As the 2026 Legislative Session approaches, a local senator says this one will be his last.
District 15 Republican Sen. Gary Dahms, announced last Thursday that he won’t seek another term, ending a political career that began in 2010 “It was a tough decision,” the 79-year-old Dahms told the Tracy Area Headlight Herald. “I don’t pay much attention to age … at the end of this term I will be 80, the end of the next term I will be 84 — I’m in good health now, but if I go for four more years and start having health issues … at my age, four years is quite a piece of time compared to when I was 20 years younger.” Dahms, a strong advocate for education and childcare, has a number of legislative achievements under his belt. He authored a bill for a statewide reinsurance program that has significantly decreased health insurance costs for Minnesota and has become a model for other states. He worked to increase funding for Minnesota’s rural nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and homes for the disabled, has secured bonding funds for wastewater infrastructure in several of Minnesota’s small rural communities, and helped establish an agricultural education degree program at SMSU.
Working across the aisle in St. Paul, Dahms said, has become increasingly difficult. In his nearly 20 years in politics, Dahms never served under a Republican governor, and has had to fight many losing battles, especially since Democrats took control of the House and Senate under Gov. Tim Walz in 2022.
