Roger Steinkamp
Roger Steinkamp (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Minnesota State Senate to represent District 24. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Steinkamp completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Roger Steinkamp was born in Redwood Falls, MN. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1975, after transferring from Gustavus Adolphus University. He received a master's degree in 1982 and a Ph.D. in 1993, also from the University of Minnesota. His professional experience includes working as an advisor to USAID in education and youth development, teaching about agriculture, and starting a business.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Minnesota State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for Minnesota State Senate District 24
Incumbent John Jasinski defeated Roger Steinkamp in the general election for Minnesota State Senate District 24 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | John Jasinski (R) | 63.7 | 25,943 |
 | Roger Steinkamp (D)  | 36.2 | 14,756 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 55 | ||
| Total votes: 40,754 | |||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Roger Steinkamp advanced from the Democratic primary for Minnesota State Senate District 24.
Republican primary election
The Republican primary election was canceled. Incumbent John Jasinski advanced from the Republican primary for Minnesota State Senate District 24.
Campaign finance
Endorsements
To view Steinkamp's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Roger Steinkamp completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Steinkamp's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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After brief stint in private college I transferred to the University of MN and earned a BS, MA and PhD in vocational education. Subsequently my professional career followed three paths. First I continued on the path started in 9th grade vo ag classes where I became State FFA Treasurer, and went to teach agriculture for over 10 years in Duluth, Little Falls, Austin and Renville. It was a wonderful time working with adolescents, preparing them for careers. The second path lead me overseas where I worked in foreign assistance and eventually for the US government. I've worked and lived in places like Rwanda, Kenya, Senegal, Montenegro, Macedonia, Djibouti, Palestine, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. I met my wife Lucie along this path. Depending on the country, I helped train teachers, form youth organizations, found cooperatives and assist dairy farmers. What an opportunity to grow and learn from other cultures, religions and economies while sharing the best of what we have. Finally, Lucie and I decided to develop an entire value chain of specialty sheep dairy products here in MN.
I've retired now, and wish to serve my community.- Serve the people, not the party or elite with money. I live in a diverse community and about a third are left out. Money talks, not people. Power has to originate from well informed people, not money or parities.
- Focus on long range solutions not the problems. "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" and don't get distracted by propaganda and sensational problem mongers. Act in love.
- Empower citizens. We have had moments of greatness when decent citizens came together to solve problems. We fall apart when we act in anger, greed and self interest. Purge the cronyism, greed, anger, and stupidity from the government that we own. We are the shareholders in our future with one person one vote.
Education has been turned upside down by COVID-19. We had underfunded mandates to educate our children before it came along and could keep ourselves distracted with extra-curricular activities, and nickel and diming school districts in the name of low taxes. COVID makes us look the problem right in the eye. How and do we educate our young people? We have a situation that we can use to rethink what we are doing and provide equal opportunities to all children regardless of the zip code.
Climate change is upon us. No serious person can deny that. The question is how can we mitigate the effects? Americans are great in a crisis and have so much intellect and energy to do the right thing. Let's get with the program. I don't want my grand kids looking back on how we plunged headlong into the abyss motivated by greed and self interest.
Of course there are people who have set the mileposts that can guide us through troubled times. The principle of love and sacrifice are the inspiring themes . Hatred is the opposite and destroys us.
I look in the mirror each morning and smooth out the lines of anger and anxiety and ask what would __________ do? You can fill in the blank. The important point is that each of us has the ability to choose our path and act accordingly. I find when we put hatred aside and act in love, we do good things. Turn off the propaganda station that deceives us. Turn off the sensational 24 hr news cycle that hypes a constant stream of anxiety. Then, I can turn to you for counsel. I have found that communities acting together in love and compassion find solutions to the miseries that confront us. And celebrate life in the community.
The middle rung is tokenism, where citizens are made to feel they are participating in some meaningful way but have no real decision making power.
When citizens have control they make decisions, hold their elected officials accountable and demand transparency, integrity and honesty.
When I ask people how they feel, most point toward the bottom. We need to take charge and transform the system. But, that demands people stay engaged, sort out the facts, and then engage with others in the community to develop equitable solutions.
Bipartisanship has been deformed to the point of being undefined. I have read mailers of opponents that claim bipartisanship but when checked out, there was only one party in the sponsors of the bills. When queried, the response was they were sure there were elements of the bill that had been agreed to in previous negotiations.
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.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 19, 2020
