James J. Abeler II ( ; born May 18, 1954) is a

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

politician and member of the

Minnesota Senate The Minnesota Senate is the upper house of the Minnesota Legislature, Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. At 67 members, half as many as the Minnesota House of Representatives, it is the largest upper house of any State legislature (Unite ...

. A member of the

Republican Party of Minnesota The Republican Party of Minnesota is the state affiliate of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party in Minnesota and the oldest active political party in the state. Founded in 1855, the party is headquartered in Edina, Minnesota, E ...

, he represents District 35 in the northern

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...

metropolitan area. He formerly represented District 35A in the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the U.S. state of Minnesota's Minnesota Legislature, legislature. It operates in conjunction with the Minnesota Senate, the state's upper chamber, to write and pass legislation, whic ...

Early life and education

Abeler was born in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

. He graduated from

Anoka High School Anoka High School is a four-year public high school located in Anoka, Minnesota, United States. It serves grades 9– 12 for the Anoka-Hennepin School District 11. History The first Anoka High School opened in 1904. Classes initially took place ...

in Anoka, then attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

and

Hamline University Hamline University ( ) is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of th ...

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

.Anoka Lawmaker Hoping For A Successful Rookie Year
Minnesota Legislative Reference Library Session Weekly, January 15, 1999 He earned his

D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

from Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Bloomington in 1979. In the late 1990s, he founded PACT Charter School in Anoka.Belden, Doug
Anoka Republican Jim Abeler wades into Senate race
TwinCities.com Pioneer Press, June 17, 2013

Minnesota Legislature

Minnesota House of Representatives

Abeler was first elected to the

in 1998 and was reelected every two years until 2014, when he ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. Before the 2002 legislative

redistricting Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Art ...

, he represented the old District 49A. He chaired the Health Policy and Finance Subcommittee for the Health Care Cost Containment Division during the 2005-06 biennium.

Minnesota Senate

Abeler won election to the

in a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

on February 9, 2016 and took office on February 22. In 2022, he gained notoriety for unwittingly approving a DFL-sponsored bill that legalized THC edibles derived from hemp.

2014 U.S. Senate campaign

Abeler was a candidate in the 2014

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

election in Minnesota. He lost the Republican nomination to Mike McFadden.

Political stances

Abeler formed the MN Autism Council in 2018. He was subsequently criticized for appointing Wayne Rohde, cofounder of the Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, to the council in 2019. Rohde is a prominent vaccine skeptic and an executive for Health Choice, which advocates for health conditions in children "caused by side effects of vaccine choices." During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, in November 2020, Abeler opened a bar called Nucky's Speakeasy as a co-owner. He had owned the Anoka building in which it opened since 1994. The bar was named after

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

racketeer Enoch Lewis "Nucky" Johnson.

Personal life

Abeler is married to Barb and they have six children. He is a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

and a

chiropractor Chiropractic () is a form of alternative medicine concerned with the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of physical disorder, mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, especially of the vertebral column, spine. It is based on sever ...

References

External links

Official Senate website

Official campaign website
*

at

On the Issues On the Issues or OnTheIssues is an American non-partisan, non-profit organization providing information to American voters on American candidates, primarily via their website. The organization was started in 1996, went non-profit in 2000, and is ...

Minnesota Public Radio Votetracker: Rep. Jim Abeler
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abeler, Jim 1954 births Living people Republican Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives Republican Party Minnesota state senators People from Anoka, Minnesota University of Minnesota alumni Northwestern Health Sciences University alumni 21st-century members of the Minnesota Legislature