Paul Cumings

Paul Cumings earned a high school diploma from Atwater Cosmos Grove City Public School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Augsburg College in 2006 and a graduate degree from the University of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs. His career experience includes working as a legislative staffer.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My mother was a public school teacher and my father was a Lutheran pastor. Since those early years, my life has been dedicated to public service and bringing people together to find innovative, community-based solutions.

After high school, I served for two years as an AmeriCorps tutor in the Cedar Riverside Neighborhood of Minneapolis.

In 2007, I started working for the House of Representatives Property Tax Relief Committee and the bi-partisan Government Redesign Caucus. In that role, I helped to strengthen the state and local fiscal relationship.

When Mark Dayton was elected governor, I went to work in his administration. I fought to ensure that the richest 2% of Minnesotans paid closer to their fair share in taxes. We then reinvested those revenues so Minnesotans could afford their lives.

Currently, I work for the Floor Leader of the MN House of Representatives, Jamie Long. As a connector, I helped develop solutions to lead Minnesota through the pandemic, made healthcare more affordable, improved the lives of immigrants, helped frontline workers afford their lives, and connected veterans with PTSD to proven therapies.

I am also proud to serve my community on the South St. Paul School Board where I serve as its Treasurer.

I am a graduate of Augsburg College and the Humphrey School of Public Affairs where I focused on public and nonprofit leadership and management. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, lifting weights, reading, and spending time with family.

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?

All people should be able to afford their life. Childcare. Groceries. Housing. Health care. Everything costs more, and paychecks aren't keeping up. That is not an accident. The economy has been rigged for the people at the top, and they have plenty of folks at the Capitol looking out for them. You deserve someone fighting for you. In Governor Dayton's administration, I helped ask the wealthiest Minnesotans to pay their fair share and expand tax credits for working families. Now, I am working to increase housing supports, advance housing regulatory reform, ensure all people have access to low barrier primary care, and to provide low or no cost child care. I also support regulations on price fixing for groceries.I support strong, high achieving fully funded public schools. Where I live, in South St. Paul, the school district and the city share the same borders. When I say our schools are the heart and soul of our community, I mean it literally. My mom taught in public schools, and I serve on our school board, so I've seen what happens when the state doesn't do its part: achievement gaps that never close, and property taxes that climb to fill the hole. Our kids deserve better. I will fight to fix the compensatory aid formula hurting schools in Senate District 53 and will ensure that we are keeping educational standards high in the new age of artificial intelligence.We must have a government that is accountable to the people. A lot of people don't trust their government anymore - and I get it. I've spent nearly twenty years inside state government, and I know where it works and where it doesn't. I led efforts to pass anti-fraud bills when I worked in the Dayton administration. If we're going to solve problems together, you have to be able to trust that every dollar is accounted for, that anyone who steals from it gets caught, and that the people you elect actually listen. Being your state senator is a sacred trust. We need stronger front-end safeguards, better data sharing between agencies, regular audits of high-risk programs, and faster action when warning signs emerge.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

An Affordable Life for All Minnesotans - I am working to increase housing supports, advance housing regulatory reform, ensure all people have access to low barrier primary care, and to provide low or no cost child care.

Strong, High Achieving Fully Funded Public Schools - I will fight to fix the compensatory aid formula hurting schools in Senate District 53 and will ensure that we are keeping educational standards high in the new age of artificial intelligence.

High Standards for Accountable Government - A lot of people don't trust their government anymore - and I get it. I led efforts to pass anti-fraud bills when I worked in the Dayton administration. Moving forward, I will work to ensure that every dollar is accounted for.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Carol Bidwell from South St. Paul - she is relentlessly positive, caring, curious, and lives out her values as a vocation.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

Paperboy for the Star Tribune

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

We have an unstable economy teetering on a recession, artificial intelligence taking on roles that humans have historically fulfilled, a warming climate, and the fabric of our democracy is being pulled apart. We must also ensure that we are rooting out fraud in government and holding fraudsters accountable.

Do you believe that compromise is necessary or desirable for policymaking?

In order to accomplish big things, you need to assemble diverse coalitions. Therefore, policymaking takes communication, compassion, and compromise to work well.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

MN DFL Party, AFL-CIO, Clean Water Action, St. Paul Building Trades, MN Professional Firefighters, IBEW Local 110, Faith in MN, IUOE Local 49, MN Pipe Trades, Northern Midwest Carpenters Union, Ironworkers Local 512, Interfaculty Organization, Sheet Metal Workers Local 10, Teamsters Joint Council 32, MAPE, MN Nurses Association, Education Minnesota, 2026 Gun Sense Candidate, Outfront Action, Friends of the Boundary Waters, Planned Parenthood Action, AFSCME Council 5, Save the Boundary Waters, SEIU State Council, Housing First, Sierra Club, LiUNA MN and ND, Painters and Allied Trades, Machinists Union, Conservation MN Voter Center, UFCW Local 1189, Mental Health Now Candidate