Mark Dayton

“Improving the quality of people’s lives is what you get elected to do.”

Minnesota’s 40th governor urges the state’s next governor to lead from Day 1. He explains how primaries and online echo chambers have made compromise so rare, and challenges young Minnesotans to see citizenship as a responsibility, not just a right.

September 24, 2026

Panelists: Paul Ostrow, Lee Munnich, Paul Gilje, Arya Alagappan, Samhita Krishnamurthy

Summary

Mark Dayton draws on a career that includes public service as Minnesota's state auditor, U.S senator, and two terms as governor to distill his advice for Minnesota’s next governor into a single word: lead. Stand from Day 1 for what you ran on, keep faith with the voters who trusted you, and fight until you get the job done. Dayton did that with the tax increase on top earners that he credits, along with a recovering economy, with turning chronic deficits into surpluses. He is frank about what makes that harder today: primaries that punish compromise, an internet that tells people only what they want to hear, and a federal government he sees drifting toward what founding father James Madison called tyranny. Still, he sees a rare opening for bipartisanship in the fight against the current epidemic of fraud in state social delivery programs. He rests his hopes on citizens, young ones above all, accepting that citizenship carries responsibilities as well as rights.

Background

Dayton’s public life spans nearly half a century, and he turns 80 in January. Born in 1947 into the family behind Dayton’s department stores, he has long described public service as his way of giving back. After graduating from Yale, he taught in a New York City public school, worked for U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale, and served as Gov. Rudy Perpich’s commissioner of energy and economic development, where he hired panelist and Civic Caucus board member Lee Munnich. He was elected state auditor in 1990, served one term in the U.S. Senate from 2001 to 2007, and served two terms as Minnesota’s 40th governor, from 2011 to 2019. His governorship is remembered for the tax increase on top earners and the budget surpluses that followed, initiating all-day kindergarten, building U.S. Bank Stadium, and the 2013 law legalizing same-sex marriage. His memoir, "Perseverance," was recently published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Discussion

“Compromise is the essence of successful politicking; not compromise your principles, but compromise your positions.” - Mark Dayton

What is the one lesson for the next governor?
“You need to lead,” Dayton says. A new governor must arrive ready to stand for what they ran on and work for it with single-minded focus, because the voters are trusting them to deliver. Facing a $6 billion deficit, a fifth of the state budget, Dayton campaigned on raising the income tax on the wealthiest 2% of Minnesotans. A Republican Legislature refused to raise taxes for any reason, so it took two years and new DFL majorities to pass it. The increase, together with an improving economy, turned chronic deficits into consistent surpluses. 

The chance to lead is why Dayton far preferred being governor to serving in the Senate, where he spent most of his term in the minority: “Being in the minority really sucks.” Conviction still needs effectiveness, though, and that means fostering relationships on both sides of the aisle. “If you stand on the fringes and scream, you can make a lot of noise, but you’re not going to achieve any results,” he says.

How should the next governor approach the economy?
Dayton learned economic development from Gov. Rudy Perpich, whose theme was “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Perpich used to say that, on the Iron Range, when his father’s lunch pail sat on the shelf, times were bad; when his mother was packing it, times were good. As governor, Dayton put jobs first, too, pointing to building U.S. Bank Stadium, developing a destination medical center with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion, and a water supply for southwestern Minnesota. “Improving the quality of people’s lives is what you get elected to do.” Businesses create the jobs, and Minnesota needs more of them now that growth appears to be slowing, a serious challenge for the next governor and Legislature. Business leaders weren’t thrilled about his tax increase, Dayton acknowledges, but the more enlightened ones understood it was necessary, and the economy kept improving anyway.

