large pharmaceutical companies. He said his campaign has relied on small donors and argued that large corporate contributions undermine public trust in officials.
“Just looking at campaign finance for Rogers’ campaign and my campaign, he has had a billionaire contribute to his campaign. I don’t have any billionaires. I have a whole lot of small donors contributing to my campaign,” Kania said.
Both candidates have emphasized the importance of cooperation across party lines, even as they disagree over the policies needed to address the region’s problems.
“I call myself Jim Oberstar Democrat, because I’m a pro-life, pro-gun, pro-labor Republican,” Skraba said, in reference to the former congressman for whom Skraba interned in the 1980s. Skraba said watching Oberstar influenced his emphasis on bipartisanship, which he says is put on display in his relationship with Democratic state Sen. Grant Hauschild.
“Him and I work together. We sit down and we converse a lot, more than anyone in the Legislature,” Skraba said.
Skraba said he decided to run for office four years ago because did not think the priorities of northern Minnesota were represented at the state level.
“I felt that the representative wasn’t listening to us in the sense that we weren’t Metro Democrats,” Skraba said. “Those policies didn’t seem to resonate up here.”
Kania also highlighted his ability to work across political boundaries. He cited his collaboration with Skraba during the 2021 wildfire season, where the two worked together to secure funding for improvements at the Ely airport to accommodate firefighting aircraft.
Kania said he met with Skraba before announcing his candidacy to set respectful tone for the campaign.
Kania said he believes the region needs proactive leadership that anticipates challenges rather than simply reacting to them.
That emphasis also shapes his campaign. Kania said he and his campaign team have knocked on more than 10,000 doors and spoken with more than 5,000 people at their homes, in addition to attending community events. He said he keeps extensive notes on residents’ concerns, researches their questions and consults with state agencies, scientists, local leaders and industry representatives to develop policy positions.
Both candidates acknowledge that northeastern Minnesota faces challenges too large for the state government to solve alone. Global markets affect mining and forestry, international conflicts influence fuel prices, and demographic changes make it harder for rural communities to sustain schools, hospitals and businesses.