Brady O'Neil
Name: Brady O'Neil
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: (651) 314-7000
Campaign Website: bradyoneil.com
Twitter handle: @BDAONeil
Facebook Page: facebook.com/BradyForStateSenate
Candidate Bio
I am a licensed elevator mechanic holding certifications across multiple states, bringing hands-on knowledge of skilled trades, infrastructure, and the workforce challenges facing working Minnesotans every day.
Academically, I am pursuing a chemical engineering degree at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where I conduct undergraduate research in molecular simulations and serve as an elected member of the Undergraduate Student Government experience that has sharpened my ability to represent diverse constituents and navigate complex institutions.
Beyond my technical and civic work, I am proud to serve as a Tenor 1 with the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, reflecting a deep commitment to community and the cultural fabric that makes Minnesota exceptional.
I bring to this role a rare combination of blue-collar expertise, scientific rigor, civic leadership, and a genuine appreciation for the arts. I believe strong communities are built when we honor those who work with their hands just as much as those who work with their minds.
I am running to serve with integrity, unite across divides, and deliver thoughtful, disciplined leadership for the people of this district.
What are your top three priorities if elected, and how might they be affected by growing uncertainty around state and federal funding?
1. Government Efficiency
My foremost priority is eliminating waste at every level of state government. As a mechanic, I learned that reducing drag is the simplest and most effective way to improve system performance the same principle applies to governance. Amid growing uncertainty in federal funding, lean, efficient government isn’t just good policy; it becomes essential. Every dollar saved is a dollar that continues serving Minnesotans.
2. Unity and Civil Leadership
Minnesota deserves a senator who can genuinely understand and respect constituents across the political spectrum. Durable solutions require collaboration, and I am committed to fostering the kind of selfless, sustained cooperation that moves communities forward particularly as funding pressures force difficult conversations that will demand bipartisan trust.
3. Economic Competitiveness
Minnesota must actively compete for talented residents and businesses against states like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. Our infrastructure, world-class institutions, natural beauty, and generous civic culture position us for extraordinary growth. Thoughtful tax and regulatory policy can unlock that potential. As federal dollars fluctuate, a thriving private economy ensures Minnesota’s strength is built from within.
How would you characterize the business climate in the East Metro? Please elaborate on your answer.
My perspective on the East Metro is grounded in direct experience. As a commercial elevator mechanic, I have worked extensively throughout communities including Hastings, Stillwater, and Lino Lakes spending countless hours on jobsites and engaging firsthand with owners, managers, and tradespeople who are genuinely proud of what they are building.
The business climate is one of quiet optimism and untapped potential. Washington County in particular has experienced significant growth and shows every sign of accelerating further. The region’s infrastructure, strong community identity, and remarkable natural surroundings make it one of the most attractive corridors in the state.
What strikes me most is the river. The St. Croix and Mississippi corridors position the East Metro to become a premier manufacturing and shipping hub world-class logistics access paired with proximity to a major metropolitan area. Few regions in the Midwest can offer that combination.
The business owners and workers I have spoken with are confident in their region’s future. Their primary ask is straightforward: remove the barriers to growth. With smarter regulation and a competitive economic environment, the East Metro is poised to become an economic crown jewel of Minnesota.
Please characterize your perspective on the ideal collaboration between government and the business community when it comes to tackling challenges such as education, housing, workforce development, or other priority areas.
The most effective outcomes emerge when government sets conditions for success and trusts the private sector to execute. Three areas illustrate this clearly.
Education
Minnesota’s public schools carry a proud legacy, but bureaucratic standardization, outdated models, and weakened financial incentives have constrained our collective potential. Government should establish rigorous outcomes, then empower educators, families, and private partners with the flexibility and resources to innovate toward them.
Housing
Public housing investment should be measured by one metric: how many residents achieve first-time homeownership. Elevated home prices reflect a supply problem. Government partnering with private developers to responsibly accelerate housing construction is the most direct path to affordability and generational wealth-building for Minnesota families.
