Larson was determined and persistent to join Blaine’s city council.
“I’ve been preparing for this since November,” Larson said.
Larson spent countless hours in the Minnesota elements, pounding the pavement and knocking on doors.
“Every single day,” Larson said. “Sometimes I got hailed on.”
Larson left no stone unturned.
“Talking to the people is the most important thing,” Larson said. “It’s not a general election where people know there’s an election going on. I had to tell people and let them know the important issues in Blaine right now.”
High step count
Getting her steps in was not an issue for Larson, who visited 2800 homes and dropped off 15,000 brochures in neighborhoods.
“I wanted to hit every pocket of ward 2…” Larson said. “We all worked so hard. Very hard. So it felt rewarding to get that result.”
On May 1 Larson will take an oath of office and become part of the city council.
“I have a lot to learn,” Larson said. “I’m excited to learn.”
Her initial goal is to get acclimated and sponge up as much knowledge as possible from other council members.
“Obviously they know a lot more than I do,” Larson said. “I know what I know, but I know what I don’t know. I think that there is a lot that I have yet to learn to see where I can make a difference.”
Learning and taking notes
Interacting with residents on the campaign trail gave Larson a chance to find out what voters cared about.
“We all love the sense of community that we have here in ward 2 and we want to maintain that,” Larson said….”I did learn there are a lot of issues that different neighborhoods could have and different people have. I got to learn a lot and took notes on all of it. When those things are presented to me at city council I can say, oh yeah, I know that neighborhood. I remember they were talking about that.”
Larson has been in Blaine for 15 years and has a vision for what the city should look like.
“Blaine is going to have a downtown,” Larson said. “We need that and all the people want that.”
According to Larson, Blaine’s downtown will make the northern suburb even more attractive.
“We want to have more high quality things in Blaine that some other cities have to offer,” Larson said. “So we are going to have that. That is going to be off of 105th. It’s already in the works. We are going to have some high end restaurants there and more things around the sports center that are going to be very desirable for Blaine.”
Larson also gave credit to her mom and others for getting her elected. They contacted 2800 people trying to convince them to vote for Larson.
