2026 MN Senate District 49 Candidate
GOP
“I am a first-time candidate who runs my own law practice, not a career politician climbing a caucus ladder. I know what it takes to keep a small business open through slow years, and there is no staff to hide behind when something goes wrong. I do not sign pledge cards. I answer to the people of Eden Prairie and southern Minnetonka, not to a donor list.”
— Dustin DuFault —
Name: Dustin DuFault
Website: https://dufaultformn.com/
Email address: info@dufaultformn.com
City of residence: Minnetonka
Professional and volunteer background:
I grew up on a farm in northwest Minnesota; my family has been in this state for generations. I hold a degree in chemical engineering and am a registered patent attorney, having practiced law more than 25 years, the last 20 as a solo practitioner. I have never held public office. I served over a decade on the board of the French-American Heritage Foundation of Minnesota, and I serve as treasurer of Minnesota’s Order of Malta chapter, volunteering in one of its prison ministry programs. My wife Carolina, who grew up in Chile, and I have built our life here.
Why did you decide to run for a seat in the Minnesota Senate:
Watching the fraud stories pile up — Feeding Our Future, Housing Stabilization, program after program — appalled me, and watching flagged payments keep moving while state costs land on the property tax notice made it worse. I did not see my own DFL senator treating it like an emergency. Fraud enforcement that starts in 2028 is a promise after the next election, not action now. I am running so this district has a senator who reads the fine print, holds agencies accountable and finishes the job instead of scheduling it for someone else’s term.
What makes you the best candidate in this race:
I am a first-time candidate who runs my own law practice, not a career politician climbing a caucus ladder. I know what it takes to keep a small business open through slow years, and there is no staff to hide behind when something goes wrong. I do not sign pledge cards. I answer to the people of Eden Prairie and southern Minnetonka, not to a donor list.
What would be your top 3 priorities if elected to the Legislature:
1) Freeze flagged program payments and stand the Office of Inspector General’s (“OIG”) enforcement arm up before 2028.
2) Stop shifting state costs onto property-tax bills; oppose new taxes and mandates that wreck affordability.
3) Fund public safety so the money reaches local police departments.
If you were elected and could be guaranteed approval on one legislative bill in the upcoming session, what would that one bill address:
A statute that freezes new payments to any state program once a credible fraud flag is issued; no more checks going out while an investigation runs. It also moves the OIG’s law enforcement division off the current 2028 start date so investigators can make arrests years sooner, with the BCA continuing to assist rather than run point alone. Providers get a warning and a chance to respond, then the money stops if problems aren’t fixed. This is the bill I will introduce and push through committee in my first term, not just a floor speech.
What has been the biggest failure attributed to legislative action or inaction in recent years:
House Republicans pushed for an Office of Inspector General that could investigate and arrest on day one. Many House DFLers said the BCA already did that work and tried to strip the new office’s police power. The compromise delays that arrest authority until 2028, years after Feeding Our Future and Housing Stabilization warnings. That was a choice. Then House DFLers spent the opening weeks of 2025 boycotting the chamber and denying a quorum for more than three weeks before any fraud bill could move.
What are your thoughts on the current level of taxation in Minnesota:
Too high for what people get; very poor return on investment for the taxpayer. Minnesota’s top individual income tax rate is 9.85 percent, among the highest in the country, and the nonpartisan Tax Foundation ranks the state 44th out of 50 for tax competitiveness. State spending outran the households that fund it. The remainder shows up on the local property tax notice. I will oppose new taxes and unfunded mandates and treat every program as a question of who pays in Eden Prairie and Minnetonka.
With so much attention focused on national issues, how will you engage the community to increase awareness of local issues?
National noise is loud, but a Senate seat still shapes what lands locally: The state aid formula behind your levy, the per-pupil funding fight at the Capitol, whether Eden Prairie and Minnetonka keep zoning authority instead of a statewide mandate, whether public safety dollars actually reach the local department. I will judge my own term by whether residents can name something I actually finished on those fronts, not by a national news cycle.