Workforce Development
Our culture has long overvalued the bachelor’s degree-to-office pipeline while undervaluing the trades. As a licensed mechanic, I experienced this disparity personally. Strengthening the financial incentive of skilled labor through apprenticeship partnerships, vocational investment, and business incentives will rapidly expand Minnesota’s infrastructural capacity and economic competitiveness.
In each area, the formula is consistent: government creates the environment, removes barriers, and measures results. Business and community do what they do best build.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address our state’s critical labor shortage?
Minnesota’s labor shortage demands both immediate and structural solutions.
Near-Term
We must reduce friction in hiring and retention by streamlining regulations and implementing targeted financial incentives that direct talent toward high-need occupations. Additionally, Minnesota should aggressively position itself as the premier destination for small business formation entrepreneurship creates jobs and retains driven residents.
Education Reform
Our most consequential long-term lever is reimagining public education. Minnesota schools are academically strong, but we must raise the bar further while fundamentally broadening the definition of a successful outcome.
I support accelerating academic progression so students may complete core requirements earlier and transition sooner into workforce pathways whether university, manufacturing, or the skilled trades. We have spent decades promoting the four-year degree while quietly undervaluing the men and women who physically build our society. That imbalance has consequences, and we are living them now.
Elevating the cultural and financial prestige of trades and technical careers beginning in our schools will organically expand the labor pool and strengthen Minnesota’s productive capacity for generations.
The Through-Line
Reduce barriers, raise standards, broaden pathways, and reward the work that built this state.
The Legislature enacted several new workplace mandates in recent years, including Paid Family and Medical Leave, Earned Safe and Sick Time, and Worker Misclassification standards. If elected, how would you evaluate the impact of these policies on the East Metro economy and workforce, and what principles would guide any changes you'd seek to make?
I would evaluate any workplace policy through a consistent lens: does it genuinely improve the lives of workers and employers, or does it impose costs that undermine the very businesses sustaining our workforce?
The intent behind Paid Family Leave, Sick Time, and Worker Misclassification standards is understandable. However, good intentions must be measured against real outcomes. In my direct conversations with East Metro small business owners, a consistent concern emerges these mandates constrain operational flexibility, impose compliance costs, and effectively function as a tax on businesses already navigating tight margins.
Their employees frequently share that sentiment.
Guiding Principles for Evaluation
Efficiency first. If a social benefit can be delivered by reducing the tax or regulatory burden on workers and employers rather than mandating new obligations, that is the superior mechanism.
Scale appropriately. Small businesses are not large corporations. Policy must reflect that reality.
Measure outcomes, not intentions. Policies that burden the employers powering our economy ultimately harm the workers they aim to protect.
Minnesota can be both a compassionate and competitive state. The path there runs through empowering businesses and workers not encumbering them.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your district and the state?
Public safety is among the most fundamental obligations of government. Without it, no economic development, educational reform, or community investment can fully take root.
My approach rests on three principles.
Restore the Rule of Law
Minnesota must unambiguously reaffirm its commitment to law and order. Businesses, families, and workers particularly in the East Metro deserve to operate in communities where the rule of law is respected and consistently enforced.
Rebuild the Peace Officer Covenant
We must restore the cultural reverence once afforded to those who serve as peace officers. That begins with legislative and civic leadership that speaks with clarity and consistency in support of law enforcement. Officers who feel valued, trusted, and backed by their institutions perform better and stay longer. Retention and recruitment in public safety depend on it.
Strengthen Community-Police Relations
Lasting public safety is built on trust. I would support initiatives that deepen meaningful engagement between officers and the communities they serve particularly in areas experiencing growth and demographic change so that safety is experienced as a shared endeavor rather than an imposed one.
Safe communities are prosperous communities. This is non-negotiable.
How would you work to improve transportation options in the district/state, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
Transportation infrastructure is an economic multiplier. Efficient movement of people and goods directly determines the competitiveness of our businesses and the quality of life of our residents.
Invest in Rail
Minnesota must modernize and expand its rail network with urgency and engineering excellence. This means embracing technological advancement, growing the skilled construction workforce delivering these projects, and aggressively eliminating the bureaucratic inefficiencies that extend timelines and inflate costs. As an engineer in training, I take infrastructure seriously we have the talent to build world-class systems.
