On Aug. 11, District 3 voters will whittle down the field to two candidates for County Commissioner, who will help oversee Hennepin County’s $3.15 billion budget. DFL-endorsed Marion Greene, the three-term incumbent, will be challenged by four men: Josh Bassais, Kevin Chavis, Abdihakim Ibrahim, and Anthony Walsh in an unusually crowded primary.
District 3 covers much of Downtown, much of Southwest, and all of St. Louis Park. The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners serves as the primary legislative and policy-making body for Hennepin County, overseeing public health, roadways, human services, libraries, and Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), among other programs.
Three issues that all interviewed candidates agreed on as main priorities were homelessness, affordable housing, and the HCMC crisis.
This guide is split into a quick guide (boxed on page 2) and an in-depth dive (below) that previews each of the five candidates that will appear on the ballot. Each candidate receives a quick biography, alongside their positions on HCMC, affordable housing, and homelessness.
Marion Greene:
As with any election, this will be a referendum on the incumbent – especially on Greene’s positions on healthcare, transportation, and affordable housing.
In the past year, the board retook control of HCMC, cut more than 100 jobs, shuttered five programs, and reduced inpatient capacity by 100 beds. The State Legislature stepped in to provide emergency funding at the last minute, but the hospital still projects losing $1.7 billion over the next 10 years.
In the last eight years, Greene has secured a billion dollars from the federal government to fund the METRO Green Line Extension, or SWLRT. This project has run far over budget and 10 years behind schedule. Greene said that “mistakes were definitely made.” In her opinion, there was a lack of county control in the Metropolitan Council’s planning process.
During the pandemic, Greene led Hennepin County’s effort to transform hotel rooms into affordable housing – known as Single Room Occupancy. However, fentanyl and drug use rates remain high, with some residents in Lyndale even calling encampments near I-35 an “open drug market” according to the Star Tribune.
For Greene, the three biggest issues she wants to confront if reelected are the HCMC crisis, the Metro Blue Line extension, and federal budget cuts.
Greene called HCMC a safety-net hospital for the region.
“We can’t eat the cost,” Greene said. She suggested the board review the old model and tweak it as necessary. “I would rather start there than throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Greene said that the board will be more involved in the BLE than the SWLRT. She said that in planning, the county is “much more a part of the conversation early on on all sorts of project decisions.” She hopes that “we are more in partnership with them as we build it, as opposed to an informed person who writes the checks.”
Greene also flagged federal budget cuts as a large challenge. She said the board will “need to ratchet back our ambitions” on some projects. To decide what projects to keep, she said, “I’m working to have more dialogue with my district about what people want to safeguard.” She did not say how this dialogue would happen.
Josh Bassais:
Josh Bassais grew up in North Minneapolis. He began his career in the labor movement and currently serves as president of the Lyndale Neighborhood Association. Last year, he lost the Minneapolis City Council Ward 8 election to Soren Stevenson
Bassais said he is running “because of the services Hennepin County provided” for his family. He stresses buy-in – something he thinks the current board lacks – saying, “You have to be wholeheartedly invested in. You have to appreciate the wisdom that’s in this community, and listen more than you talk.”
Along those lines, Bassais said, “I have no intent on being like a career politician; if I can make an impact in one term, I’ll call it good and let the next person come up.”
Bassais called HCMC his top priority. He thinks the board has had poor communication with HCMC. He railed against Greene, saying that “she has not been listening to the needs of the community. My priorities start with those conversations.”
To help finance HCMC moving forward, Bassais is willing to make program cuts. “Let’s take a look at a spreadsheet and see what we’re working with. What programs could be cut? There are some non-vital services we can certainly take a look at.”
Bassais frames homelessness and affordable housing as public health issues. He said that Hennepin County has “failed on every single level,” leaving the City of Minneapolis to “fend for themself” on drug addiction, general trauma, and mental health.
Bassais suggests implementing a county-led outreach team staffed by people “trained and professionally equipped to deal with specific detriments that folks are facing, including drug addiction, mental health, and wraparound care, instead of just more housing.”
On housing development, Bassais suggested communal living, repurposing empty lots, and loosening zoning regulations to incentivize developers to build more affordable housing.
It should be noted that homelessness in Minneapolis is lower than in other major cities, according to MinnPost. Hennepin County claims that its SRO program, largely initiated by Greene, has helped hundreds of people.
Kevin Chavis:
For the last eight years, Kevin Chavis has worked for Hennepin County to help recovering addicts find housing and healthcare services.
Chavis lost the DFL endorsement to Greene in June. He is now considering dropping out of the race. Even if he does, Chavis will be on the ballot. He’s considering dropping because he wants to focus on DFL victory across the board.
