At this year’s Nativity County Fair, a fundraising bonanza that could teach the city of St. Paul a thing or two about money, Kaohly Her was an affable attendee. She appeared unannounced, engaged, and forthright. One fellow told me he could have been knocked over with a feather, as she not only answered his questions but did so without cloying staff or factotums trying to hustle her away for a merry-go-round ride or something similarly safer than talking to an actual voter.
Her is not one of her pronouns—that’s her name.
State Rep. Kaohly Her will be St. Paul’s new mayor, the city’s 55th since Thomas R. Potts kicked us off in 1850. Everything has gone swimmingly. Her won smoothly and without contention. Mayor Melvin Carter was ramrod straight and dignified in his concession.
Her was once one of Carter’s policy advisers, of whom he had many. Perhaps Her can trim the heft from a mayor’s office that has grown preposterously bloated with too many assistants to the assistants. Pinch me, but by all accounts, Her is a detail person who embraces the unglamorous nitty-gritty of trying to make things work.
There is a more important reason to believe that Her is just what the doctor, or our city’s current condition, has ordered. She is 52. She fled Laos with her family 50 years ago. She spent time in refugee camps.
It has been reported that her family moved to Chicago, followed relatives to Wisconsin, and then joined Her’s maternal grandparents in St. Paul. The family prospered in St. Paul. Yes, prospered—as in did not wish to accept anything less. They bought houses for a dollar each under a city program and turned a profit. Her’s dad got a college degree. Kaohly went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She had a 15-year career in the banking industry, living in Chicago and Maryland before returning to St. Paul after her second child was born. According to the Star Tribune, Her and her husband saved aggressively and invested in land and housing. She lives on Summit Avenue, and the family owns a hobby farm in Stillwater.
Pinch me.
In other words, Kaohly Her is not a professional activist. She has worked and succeeded in the real world. She believes others can as well. She is not a socialist. She apparently doesn’t recite a constant litany of despair, oppression, or victimization that she would intend for other people to pay for.
It’s easy to sense that she doesn’t suffer fools gladly or in any other way. Nobody, certainly in the last 50 years, has come into the mayor’s office with such a history of non-political success. She is heavily invested in the city as a homeowner.
She has to understand that St. Paul cannot survive the constant property-tax increases. She must understand that spending must be brought under control, that government not only must work, but that its employees must show up for work.
A fellow can really let the fantasy off the leash about that farm. That means that Her owns stuff and knows how to use stuff. They probably have a tractor and shovels and a lawn mower, pitchforks and a couple of ladders. She not only goes to the hardware store, but maybe even likes going to the hardware store. She is leading the life of a regular person.
This is actually a shock to the system. St. Paul and Minneapolis are governed by young people, some of whom haven’t done anything except attend gender-issue seminars and anti-police rallies.
And along comes a mayoral candidate who only got into the race in August, who saw her city in decline and decided to do something about it: encourage business growth of any size, trim spending, demand results and accountability from the people she puts in place, wave to a cop once in a while.
Happy days might not be here yet, but the city at least has a chance.
Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com.
Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com.
https://www.twincities.com/2025/11/08/joe-soucheray-seems-mayor-to-be-kaohly-her-brings-regard-for-detail-and-private-success-pinch-me/