Reduce Automotive Dependency Thoughtfully
A significant portion of daily vehicle commutes represent an inefficiency in time, cost, and infrastructure wear that better transit options can resolve. Reducing unnecessary automotive traffic through functional, reliable alternatives benefits drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists simultaneously. Fewer cars on the road is a safety improvement without a mandate.
East Metro Opportunity
The river corridor positioning I envision for economic growth demands a corresponding investment in freight and passenger rail infrastructure. Transportation and economic development are inseparable.
The goal is simple: move people and goods faster, safer, and more efficiently and build the workforce capable of making it happen.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
Housing affordability is ultimately a supply problem, and solving it requires creative, multi-pronged action.
Convert Vacant Commercial Space
The remote work era has left significant office inventory sitting dormant across the metro. The state should strategically acquire and convert these buildings into residential units, bringing competitive market-rate housing online without consuming additional land or greenfield infrastructure.
Reform Property Tax Policy
Minnesotans who own and occupy a single family home deserve relief. Eliminating property tax for owner-occupied households would meaningfully reduce financial pressure on working families and incentivize long-term homeownership the foundation of generational wealth and stable communities.
Level the Playing Field Against Institutional Buyers
Corporate entities acquiring single family homes at scale drive up prices and displace first-time buyers. Institutional purchasers should face a significantly higher property tax burden than individual homeowners, restoring competitive fairness to the market.
Streamline Permitting
Nothing slows housing production more reliably than bureaucratic permit processing. Reforming and accelerating permitting timelines will unlock private development capacity that already exists and is ready to build.
More homes, built faster, owned by Minnesotans that is the objective.
Minnesota's current two-year budget shows a surplus, but state forecasters project a significant structural imbalance beginning in the 2028-2029 biennium. What steps would you take to address this long-term challenge? Please include specific ideas for reducing spending, increasing revenue, or reforming state programs.
Minnesota’s current surplus is an opportunity and a warning. Responsible governance demands we use this moment to build structural sustainability rather than expand commitments we cannot keep.
Spending Discipline
Every state program must be evaluated against a clear standard: is it effectively serving Minnesotans who genuinely need it? Welfare and social programs should be prioritized for those unable to provide for themselves and targeted to maximize productive contribution back to society. Programs that do not meet that standard should be reformed or eliminated.
Eligibility Reform
Minnesota’s generosity is a point of pride and it must be protected through integrity. Benefit programs should serve Minnesota taxpayers and residents with demonstrated need. Ensuring rigorous eligibility standards is not cruelty; it is stewardship of the public trust.
Efficiency Over Expansion
Before pursuing new revenue, the state must demonstrate it has exhausted opportunities to eliminate waste, redundancy, and administrative drag within existing programs.
The structural imbalance ahead is a solvable problem but only with the discipline to make principled decisions before the crisis arrives, not after.
Minnesota has faced several high-profile fraud cases involving public programs in recent years. The Legislature recently passed a new Office of the Inspector General on a bipartisan basis. Beyond this new office, what additional steps would you support to strengthen fraud prevention and rebuild public trust in how the state manages taxpayer-funded programs?
The fraud exposed in Minnesota’s public programs is a profound breach of public trust and an insult to every taxpayer who funds them. The response must be proportional to the offense.
Accountability Without Exception
Elected officials and administrators who facilitated or ignored fraud must face genuine legal consequences, including criminal prosecution where warranted. Title and position should provide no shelter.
Systemic Reform
The Inspector General’s office is a welcome step. Beyond it, I would support mandatory real-time financial auditing of public programs, whistleblower protections that incentivize early reporting, and strict clawback mechanisms to recover misappropriated funds.
Eligibility and Oversight Infrastructure
Fraud at this scale reflects systemic gaps in verification and oversight. Every public program should undergo an immediate eligibility audit with results made transparent to Minnesotans.
Restore Public Confidence
Minnesotans are generous by nature. That generosity was exploited. Rebuilding trust requires visible accountability, structural reform, and leadership willing to act without hesitation or political calculation.
