An Experienced Leader For All Of 41B

Tina Folch is a life-long resident of the Hastings and Cottage Grove area, and she is uniquely in touch with the needs of community members. As a moderate voice on the Hastings City Council for the past 6 years, she champions small business needs and developing community resiliency. Tina believes we need to cut out the conflict and drama to find solutions that promote a strong community for everyone. These are issues that Tina finds important to growing a vibrant region.

Protect Healthcare and Reproductive Rights for Women

Women’s wellness and health issues continue to be aggressively under attack. Women find themselves needing to defend coverage for maternity care, access to birth control, and reproductive rights. For women to remain economically strong, Tina believes we all need access to quality affordable healthcare, effective contraceptives, and doctors to advise women on making pregnancy medical decisions that are right for them. Tina believes in standing up for individual rights and freedoms.

Quality Public Education

As a mother of two sons who attended Hastings High School, Tina knows now more than ever, that Minnesota needs a strong investment in education. By speaking with school administrators, she knows that often their biggest challenge is successfully serving special needs students. Before the pandemic set in, 23% of kids were diagnosed with a mental health issue. Teacher fatigue from the pandemic and trying to help children with mental health issues in ever-growing sized classrooms is a major problem facing our communities. Now is the time for an investment in public education pre-K through career training with a state surplus. Everyone knows that the success of our children today is the foundation of the economy tomorrow.

Common-Sense Gun Control

As a permit to carry holder, Tina knows that there needs to be a balance between Second Amendment rights and keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. She believes in responsible gun ownership and that we should work together to raise the legal age to buy a semi-automatic weapon to 21, institute universal background checks, and enforce Red Flag laws.

Fight for First Responders

Our local police, ambulance providers, and firefighters are facing staffing shortages that place a burden on existing personnel to keep operations strong. Programs and policies are needed to ensure resources are in place to support the physical and mental well-being of all of our first responders. Making sure first responders are taken care of is foundational to the safety of the community as a whole.

Support Small Business

Working with the small business community in Hastings through the pandemic has been a source of pride for Tina. She fought to ensure that local restaurants and small businesses were supported with as many resources as the City of Hastings could provide. Because small businesses are the fabric that supports our local economy, we need solutions that foster partnership rather than create hardships.

Affordable Housing Options

Working families and young people are struggling to find affordable housing. Tina believes government should work with the private sector in further developing affordable and diversified housing options to give all Minnesotans a sound place to call home.

Build Safe Roads & Expand Broadband

Our roads are falling further and further behind in maintenance. We need an infrastructure decade at this point to catch up on building safe and functional roadways. Also, rural parts of our community need broadband for students to access school materials and working families need to have the high-speed remote capability to stay competitive in the workplace. Strong technology and paved roadways have to be in place for an area to keep up in the decade to come.

Provide Clean Water

Tina lived for 16 years on the southern edge of Cottage Grove, and she is keenly in tune with the worries that many south Washington County residents have about “forever chemicals” that are in the well water systems. Being a champion to protect area groundwaters and ensure safe drinking water is extremely important.

Legalize and Regulate Recreational Cannabis

It is clear that Minnesotans want to regulate recreational cannabis use. Tina believes that we should learn from the experience of other states to fully legalize this product and ensure it is safe, regulated, and well-researched. Legalizing marijuana creates a new cash crop opportunity for our farmers and taxing it brings in a new source of State revenue. Criminalization wastes public resources, breeds violence, and results in discriminatory enforcement.

Uphold U.S. Immigration Policy

Having worked for the Minnesota Dept. of Public Safety alongside the State Patrol for a decade, Tina believes we should know who are the people in our state. She supports issuing a Minnesota driver’s license and identification to noncitizens.