ST. PAUL, Minn. — State Rep. Kaohly Her defeated incumbent Mayor Melvin Carter III on Tuesday night in a ranked-choice election, becoming the first Hmong-American and the first woman elected mayor of Minnesota’s capital city.
Her, a Democrat affiliated with the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, will take office in January 2026. She is expected to serve a four-year term, though local election calendar changes could alter the timeline.
Immigration Remarks Drew Scrutiny
Her’s election also follows recent public attention to comments she made in June on the Minnesota House floor. During debate on a bill aimed at restricting public health benefits for illegal immigrants, Her disclosed that her own family’s entry into the U.S. was initially undocumented due to paperwork issues stemming from their refugee status after fleeing Vietnam.
Fox News later reported additional details about her family’s immigration background:
Her said she has been spending a lot of time with her father, who brought the family to the U.S. at the end of the Vietnam War. At one point, she asked her father how he brought the family to the U.S.
She previously believed that her family was granted entry into the U.S. because her grandfather was a colonel in the war. But her father told her that was not true.
Her father worked for the U.S. Consulate, Her said, and was one of the few there who could speak English and type “really fast.”
Her said her father had moved to the consulate away from the refugee camp she, her mother and sisters lived at, and his job was to process all the paperwork for the refugees who came to America.
Her’s mother would later tell her that the family had been more than lucky to make it out.
“We did not have our names on that list to come to the U.S.,” Her recalled, explaining that the children of foreign nationals working for the CIA were not prioritized — even as Saigon stood on the verge of collapse. “The only people that had names to come to the U.S. were if you were … in the military and you worked for the CIA or worked for USAID.”
Desperation led the family to find a loophole — by quietly altering official paperwork to gain passage to the United States.
“What my father did was, one of our uncles worked for USAID, and because his mother had died, my father, as the one processing the paperwork, put my grandmother down as his mother,” Her revealed. “And so, I am illegal in this country. My parents are illegal here in this country. And when we were fleeing that situation, never one time did my family say, ‘Let’s look at which state has the greatest welfare and which state has the greatest benefits, because that’s the state we’re going to go to.’”
“Nobody leaves their country unless they have to leave that country,” she added.
She later claimed to be a naturalized citizen in an interview with the Minnesota Reformer:
In an interview with the Reformer, Her clarified that she and her parents are U.S. citizens. Her is a refugee from Laos and moved to the U.S. when she was three. Her’s parents took their U.S. citizenship test, and Her became a citizen as a minor when she was in middle school, she said.
Her said her father technically broke the law when he filled out paperwork for the family to come to the U.S. as refugees. He did so to expedite the process to come to the U.S., though they would have come to America anyway.
Her came to America along with a wave of Hmong refugees, who were critical allies to the United States during the Vietnam War and the “secret war” in Laos, assisting in intelligence operations, disrupting north Vietnamese supply routes and combating communism’s spread through Southeast Asia. Her’s grandfather was a colonel in the war, she said. As American allies, they faced violent recriminations from the communists after the war, which is why the U.S. welcomed them here, especially through laws like the Refugee Act of 1980.
“Technically, you would say my father broke the law, right? But we would have come anyway,” the lawmaker told the Reformer.
Campaign Focused on Change
Her’s victory marks a political shakeup in St. Paul. A former staffer under Mayor Carter, she ran on a platform signaling a shift in leadership priorities. Her campaign emphasized public safety, economic recovery in the city’s downtown core, affordable housing, and more strategic use of city assets.
She has represented District 64A in the Minnesota House since 2019 and leaned on that experience — as well as her personal story as a Hmong-American refugee — to build a coalition of voters seeking a new direction at City Hall.
Her’s leadership will coincide with the continuation of an all-female city council, marking another milestone for women in city government.
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But but but according to ‘pram ill a’ in a clip I just saw simply being in the USA without authorization (ie illegally) is NOT a ‘crime’. merely a ‘civil issue’. So I guess in that light da new mayor is a-ok.
So, in all this time, she never bothered to get legit?
She outright lied, just like the commie mayor. Expulsion should be the answer.