Email: [email protected]
Campaign Phone: (651) 314-7000
Campaign Website: bradyoneil.com
Twitter handle: @BDAONeil
Facebook Page: facebook.com/BradyForStateSenate
Candidate Bio
I am a licensed elevator mechanic holding certifications across multiple states, bringing hands-on knowledge of skilled trades, infrastructure, and the workforce challenges facing working Minnesotans every day.
Academically, I am pursuing a chemical engineering degree at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where I conduct undergraduate research in molecular simulations and serve as an elected member of the Undergraduate Student Government experience that has sharpened my ability to represent diverse constituents and navigate complex institutions.
Beyond my technical and civic work, I am proud to serve as a Tenor 1 with the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis, reflecting a deep commitment to community and the cultural fabric that makes Minnesota exceptional.
I bring to this role a rare combination of blue-collar expertise, scientific rigor, civic leadership, and a genuine appreciation for the arts. I believe strong communities are built when we honor those who work with their hands just as much as those who work with their minds.
I am running to serve with integrity, unite across divides, and deliver thoughtful, disciplined leadership for the people of this district.
What are your top three priorities if elected, and how might they be affected by growing uncertainty around state and federal funding?
1. Government Efficiency
My foremost priority is eliminating waste at every level of state government. As a mechanic, I learned that reducing drag is the simplest and most effective way to improve system performance the same principle applies to governance. Amid growing uncertainty in federal funding, lean, efficient government isn’t just good policy; it becomes essential. Every dollar saved is a dollar that continues serving Minnesotans.
2. Unity and Civil Leadership
Minnesota deserves a senator who can genuinely understand and respect constituents across the political spectrum. Durable solutions require collaboration, and I am committed to fostering the kind of selfless, sustained cooperation that moves communities forward particularly as funding pressures force difficult conversations that will demand bipartisan trust.
3. Economic Competitiveness
Minnesota must actively compete for talented residents and businesses against states like Texas, Tennessee, and Florida. Our infrastructure, world-class institutions, natural beauty, and generous civic culture position us for extraordinary growth. Thoughtful tax and regulatory policy can unlock that potential. As federal dollars fluctuate, a thriving private economy ensures Minnesota’s strength is built from within.
How would you characterize the business climate in the East Metro? Please elaborate on your answer.
My perspective on the East Metro is grounded in direct experience. As a commercial elevator mechanic, I have worked extensively throughout communities including Hastings, Stillwater, and Lino Lakes spending countless hours on jobsites and engaging firsthand with owners, managers, and tradespeople who are genuinely proud of what they are building.
The business climate is one of quiet optimism and untapped potential. Washington County in particular has experienced significant growth and shows every sign of accelerating further. The region’s infrastructure, strong community identity, and remarkable natural surroundings make it one of the most attractive corridors in the state.
What strikes me most is the river. The St. Croix and Mississippi corridors position the East Metro to become a premier manufacturing and shipping hub world-class logistics access paired with proximity to a major metropolitan area. Few regions in the Midwest can offer that combination.
The business owners and workers I have spoken with are confident in their region’s future. Their primary ask is straightforward: remove the barriers to growth. With smarter regulation and a competitive economic environment, the East Metro is poised to become an economic crown jewel of Minnesota.
Please characterize your perspective on the ideal collaboration between government and the business community when it comes to tackling challenges such as education, housing, workforce development, or other priority areas.
The most effective outcomes emerge when government sets conditions for success and trusts the private sector to execute. Three areas illustrate this clearly.
Education
Minnesota’s public schools carry a proud legacy, but bureaucratic standardization, outdated models, and weakened financial incentives have constrained our collective potential. Government should establish rigorous outcomes, then empower educators, families, and private partners with the flexibility and resources to innovate toward them.
Housing
Public housing investment should be measured by one metric: how many residents achieve first-time homeownership. Elevated home prices reflect a supply problem. Government partnering with private developers to responsibly accelerate housing construction is the most direct path to affordability and generational wealth-building for Minnesota families.
Workforce Development
Our culture has long overvalued the bachelor’s degree-to-office pipeline while undervaluing the trades. As a licensed mechanic, I experienced this disparity personally. Strengthening the financial incentive of skilled labor through apprenticeship partnerships, vocational investment, and business incentives will rapidly expand Minnesota’s infrastructural capacity and economic competitiveness.
