By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

Teresa Muckala recently announced her candidacy for the Minnesota 7th Congressional District election in November. Muckala is a 1978 graduate of New York Mills High School and lives in rural NY Mills. She decided to run to provide the candidate that has been lacking in the United States’ political arena.

“I consider myself right in the middle, between the hard right and the liberal side,” said Muckala. “I’ve always been independent, I’ve never belonged to a political party. I like to look at who’s running and try to make the best choice from the options.”

Muckala said that she has been disappointed in Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach’s actions over the past four years that she’s been in office and wanted to provide the district with another option, rather than the stalwart two-party options.

“There was no middle option and I don’t like that we don’t have a middle-of-the-road option in the 7th District,” Muckala said. “I don’t know (Fischbach) and I can only judge her performance by the votes she has taken.”

While Muckala is hesitant to find role models in many of the current politicians, she did say that she respects the contributions of Senator Amy Klobuchar and was hoping that Nikki Haley would have made a better showing in the Republican Presidential primary, as she was the closest to a middle-ground candidate prior to the primary election results.

“I thought she was a responsible option for a president,” she said. “But as imperfect as all the rest of us.”

While Muckala has only just begun her campaign, she did not make the decision to do so lightly. She said that ultimately, her Christian faith is what guides her decision making. 

“It plays a big role,” she said. “Before I even decided, I prayed for months, I kept kind of pushing it away and that message kept coming back to me.

“I first decided about the necessity of having a moderate, middle candidate and I had general ideas about what I stood for,” she continued. “A U.S. Congressional position, they have very specific responsibilities. They have the power of the purse, so Congress is about setting budgets and understanding tax codes. They are responsible for issues of immigration, so the southern border issue.”

Muckala also stands strong on her position on another hot-button issue today—the topics of abortion and reproductive rights. 

“I am a person that would protect Minnesota’s laws on reproductive rights,” said Muckala. “There are just so many reasons why a pregnancy should be ended, that option has to be available. The actual issue of availability of abortion is a state by state issue. So I would not impact what’s going on in North Dakota, South Dakota, or Iowa, any of those states.

“In Psalm 139, it says ‘the Lord knew me when I was in the womb,’ and I say thank God for that regardless of whether a baby’s miscarried or a pregnancy ended, but I feel tremendous compassion for a woman or a girl (in that position) and know they’re doing the best they can. I don’t believe women end pregnancies on a whim, because it’s so hard on a person,” said Muckala.

Muckala also  talked about the importance of solving the immigration crisis at the southern border. She was disappointed that the proposed border act solution was voted down recently.

“I’m very interested in immigration, the border act that was thrown in the garbage can—I read it—it was very good,” she said. “As far as making progress towards taking care of many of the issues, giving the border patrol many more tools. It’s those sorts of things that you look at and you think, why are we in this? It’s because we have elected representatives who aren’t looking at the needs of their congressional district, they’re just deciding which party they belong to and doing whatever that party leader wants.”

Another big issue in Congress is the Farm Bill, which has been extended into the fall of 2024 because of their failure to update and resolve the bill prior to expiring in 2023.

“That needs to be settled, not only with making sure our farmers have all good economic outcomes, but I work at the Food shelf, and so WIC, SNAP and TEFAP are all included in that particular bill and without some of the free foods that are available under that program, we would have a really tough time providing good, nutritious food for folks here, there’s a lot of families and elders,” said Muckala. 

Another issue that Muckala finds a lot of interest in is the health care industry. Health care has been a large concern for many Americans as there is no standard within the nation and costs are high for all.

“I’m very interested in health care policy, having worked in health care for 20 years,” she said. “I worked more on the economic side, I have never done health care delivery, but spending more than two years with my mom at Perham Living, that was another side of health care that I got to watch. We have a shortage of health care workers.

“Those are the kind of issues that can be discussed and policy updates to help the rural economy,” she continued. 

Because Muckala is running as an Independent, she is required by the State of Minnesota to collect 1,000 signatures between May 21 and June 4 in order to be allowed on the ballot. If she collects enough signatures in the two week period allowed to her, she must then hand deliver the petition to Minnesota’s Secretary of State.

“I will be working very hard to get signatures, that’ll be my full time job,” she said. “I have people who have offered to help me, so I hope that works out.”

Muckala also plans to visit every county within Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District to meet with voters and get to know their concerns. She said that she has already seen a lot of people who are hopeful for positive change within the district. That change starts at the local level and Muckala is intent on hearing from those who want to speak about their hopes and concerns.

“I’m just average, nothing special, but somebody has to step up to the plate,” said Muckala of her candidacy. “The way our constitution is written, the representative should be somebody who represents the people in their district. Granted, I know there will be people who disagree with me vehemently about reproductive rights, or they disagree with the idea of providing support to the Ukrainian nation, but I’ll be happy to explain.” 

She also noted that she would like to see better communication between the 7th District and their representing Congressperson in the future, regardless of who fills the role. Muckala said this would also open a door to teach school age children how government works and the role of a representative in their community.

“One of the things I’ve run into a lot is people get mixed up between what is the state’s responsibility and what is the federal government’s responsibility,” she said. “I think we’d all like our federal government run smoothly and not be intruding on us all the time.”

As a Christian, Muckala holds the value of “love your neighbor as yourself” in high regard and tries to live out her life by that mandate. She recognizes that this nation has always had people living in poverty, immigrants hopeful to become Americans, and global neighbors needing support.

“I’m not special, I’m just me,” she said. “Somebody had to do it and this year it’s me. Faith is going to walk with me every step of the way. If I don’t get that thousand signatures, then that was not part of the journey I was meant to walk.”

Living in rural Minnesota, Muckala finds her joy as an avid reader, working on home projects, and spending time with her husband, two step-daughters, granddaughter, and loyal dog Frank. She is also working on rehabilitating a 1979 Volkswagen Bug with her husband, John in their spare time. Muckala also volunteers as the Food Shelf in NY Mills and works part time as a consultant.