Why has compromise become so hard?
Dayton gave ranked choice voting a qualified yes. It rewards candidates who reach across differences rather than writing off everyone outside their 51%, though the state would first need voting technology that works the same everywhere. In parts of the Iron Range, he joked, they still count on their fingers and toes. He is cooler on restoring nonpartisan legislative elections, which he calls “a forgotten cause.” The real problem is that the passionate left and right control the process, and lawmakers fear a primary more than a general election. In 2011, Republican leaders told Dayton they could accept his compromises, “but if we did, we’d be deposed this afternoon.” He calls the internet the biggest change since he served, and it deepens the divide by feeding people media that tells them they’re right and everyone else is wrong. If a single disagreement with the base gets a lawmaker rejected, he asks, “then who could ever be true to themselves?”

Can the fight against fraud bring the parties together?
Dayton called Minnesota’s public employees high caliber, more than 90% of them sincere and committed. Corruption flows down from the top, he says, and Minnesota has never had the corrupt political culture some states are known for. That is why the fraud scandal has been such a stunning blow, with people in government or funded by it stealing vast sums from public programs. Cleaning it up must be a top priority for the next governor and Legislature. He sees an unusual opening for bipartisanship: the parties may differ on how to strengthen oversight, “but everybody wants good government, honest government.” Drawing on his years as state auditor, he also warned that cuts in federal and state aid have pushed local governments onto the regressive property tax, leaving needs they cannot meet.

Should Washington’s power grow?
Asked whether the federal government should take a bigger role in education, Dayton quipped that it was the wrong time to ask. Pointing to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) operations in Minnesota, he warned that federal power in the wrong hands is dangerous. Founding father James Madison called the concentration of legislative, executive, and judicial power the very definition of tyranny. Dayton believes Washington is close to that now, with a Republican Congress that bows to President Donald Trump, and six Supreme Court justices willing to let him do almost anything. The remedy, he says, is the November election and leaders of different character and ethics, which voters can judge by how candidates behave and campaign. “There are no saints in politics. There are only shades of sinners. But there are shades.”

What would make Minnesota’s schools better?
Paul Gilje raised the turmoil at Minneapolis Public Schools and education reformer Ted Kolderie’s case for giving classroom teachers more responsibility and the administrators above them less power. Dayton agreed: “It all comes down to the quality of the teacher.” Teachers should be well trained and paid well enough that teaching attracts and keeps good people. They need the resources to stop buying supplies out of their own pockets, the freedom to design their classrooms, and accountability. He speaks from experience. Teaching in New York City was the toughest job he ever had. He started with the boring monologue he’d been taught with, his students wouldn’t stand for it, and he had to learn to be creative. “My students taught me a lot more than I taught them.”

Will AI create as many jobs as it destroys?
Dayton called AI a Pandora’s Box and admitted he isn’t prescient enough to say what it holds. It will eliminate some jobs and create others. Like all technology, it is value neutral, a boon or a detriment depending on “who’s running the show,” and given human nature, he worries some will turn it against people. With President Trump content to keep hands off, he says government must get ahead of the curve and set guardrails so that AI serves people, not the other way around. “That will be your task,” he told the student panelists.

What does he ask of young Minnesotans?
Start by listening, he said. Go to the schools, take the tough questions, invite students to the Capitol, and pay your interns, as he did. He noted that many young people doubt their voices matter, and he argued that schools should teach citizenship as a responsibility. 

“We have a Bill of Rights. I always thought we needed a commensurate Bill of Responsibilities.”

To those who shrug that theirs is only one vote, he asks how much they think it should count. Civics should start early and teach that “you’re not being responsible as a citizen if you’re not engaged in something bigger than yourself.” Young people needn’t wait to run for office either. “You don’t have to be 40 years old to get involved. In fact, that’s almost too late.”

Final thoughts

Despite his alarm about Washington, Dayton ends on a hopeful note. The country has come through civil war, slavery and racism, two world wars, Vietnam, and now Iran, and its system, he says, is larger than any one individual or administration. Power ultimately rests with the people, starting with the ballot. Quoting WWII British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s verdict that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others, he said he believes the goodness of basic human nature will prevail. Turning 80 in January, Dayton dedicated his new memoir, "Perseverance," to his five grandchildren because their future is what he cares about most. He is counting on Minnesota's young people to build it.