In each area, the formula is consistent: government creates the environment, removes barriers, and measures results. Business and community do what they do best build.
What policies, if any, would you support to help employers address our state’s critical labor shortage?
Minnesota’s labor shortage demands both immediate and structural solutions.
Near-Term
We must reduce friction in hiring and retention by streamlining regulations and implementing targeted financial incentives that direct talent toward high-need occupations. Additionally, Minnesota should aggressively position itself as the premier destination for small business formation entrepreneurship creates jobs and retains driven residents.
Education Reform
Our most consequential long-term lever is reimagining public education. Minnesota schools are academically strong, but we must raise the bar further while fundamentally broadening the definition of a successful outcome.
I support accelerating academic progression so students may complete core requirements earlier and transition sooner into workforce pathways whether university, manufacturing, or the skilled trades. We have spent decades promoting the four-year degree while quietly undervaluing the men and women who physically build our society. That imbalance has consequences, and we are living them now.
Elevating the cultural and financial prestige of trades and technical careers beginning in our schools will organically expand the labor pool and strengthen Minnesota’s productive capacity for generations.
The Through-Line
Reduce barriers, raise standards, broaden pathways, and reward the work that built this state.
The Legislature enacted several new workplace mandates in recent years, including Paid Family and Medical Leave, Earned Safe and Sick Time, and Worker Misclassification standards. If elected, how would you evaluate the impact of these policies on the East Metro economy and workforce, and what principles would guide any changes you'd seek to make?
I would evaluate any workplace policy through a consistent lens: does it genuinely improve the lives of workers and employers, or does it impose costs that undermine the very businesses sustaining our workforce?
The intent behind Paid Family Leave, Sick Time, and Worker Misclassification standards is understandable. However, good intentions must be measured against real outcomes. In my direct conversations with East Metro small business owners, a consistent concern emerges these mandates constrain operational flexibility, impose compliance costs, and effectively function as a tax on businesses already navigating tight margins.
Their employees frequently share that sentiment.
Guiding Principles for Evaluation
Efficiency first. If a social benefit can be delivered by reducing the tax or regulatory burden on workers and employers rather than mandating new obligations, that is the superior mechanism.
Scale appropriately. Small businesses are not large corporations. Policy must reflect that reality.
Measure outcomes, not intentions. Policies that burden the employers powering our economy ultimately harm the workers they aim to protect.
Minnesota can be both a compassionate and competitive state. The path there runs through empowering businesses and workers not encumbering them.
What are your strategies to address public safety challenges in your district and the state?
Public safety is among the most fundamental obligations of government. Without it, no economic development, educational reform, or community investment can fully take root.
My approach rests on three principles.
Restore the Rule of Law
Minnesota must unambiguously reaffirm its commitment to law and order. Businesses, families, and workers particularly in the East Metro deserve to operate in communities where the rule of law is respected and consistently enforced.
Rebuild the Peace Officer Covenant
We must restore the cultural reverence once afforded to those who serve as peace officers. That begins with legislative and civic leadership that speaks with clarity and consistency in support of law enforcement. Officers who feel valued, trusted, and backed by their institutions perform better and stay longer. Retention and recruitment in public safety depend on it.
Strengthen Community-Police Relations
Lasting public safety is built on trust. I would support initiatives that deepen meaningful engagement between officers and the communities they serve particularly in areas experiencing growth and demographic change so that safety is experienced as a shared endeavor rather than an imposed one.
Safe communities are prosperous communities. This is non-negotiable.
How would you work to improve transportation options in the district/state, including improved safety for transit riders, pedestrian/bike, and drivers alike?
Transportation infrastructure is an economic multiplier. Efficient movement of people and goods directly determines the competitiveness of our businesses and the quality of life of our residents.
Invest in Rail
Minnesota must modernize and expand its rail network with urgency and engineering excellence. This means embracing technological advancement, growing the skilled construction workforce delivering these projects, and aggressively eliminating the bureaucratic inefficiencies that extend timelines and inflate costs. As an engineer in training, I take infrastructure seriously we have the talent to build world-class systems.
