Meet Julie
Early in Julie’s life, her mother taught her what neighbors can accomplish when they work together. Her mother became a member of the Burns Township Road and Bridge Committee to achieve a simple goal: pave the neighborhood’s dirt roads. For Julie, this meant that her friend with asthma would be able to join her for bike rides and her neighbor who required an oxygen tank would be able to enjoy evenings on the porch. Because Julie’s mother had the right information and analysis, she was able to find the resources to improve not only their roads but those in other neighborhoods as well.
As the state auditor, Julie has been committed to protecting local solutions and providing resources to local governments. She is running for re-election to ensure Minnesotans can continue to make decisions that benefit their communities, just like her mother did.
Before becoming state auditor, Julie was the first woman to hold the position of secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, the state federation of labor representing more than 1,000 local unions with over 300,000 members statewide. As secretary-treasurer, Julie analyzed budgets and audits to ensure that this vast organization had a balanced budget.
Prior to her role with the Minnesota AFL-CIO, Julie served as president of Anoka-Hennepin Education Minnesota, where she worked alongside parents, neighbors and students to help build the schools our students deserve. Julie worked hard to advance statewide anti-bullying legislation to protect all students, and especially our LGBTQ+ students and worked to ensure our schools had effective funding.
As a labor leader, Julie fought for policies that are good for all working people. In an era of expanding inequality, Julie worked to protect the freedom for all working Minnesotans to come together to negotiate a fair return on their work. In addition, this year, Julie worked to pass the historic, bipartisan pension bill as a member of the Public Employee Pension Coalition. In 2016, Minnesotans in St. Louis County received pension benefits totaling nearly $217 million. Because Minnesotans who earn those pensions spend most of that money in their own communities, stable pensions benefit our whole state.
Julie also has over a decade's worth of experience as an educator, teaching both math and science. She knows firsthand how to help people understand data, which has been instrumental in helping local leaders understand their local governments finances to make decisions that better their communities.
Julie is particularly proud of one her very first jobs: a CNC lathe operator in her father’s machine shop at 14 years old. As she made parts for products from life support systems to NASA vehicles, Julie learned how important strong communities are to Minnesotans running small businesses.
