Raymond Howard Dehn ( ; born September 14, 1957) is a

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

politician and community organizer who served in the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint Pa ...

. A member of the

Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is the Minnesota affiliate of the U.S. Democratic Party. As of 2022, it controls four of Minnesota's eight U.S. House seats, both of its U.S. Senate seats, the Minnesota House of Represen ...

(DFL), he last represented District 59B in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. 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) downtown Minneapolis in northern Hennepin County, Minnesota, Hennepin County. It is the List of cities in Minnesota, sixth-largest city in the U ...

, 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, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, graduating cum laude with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

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 constructing building ...

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 the name of an American campaign by advocates for ex-offenders aimed at removing the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record from hiring applications. Its purpose is to enable ex-offenders to display their qualificat ...

. 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 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 community which have "NE" addre ...

. 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 ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' 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 C ...

'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 21st-century American politicians American people convicted of burglary Minnesota politicians convicted of crimes