Minnesota State Senate District 52 candidate surveys, 2022

Elections in Minnesota, 2022

---

On the ballot:  • U.S. House • Congressional special elections • Governor • State executive offices • State Senate • State House • Supreme court • Appellate courts • School boards • Municipal • Recalls

This article shows responses from candidates in the 2022 election for Minnesota State Senate District 52 who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

• Click here to see candidates and election results.
• Click here to see Candidate Connection survey responses.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for Minnesota State Senate District 52

Incumbent Jim Carlson defeated Stephen Lowell in the general election for Minnesota State Senate District 52 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jim Carlson (D)	63.2	26,004
		Stephen Lowell (R)	36.6	15,068
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	61

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 41,133
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Survey responses from candidates in this race

Click on a candidate's name to visit their Ballotpedia page.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Expand all | Collapse all

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?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Limited government. Keep what you earn and what you own.

Liberty for all. Legalize Marijuana, castle doctrine, stand your ground, remove barriers to private business.

Law and order. Time sentenced should be time served. Police should be staffed and there to help.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Mostly self defense law, Education and deregulation/economics.

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

Stephen Lowell (R)

Jordan Peterson. The man is legendary in his productivity and success. If I could finish a life half as successful as his I'd call it a win. I look up to Jordan Peterson because he likes to focus on reducing unnecessary suffering and telling the truth. I think those things are particularly worthy pursuits.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Stephen Lowell (R)

September 11th, 2001. I was 16, it was the day before my birthday.

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

Stephen Lowell (R)

The Big Dollar store and I worked part time while in high-school for 6 to 8 months.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson. This is an amazing work about how we establish meaning and how universal some of our deepest held beliefs happen to be. Even across cultures, continents and thousands of years.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Tony Stark

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Stephen Lowell (R)

You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive, by Darrell Scott

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Separate. The role of the executive is one of close representation of the majority reason or judgement from a singular perspective. A relationship too close or too familiar can result in a spoiling of our separation of powers model.

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

Stephen Lowell (R)

Crime, markets steangulated by regulations, legislative and voting integrity and results/quality in education.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of a unicameral state legislature, in your opinion?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Unicameral legislative design is efficient but dangerous. Speed can harm innocents in government decision making. Due to the fact that Unicameral legislature is faster at making decisions this becomes an issue. Government gridlock is a feature not a bug. The longer it takes the more time people have to hear about it, prepare for it or attempt to stop or delay it. For peacetime governance bicameral is clearly superior.

Do you believe that it’s beneficial for state legislators to have previous experience in government or politics?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Absolutely not. If our legislators are former legislators they don't represent the non-legislator citizens they serve terribly well.

Do you believe it’s beneficial to build relationships with other legislators? Please explain your answer.

Stephen Lowell (R)

Absolutely. It's about compromise.

What process do you favor for redistricting?

Stephen Lowell (R)

The one we have in MN doesn't seem to work and it really shouldn't be up to judges. I'm honestly not entirely sure. I'll have to research the matter. Though clearly it must change.

If you are not a current legislator, are there certain committees that you would want to be a part of?

Stephen Lowell (R)

Public Safety, education and commerce facing committees.

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

Stephen Lowell (R)

Absolutely. Some say politics is in fact the art of compromise. Compromise on policy that is. Not principle.

See also

More about these elections:

• Minnesota State Senate elections, 2022

Select a district below to read responses from candidates in those races:

District 1District 2District 3District 4District 5District 6District 7District 8District 9District 10District 11District 12District 13District 14District 15District 16District 17District 18District 19District 20District 21District 22District 23District 24District 25District 26District 27District 28District 29District 30District 31District 32District 33District 34District 35District 36District 37District 38District 39District 40District 41District 42District 43District 44District 45District 46District 47District 48District 49District 50District 51District 52District 53District 54District 55District 56District 57District 58District 59District 60District 61District 62District 63District 64District 65District 66District 67Submit