A former federal immigration official who says she quit her job after being asked to fast-track a visa favor for a colleague's household help is now running to unseat one of the most entrenched Republicans in Minnesota politics. Trina Swanson, 45, is campaigning across Minnesota's 8th Congressional District on a platform built around affordability, tighter rules for data centers, and mining safety, with a direct line drawn between her federal experience and what she calls Rep. Pete Stauber's habit of rubber-stamping GOP initiatives at the expense of his constituents.
Swanson retired as director of international operations for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services after working in the federal government for almost two decades, including postings in Germany and Kenya, according to the Star Tribune. During her time at USCIS she interviewed refugees, naturalized active-duty military members, and helped reunite family members with refugees and asylees already living in the United States, the paper reports. She says she was asked at one point to check the visa status of a colleague's nanny's spouse — an implied request, she said, to speed up a Department of Government Efficiency employee's own visa process — which she called unethical special treatment and, in her words, the final straw.
A Career Immigration Official's Breaking Point
Swanson told the paper that policy guidance inside the agency was often communicated by word-of-mouth rather than through formal channels, and she said executive agencies were weaponized against people and against Minnesota during her final stretch in government. USCIS employees are required to maintain the highest standards of integrity and professionalism and to report improper activities while still employed, and the agency disciplines and investigates actions inconsistent with its standards, per the same reporting. Swanson also pointed to Operation Metro Surge, an immigration enforcement effort that took place in Minnesota, calling events under the Trump administration shameful; the Star Tribune's report notes that Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed during events associated with that operation.
After leaving Washington, D.C., Swanson opened a law firm to help immigrants and earned her law degree from William Mitchell College of Law. She has visited all 21 counties of the 8th District, a sprawling stretch of northeastern and central Minnesota that, according to the Star Tribune, extends west beyond Bemidji and south to the Twin Cities exurbs, covering roughly a third of the state. Census figures cited by Wikipedia put the district at 27,583 square miles across 21 counties with about 727,411 residents, roughly 61.5% of them rural, anchored by Duluth as its largest city.
Data Centers and Mining Split the District
The fight over Google's proposed data center in Hermantown looms large in the race. Google confirmed in March 2026 that it is developing a 403-acre, 1.8 million-square-foot campus there, a project Hoodline detailed in earlier coverage of the Hermantown deal, as reported by MPR News. Under a March 2026 electric service agreement with Minnesota Power, Google committed to help fund 700 megawatts of new clean energy resources, including 300 megawatts of wind power and 400 megawatts of battery storage, according to the City of Hermantown. Minnesota law requires large commercial energy customers to cover their own connection and service costs so residential ratepayers aren't affected.
Swanson says she needs more information before she would support the Hermantown project as proposed, and she supports adding more guardrails and standards around data centers generally, per the Star Tribune's reporting. She also opposes elected officials signing nondisclosure agreements related to data center deals, and she has accused Stauber of putting corporations above his district's interests. At Minnesota Farmfest, Stauber said the Hermantown project would be a win if done right, that the data center's owner should shoulder any utility rate increases, and that residents should have a say on whether such projects get built, the paper reports.
Boundary Waters Mining Fight Adds Fuel
Mining is another flashpoint. Stauber introduced House Joint Resolution 140, a Congressional Review Act measure that passed the U.S. House in January 2026 and cleared the Senate that April, rescinding a 20-year federal ban on sulfide-ore copper mining in the Boundary Waters watershed that the Biden administration had enacted under Public Land Order 7917 in January 2023, according to Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. The resolution's passage cleared a major federal obstacle for Twin Metals Minnesota, a subsidiary of Chilean mining company Antofagasta, to pursue copper-nickel mining proposals near Birch Lake upstream from the wilderness area, per Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters, though Twin Metals still needs state-level environmental reviews and permits before any mining could begin.
Swanson opposes mining within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed but supports mining conducted safely elsewhere, according to the Star Tribune. Affordability remains the top concern among voters in the district, the paper's reporting found, and Swanson has framed her federal government experience as proof she understands how policy decisions in Washington ripple down to families in northern Minnesota.
An Uphill Climb Against an Entrenched Incumbent
Stauber, a former Duluth police officer for more than two decades who also served on the Hermantown City Council and on the St. Louis County Board of Commissioners from 2013 to 2019, has held the 8th District seat since 2019 and has won his last three elections in landslides. He defeated DFL challenger Jen Schultz by nearly 16 points in November 2024, 57.99% to 41.92%, a margin of 67,774 votes, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State. Donald Trump carried the district by 14 points in 2024, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the seat Solid Republican with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+7.
Stauber campaign spokesperson Troy Young said the congressman travels around the district meeting constituents directly, according to a campaign email cited by the Star Tribune. As of July 22, 2026, Stauber had raised $2 million to Swanson's more than $300,000, the paper reports. Swanson has said she is not alone in her career path — she noted that more than a dozen former federal employees are running for Congress this cycle nationally — and she has accused Stauber of ignoring his constituents.
A Primary Before the General Election
Before Swanson can take on Stauber, she has to get past Luke Gulbranson, a reality TV star and Iron Ranger who announced his candidacy in April 2026 and had raised $200,000 as of late July, per the Star Tribune. Swanson won the DFL's official endorsement in May 2026 with more than 70% of the delegate vote at the district convention, according to Lakeland PBS, but Gulbranson chose to stay on the ballot rather than defer to the party's pick. Jen Schultz, the DFL's 2022 and 2024 nominee against Stauber, has since endorsed Swanson ahead of the August 11 primary.
Whoever emerges from that primary will face a district where Republican margins have held steady for years, and where the twin issues of data center growth and mining access have become proxies for a broader argument over who the 8th District's next representative should ultimately answer to — Washington-scale corporate interests or the residents living beside the wilderness and the wind turbines themselves.
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