“So, I’ve been thinking ... ” Minnesota third-party gubernatorial candidate Cory Hepola mused recently in a mid-afternoon tweet, more than a week after he announced his run for office. “I know some [people] on this app want me to detail every policy, right away.”
Hepola, a longtime TV and radio host across the Twin Cities, is perhaps Minnesota’s highest profile third-party candidate since Jesse Ventura “shocked the world” with his improbable independent run in 1998. He has the backing of Andrew Yang’s Forward Party, which recently set its sights on Minnesota as its first local operation, and he often speaks in that same technocratic cadence that Yang used to achieve cult admiration. He also enjoys the kind of name recognition and familiarity that can be invaluable in a race, thanks to his years on local airwaves and TV screens.
