Raymond Howard Dehn ( ; born September 14, 1957) 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 community organizer who served 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 ...

. A member of the

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is a political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The party was formed by a merger between the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Minneso ...

(DFL), he last represented District 59B 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 was a candidate for mayor of Minneapolis in 2017.

Early life and education

Dehn grew up in

Brooklyn Park, Minnesota Brooklyn Park is a suburban city on the west bank of the Mississippi River, upstream from (north of) the Twin Cities in northern Hennepin County. It is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 86,478 at the ...

, in a working-class family. His father was a teamster, operating a forklift at a factory. His mother worked part-time at a company making toilet-paper wraps for American soldiers in Vietnam. In 1976, at age 19, Dehn was convicted of a felony burglary. He served seven months at the Hennepin County Workhouse and was released to a drug treatment program due to his cocaine addiction. He has been sober since his rehabilitation. In 1982, Dehn applied for and was granted a full pardon for his felony by the State of Minnesota. He 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 ...

, graduating cum laude with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

in 1993. He continued his education and received his master's of architecture from the University of Minnesota in 1996. In 2014, Dehn completed an Executive Education certificate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Minnesota House of Representatives

Dehn was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives on November 6, 2012, and reelected in 2014, 2016, and 2018. As of the 2019-20 biennium he served as the Chair of the Subcommittee on Elections, and is a member of the Capital Investment Division, Commerce Committee, and the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy Division. As a state legislator, Dehn voted in favor of efforts such as HF 2091, raising the minimum wage without tip penalties, and enacting Minnesota Statute 364.021, legislation to

Ban the Box Ban the Box is an American campaign by advocates for ex-offenders aimed at removing the check box that asking applicants about their potential criminal record from hiring applications. Its purpose is to enable ex-offenders to display their quali ...

. In May 2020, Dehn lost the DFL endorsement to Esther Agbaje. On August 11, 2020, Agbaje won the primary election.

Minneapolis mayoral candidacy

Dehn announced his candidacy for mayor on December 21, 2016. On February 2, 2017, he hosted an official campaign kickoff at the Public Functionary in

Northeast Minneapolis Northeast is a Neighborhoods of Minneapolis, defined community in the U.S. city of Minneapolis that is composed of 13 smaller neighborhoods whose street addresses end in "NE". Unofficially it also includes the neighborhoods of the University, ...

. On July 8, he received 32.44% of the delegate vote at the DFL Minneapolis City Convention, the highest percentage of the mayoral candidates. None of the mayoral candidates received the 60% required for an endorsement at the convention. Dehn was criticized by the ''

Star Tribune ''The Minnesota Star Tribune'', formerly the ''Minneapolis Star Tribune'', is an American daily newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2023, it is Minnesota's largest newspaper and the List of newspapers in the United States, seventh- ...

'' for his call to disarm some Minneapolis police officers. This call came from a statement Dehn made after the murder of Justine Damond in Minneapolis. The ''Star Tribune'' previously criticized his affirmative response to a question posed at an event on May 23, 2017: "Will you commit not to veto any City Council action supported by Our Revolution Twin Cities?" In the November election, Dehn placed 4th in the first round, with 17.3% of the first-choice votes, and finished second in the fifth and final round, with 42.8% of the vote to winner

Jacob Frey Jacob Lawrence Frey ( ; born July 23, 1981) is an American politician and attorney who has served as the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota since 2018. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, he served on the Minneapolis City ...

's 57.2%.

References

External links

Rep. Raymond Dehn
''official Minnesota House of Representatives website''
Rep. Raymond Dehn
''official campaign website'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Dehn, Raymond 1957 births Living people People from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota Harvard Kennedy School alumni University of Minnesota School of Architecture alumni Democratic Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives American people convicted of burglary Minnesota politicians convicted of crimes 21st-century members of the Minnesota Legislature