Reduce Automotive Dependency Thoughtfully
A significant portion of daily vehicle commutes represent an inefficiency in time, cost, and infrastructure wear that better transit options can resolve. Reducing unnecessary automotive traffic through functional, reliable alternatives benefits drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists simultaneously. Fewer cars on the road is a safety improvement without a mandate.
East Metro Opportunity
The river corridor positioning I envision for economic growth demands a corresponding investment in freight and passenger rail infrastructure. Transportation and economic development are inseparable.
The goal is simple: move people and goods faster, safer, and more efficiently and build the workforce capable of making it happen.
What ideas do you have to address housing shortages and affordability?
Housing affordability is ultimately a supply problem, and solving it requires creative, multi-pronged action.
Convert Vacant Commercial Space
The remote work era has left significant office inventory sitting dormant across the metro. The state should strategically acquire and convert these buildings into residential units, bringing competitive market-rate housing online without consuming additional land or greenfield infrastructure.
Reform Property Tax Policy
Minnesotans who own and occupy a single family home deserve relief. Eliminating property tax for owner-occupied households would meaningfully reduce financial pressure on working families and incentivize long-term homeownership the foundation of generational wealth and stable communities.
Level the Playing Field Against Institutional Buyers
Corporate entities acquiring single family homes at scale drive up prices and displace first-time buyers. Institutional purchasers should face a significantly higher property tax burden than individual homeowners, restoring competitive fairness to the market.
Streamline Permitting
Nothing slows housing production more reliably than bureaucratic permit processing. Reforming and accelerating permitting timelines will unlock private development capacity that already exists and is ready to build.
More homes, built faster, owned by Minnesotans that is the objective.
Minnesota's current two-year budget shows a surplus, but state forecasters project a significant structural imbalance beginning in the 2028-2029 biennium. What steps would you take to address this long-term challenge? Please include specific ideas for reducing spending, increasing revenue, or reforming state programs.
Minnesota’s current surplus is an opportunity and a warning. Responsible governance demands we use this moment to build structural sustainability rather than expand commitments we cannot keep.
Spending Discipline
Every state program must be evaluated against a clear standard: is it effectively serving Minnesotans who genuinely need it? Welfare and social programs should be prioritized for those unable to provide for themselves and targeted to maximize productive contribution back to society. Programs that do not meet that standard should be reformed or eliminated.
Eligibility Reform
Minnesota’s generosity is a point of pride and it must be protected through integrity. Benefit programs should serve Minnesota taxpayers and residents with demonstrated need. Ensuring rigorous eligibility standards is not cruelty; it is stewardship of the public trust.
Efficiency Over Expansion
Before pursuing new revenue, the state must demonstrate it has exhausted opportunities to eliminate waste, redundancy, and administrative drag within existing programs.
The structural imbalance ahead is a solvable problem but only with the discipline to make principled decisions before the crisis arrives, not after.
Minnesota has faced several high-profile fraud cases involving public programs in recent years. The Legislature recently passed a new Office of the Inspector General on a bipartisan basis. Beyond this new office, what additional steps would you support to strengthen fraud prevention and rebuild public trust in how the state manages taxpayer-funded programs?
The fraud exposed in Minnesota’s public programs is a profound breach of public trust and an insult to every taxpayer who funds them. The response must be proportional to the offense.
Accountability Without Exception
Elected officials and administrators who facilitated or ignored fraud must face genuine legal consequences, including criminal prosecution where warranted. Title and position should provide no shelter.
Systemic Reform
The Inspector General’s office is a welcome step. Beyond it, I would support mandatory real-time financial auditing of public programs, whistleblower protections that incentivize early reporting, and strict clawback mechanisms to recover misappropriated funds.
Eligibility and Oversight Infrastructure
Fraud at this scale reflects systemic gaps in verification and oversight. Every public program should undergo an immediate eligibility audit with results made transparent to Minnesotans.
Restore Public Confidence
Minnesotans are generous by nature. That generosity was exploited. Rebuilding trust requires visible accountability, structural reform, and leadership willing to act without hesitation or political calculation.