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Mike Parry
Mike Parry was a 2012 Republican candidate who sought election to the U.S. House to represent the 1st Congressional District of Minnesota. He is a former Republican member of the Minnesota State Senate, representing District 26 from 2011 to 2013.
Biography
Mike enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard and received an honorable discharge as a staff sergeant. Parry attended Brown Institute of Broadcasting in Minneapolis. He also received law enforcement training and served as a police officer with the Morristown and Jackson police departments, and as a deputy sheriff with the Freeborn County Sheriff's Department.
Elections
2012
Parry ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. House to represent Minnesota's 1st District. He was the nomination on the Republican ticket, but he was defeated by Allen Quis in the Republican primary.[1]
2010 (general election)
- See also: Minnesota State Senate elections, 2010
Parry won re-election to the 26th District seat in 2010. He had no primary opposition. Alex De Marco ran for the seat on the DFL ticket. The general election took place on November 2, 2010.
| Minnesota State Senate, District 26 (2010) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
 Mike Parry (R)
|
15337 | 54.25% | ||
| Alex De Marco (DFL) | 12893 | 45.60% | ||
| Write-In | 43 | 0.15% | ||
2010 (special election)
On January 26, 2010, Parry won election to the 26th District Seat in the Minnesota State Senate, defeating opponents Jason Engbrecht (DFL) and Roy Srp (I) in a special election.[2]
| Minnesota State Senate, District 26 (2010) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
| Mike Parry (R)
|
4,943 | 43.04% | ||
| Jason Engbrecht (DFL) | 4,192 | 36.50% | ||
| Roy Srp (I) | 2,334 | 20.32% | ||
| Write-In | 17 | 0.15% | ||
Committee assignments
2011-2012
In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Parry served on these committees:
2009-2010
In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Parry served on these committees:
- Business, Industry and Jobs
- Capital Investment
- Transportation Budget and Policy Division
- State and Local Government Operations and Oversight
- Transportation
Twitter controversy
During the campaign Parry came under fire for messages on his Twitter account, referring to President Obama as "a power-hungry, arrogant black man," and stating "what's with Dems and Pedophiles?" after passage of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act.[3]
Parry first defended his tweet regarding Obama, saying,
"I know specifically about what you’re talking about — the tweet that I had sent using my opinion and fact. My opinion is that our president is arrogant and angry. The fact is that he is a black man. Now if the Democratic Party and the liberals want to take my opinion and the fact and mix it together and use it to bring a bad light about me and keep them away from discussing the real issues they can do that all they want."[4]
He initially denied having written the tweet about Shepherd, saying, "I would think that’s wrong. If it’s on my account I wouldn’t know how that one got on there."
In a statement Parry later said, "I sincerely apologize for past tweets which were written in haste and out of the frustration I felt for the out of control spending in Washington. Given the fragile state of our economy and the kind of out of control and wasteful spending we’re seeing from Democrats, the people in Senate District 26 must have an election about the future."[5]
Campaign finance summary
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Scorecards
Taxpayers League of Minnesota
The Taxpayers League of Minnesota, a Minnesota-based taxpayer advocacy organization, releases a legislative scorecard for the Minnesota House of Representatives and Minnesota State Senate once a year. The scorecard gives each legislator a score based on how they voted in the prior legislative term on tax issues and “their efforts to balance the state budget without a tax increase.” The organization also compiles a legislator’s individual "Lifetime Score."[6]
2012
Parry received a score of 86 percent in the 2012 scorecard, ranking 7th out of all 67 Minnesota State Senate members.[7]
2011
Parry received a score of 77 percent in the 2011 scorecard, ranking 17th out of all 67 Minnesota State Senate members.[8]
External links
- Official Campaign Site
- Official Facebook
- Official Twitter
- Official YouTube Channel
- Mike Parry's Senate site
- Mike Parry's official Minnesota State Senate website
- Campaign Contributions: 2010
Footnotes
- ↑ CBS Minnesota, "2012 Primary Results" August 14, 2012
- ↑ Minnesota Secretary of State - 2010 Special Election Results
- ↑ Huffington Post, "Mike Parry, Minnesota State Senate Candidate, Defends Racist Twitter Message," January 6, 2010
- ↑ Minnesota Independent, "Parry denies Twitter scrubbing, calls Obama ‘angry’ black man," January 6, 2010
- ↑ Minnesota Post, "Under fire, GOP Senate candidate Mike Parry apologizes for some online comments," January 6, 2010
- ↑ Taypayers League of Minnesota, "Legislative Scorecards," accessed May 15, 2014
- ↑ Taypayers League of Minnesota, "Legislative Scorecard, 2012," accessed May 15, 2014
- ↑ Taypayers League of Minnesota, "Legislative Scorecard, 2011," accessed May 15, 2014
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Minnesota State Senate District 26 2011–2013 |
Succeeded by Carla Nelson (R) |
