Mark York

Mark York earned a high school diploma from Murray County Central High School, a bachelor's degree from South Dakota State University in 2012, and a graduate degree from the Harvard in 2021. His career experience includes working as a farmer.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Mark is a seventh-generation farmer from Lake Wilson, Minnesota. He comes from a long line of farmers, teachers, and public servants. He farms 80 acres with his family and raises corn, soybeans, oats and pigs.

Mark is a proud South Dakota State University Graduate, and his career spans Cargill, two startups, McKinsey, Harvard, and the White House. Mark is a PhD candidate in computer science at Harvard where his research focuses on algorithmic game theory and information elicitation. He also founded a nonprofit called Farm Yield Africa in 2016. Farm Yield Africa employs 25 people and provides tractor services, seed and fertilizer on microcredit to nearly 2,000 farm families in Ghana. Mark was selected as a White House Fellow, for which just 1% of applicants are selected, and he served in the class of 2024-2025. In the White House, his work focused on critical minerals and the defense industrial base. Mark is a two-time Ironman and speaks multiple languages.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Expensive daycare is crushing families. We will make it affordable by cutting the red tape that is shutting down family childcare providers.Fraud is bankrupting our government and robbing families of services they need. We will deploy AI and analytics to detect and block fraudulent payments before they happen.Glacial permitting processes and overlapping regulations make it nearly impossible to start businesses, build mines and create jobs in construction and manufacturing. We will accelerate permitting and build baby build while respecting the environment.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Childcare, Supporting young farmers and livestock farmers, defense industrial base, mining, AI, technology, startups, diplomacy, affordable healthcare, balancing our budget, implementing technology in government, education, science