“I question whether or not there’s a path to victory,” Chavis said.
Before Chavis concedes, he wants to have a sit-down discussion with Greene on affordable housing, the Climate Action Plan, and funding for the Hennepin Assault Response Team, which provides medical care and support for patients who report sexual assault. After that discussion, he will decide whether he wants to continue running.
Chavis’s campaign has been community-focused.
“When we ignore what the community wants, you end up getting a worse-off vision,” Chavis said. One of his hallmark policy ideas is a participatory budgeting pilot program – a program where residents could vote on a small portion of county spending.
On the HCMC crisis, Chavis wants to secure long-term state funding.
“It’s not just a county resource. It’s a regional resource,” Chavis said.
To secure state funding, Chavis supports Rep. Aisha Gomez’s plan to ratchet up the income tax on the rich and redirect those taxes to HCMC. Chavis added that he would be open to another governmental organization running HCMC to alleviate the financial burden.
On housing, Chavis supports land trust developments, a housing model in which non-profits, funded by the city or county, sell housing below market value to low-income families. The buyer, in turn, owns the house, not the land, and must sell the housing below market value.
Chavis did not explain the level or scope of potential county involvement in land trust housing.
Abdihakim Ibrahim:
Abdihakim Ibrahim was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, and immigrated to the United States in 2014. In 2021, he became the first Somali American elected to the St. Louis Park School Board.
During his tenure, Ibrahim was involved in a controversy where he abstained from voting on a resolution to support classroom representation of marginalized communities that came after six Somali families asked to remove their children from a storytime involving LGBTQ+ characters. Soon after, Ibrahim later told Sahan Journal that he would have voted against the resolution.
“I was wrong, and I take full responsibility for what I said,” he told Southwest Voices. He said he would fully support the LGBTQ+ community as county commissioner.
In his campaign, Ibrahim focuses on his perspective as a Somali immigrant, father, and former school board member. Life experience shapes his campaign focus – accessibility to county services. He said that currently there is too much “waiting, papers, hoops, and red tape.” He wants to remove these barriers through a Digital Unified Family Assistance Hub, which would centralize county service paperwork applications into an online portal.
He chose not to contend for the DFL endorsement, saying, “I chose to take my campaign directly to the voters,” not just the DFL convention.
Although Ibrahim does not mention HCMC on his campaign website, he said it is his “number one priority.” He called HCMC essential for marginalized communities, and called the HCMC staff essential workers, promising no more cuts to HCMC staffing or capacity.
To fund HCMC, he said, “We really need to be accountable, see where we can cut, finding waste or duplications.”
Ibrahim wants to “partner with the cities, nonprofits, and responsible developers to build more affordable houses.” He wants to increase funding for eviction protection and mental health services, as it is “far less expensive to keep someone housed and healthy than to respond after a crisis.”
When pressed, he proposed funding affordable housing and HCMC from cuts to redundancies in other departments, which could be implemented through his DUFAH. He did not specify where these cuts would occur. Additionally, he did not explain what his housing partnerships would look like.
Anthony Walsh:
Anthony Walsh grew up in the metro, attending Minneapolis Public Schools and Edina Public Schools. He has interned twice for Hennepin County and has a law degree from Hamline University.
In 2024, Walsh ran to represent Minnesota’s 3rd congressional district as a part of the Legalize Marijuana Now Party, but did not qualify for the ballot, failing to meet the 1,000-signature minimum.
On his website, he calls himself “a voice for change,” who is “pro-youth and family, pro-affordable housing, pro-affordable child care, [and] pro-employment.”
He says he is “running because he believes that every child deserves to reach their full, authentic potential.” On his campaign website, he does not set out any vision beyond four preexisting Hennepin County policies.
The first is the Hennepin County Youth Activities Grant, which funds water safety programs, sports play areas, and arts programming.
The second is the Hennepin County Homebuyer Assistance Program. This program provides first-time homebuyers with up to $30,000 in financial assistance.
The third program Walsh’s campaign page promotes is the Hennepin County Child Care Assistance Program, which helps families with children under 12 pay for childcare.
The final program Walsh supports is the internship program, which he participated in as an undergraduate student.
Much of his campaign focuses on his background rather than detailed policy proposals.
In a campaign video, he states, “Many people talk, but the true test is ‘What have you done?” He proceeds to lay out his life story, including his legal background, internship experience, and time as a hockey coach. He notably does not include any policy or ideological visions for Hennepin on his campaign page – just qualifications.
Walsh did not respond to five interview requests from Southwest Voices.
Ben Aviles will be a senior at Blake School in fall 2026. He is editor-in-chief of The Spectrum, Blake’s school newspaper.
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