Steve Kronmiller’s Journey from Council Member to Mayor

On November 5, 2024, Steve Kronmiller earned a narrow victory in Scandia, Minnesota’s mayoral race. Kronmiller came away with 1,366 votes — only 73 more than his opponent, Patti Ray. His success story goes to show that every vote counts, especially in local elections.

In the weeks before election day, Kronmiller turned to GoodParty.org for voter data and get-out-the-vote support. GoodParty.org spoke to Kronmiller about his campaign and what made the difference in his narrow victory.

Running a Low-Cost, Grassroots Campaign for Mayor

Kronmiller is no stranger to leadership. He first ran for office in the 1990s, and has held director-level positions at multiple organizations since then.

While Kronmiller has served on Scandia’s city council for the past eight years, he said he waited until the incumbent mayor, Christine Maefsky, stepped down before running for mayor.

“I respect her. The whole community does as well,” Kronmiller said. “As a result, I said, ‘You can be in office as long as you want. I'm not going to run until you decide you're going to step down.’” 

Located in Washington County, Minnesota, Scandia had a population of fewer than 4,000 people at the time of the last census. Kronmiller said the closeness of the mayoral race came down to how well residents knew him and Ray.

“People knew my opponent, and they knew me. Several people were like, ‘I don't know who to vote for. It's too bad you're both running at the same time, because I'd like to see you both be mayor.’ The vote count reflects that. That was the hardest part of it, really, with the small community,” he said.

Kronmiller used several cost-effective tactics to make his candidacy stand out in a close race. First, Kronmiller said he reached about 60% of Scandia’s voters by door knocking.

“It's an older community. I door knock, and I walked about five miles a day for the last month. It kept me in good shape,”  he said. “We've got 125 miles of roads and 125 miles of driveways, so there's a lot of walking. I know you can't do it all, but we're a rural farming community, so there's a lot of areas that are very sparsely populated. We've got 13 lakes and six of them have some high-density population areas, so you focus on those areas first to get more bang for the buck.” 

Kronmiller also reused yard signs from his previous campaigns — a tactic that helped him keep down campaign costs.

“It's kind of funny because I put out 40 lawn signs, and those lawn signs are the same lawn signs I campaigned with in 1996,” Kronmiller said. “Now in ‘96, I ran for city council. My wife and I got some sticker paper, and we've got a colored laser printer, so we printed up the word ‘mayor,’ and we stuck it over the top of the words ‘city council,’ and I just reused those signs.”

In addition, Kronmiller took advantage of GoodParty.org’s low-cost voter data, SMS/MMS messaging support, and AI-powered content generators.

“The tools were easy to use and very intuitive. The quality of the data and the AI output was really good. I liked all of that,” Kronmiller said. “The AI engine was very helpful where it would look at my campaign website, look at my opponent's website, and put together some information and nice words for me to at least start from. I looked at some of the data sets that you had, and for somebody who's never done this before, I think that's wonderful to have that available to them.”

In total, Kronmiller said he spent just $675 on his campaign for mayor. By contrast, his opponent spent almost $3,000. 

Mayoral candidates in larger cities often spend far more, with campaign costs reaching into hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

Providing Authentic, Non-Partisan Leadership

During his run for office, Kronmiller took GoodParty.org’s pledge to run an Independent, people-powered, and anti-corruption campaign.

Kronmiller said he is committed to keeping national politics out of local elections.

“When I first ran, I had one person who just absolutely insisted that I tell them who I was voting for president, and if I wouldn't tell him, he wouldn't vote for me,” Kronmiller said. “My response to him was simply, ‘You know, that's just between me and the voting booth. This is a non-partisan race. We don't need federal politics in our local elections. So if that means you're not going to vote for me, then don't vote for me.’ This time around, with all of the federal arguing going on, that played very well with everybody. They were fed up with all the politics.”

Now, as a newly elected official, Kronmiller is focusing on addressing residents’ concerns in Scandia.

He said his top priorities include improving communication with residents, managing city expenses in a way that residents understand, and driving revenue into the city.

Empowering Non-Partisan Campaigns in More Communities

Kronmiller is just one of 3,446 Independent candidates who won elections after taking GoodParty.org’s pledge in 2024. 

At GoodParty.org, we’re committed to empowering Independent and non-partisan campaigns across the country. That means giving candidates access to free campaign tools, affordable voter data, a community of other candidates and volunteers, and more.

Are you running for office, or know someone who is? Book a meeting today to learn how you can get access to the tools and support you need to win your election.

Plus, take Kronmiller’s advice for others who are thinking about running for office:

“Start attending meetings and figure out how the process works,” he said. “A lot of people that I see get involved in government are angry about something, and so they run for office because they have a single issue that they're passionate about. Then when they win and get into office, they realize that every month, there's 20 different things they have to make a decision on. Open your eyes to what government is really all about in your community. How does it work? Who are the people involved?”