Sahan Journal27%
St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her embroiled in sexual harassment probe amid high-profile camp closure, budget rollout 6%
By Joey Peters8% Mohamed Ibrahim36% Becky Z. Dernbach15% Katrina Pross3% Katelyn Vue2%
7/30/2026, 3:58:57 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Anecdotal, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 9.2% saturation with 175 hits. Analysis detected 1,062 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,904 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 19.5% and a BS Rank of 6% (22,464 of 23,886 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.00% of the article peer group.
St.
Paul mayoral candidate Kaohly Vang Her hugs a supporter as volunteers and allies wait for results at her watch party on November 4, 2025.
Public officials around the Twin Cities are expressing surprise and largely waiting for more information to come out two days after a sexual harassment investigation into St.
Paul Mayor Kaohly Her became public.
The allegations center around jokes Her allegedly made with her staffers about a weekly “Wiener Wednesday” tradition in their office, and an innuendo-filled text she allegedly sent to a police officer on her security detail superimposing his face on a meme about “wienering.”
St.
Paul Police Chief Axel Henry filed the sexual harassment complaint in April.
The city hired an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation, which is ongoing.
The sexual harassment investigation was first reported Tuesday evening by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Some Her supporters, such as former St.
Paul City Council Member Jane Prince, expressed bafflement over the scandal.
Prince, who represented the city’s East Side from 2016 through 2024, was among the council members to vote for Henry’s confirmation in 2022.
“Knowing them both as friends and professionals, I don’t understand why [Henry] didn’t just go to her and tell her that this needed to stop,” Prince told Sahan Journal.
“It’s hard for me to imagine a police chief who can’t assert himself or be afraid of repercussions because she’s his boss.”
Some Her supporters thought the allegations had been overblown.
“I really think this is just a distraction from her agenda,” said Eh Xiong, a longtime St.
Paul resident and software engineer who runs an AI translation company.
Added former St.
Paul City Council Member Dave Thune: “In my 20 years on City Council, I screwed up many times and apologized.
To err is human.”
“It’s obviously a poor choice of humor, made even more so by sending it to city employees,” said Thune, who represented the West Seventh corridor from 1990 through 2015.
“I would encourage her to give a personal apology and keep running the city.
The city needs a lot of work and she’s doing a great job.”
Her’s spokesman Matt Wagenius did not respond to multiple requests from Sahan Journal seeking comment.
Neither did the St.
Paul Police Department or Chris Madel, Henry’s lawyer.
Her told the Star Tribune that she doesn’t plan to step down from office as the investigation into her behavior continues.
The St.
Paul Police Federation, the department’s union, issued a statement and declined to comment further.
“Our obligation is to our membership, and the focus of the Federation will remain on supporting the rank-and-file members who are out in the community risking their lives every day,” union spokesman Mark Ross said in the statement.
“I am not in a position to elaborate further on this situation, but I do want the community to rest assured that our focus is on serving them with the commitment, class, and integrity that they’ve come to expect and deserve.”
St.
Paul Police Chief Axel Henry, pictured in his office on December 17, 2024.
Credit: Aaron Nesheim | Sahan Journal
An April 1 letter written by Madel to St.
Paul City Attorney Irene Kao confirms that Henry opted to proceed with filing a formal complaint against Her.
The letter cites the “Wiener Wednesday” text message and alleges that Her “engaged in illegal conduct toward City employees,” including Henry.
“Chief Henry has reached this decision to step forward as a formal complainant against the Mayor after becoming aware that the Mayor’s conduct has extended beyond isolated incidents and has included sexual harassment of subordinate City employees, including members of the Saint Paul Police Department,” Madel wrote.
Xiong described Her as a hardworking, active mayor engaged in all the city’s communities.
He said he’d heard mixed community reactions to the scandal, and that since the double entendre of “wiener” did not translate into Hmong, he had to explain the controversy to elders.
Xiong noted this wasn’t Her’s first time getting in trouble for her words, pointing to comments she made on the Minnesota House floor last year that implied she had come to the country illegally.
He said he supported the independent investigation and disciplinary action if necessary.
“Our elected officials should be held to a higher standard, that I agree,” he said.
“Does that mean that everybody is perfect?
Of course not.”
A ground-breaking mayoral race
Her defeated incumbent Melvin Carter last year, after announcing her mayoral campaign just three months before Election Day.
She is the first woman and first Hmong person to hold the role.
Xiong said he was “ecstatic” when she won.
“You have someone to inspire the younger generation,” he said.
“I truly believe in that.”
As she stepped into office, Her said she wanted to focus on “core city functions,” such as ensuring residents could access basic needs like food and health care.
She also stressed the importance of adding more affordable housing in the city and revitalizing its downtown district.
During her inaugural address, Her said she would implement measures to limit immigration agents’ access to city property.
Her took office amid Operation Metro Surge, which began in December, when thousands of federal agents flooded the state.
St.
Paul has since enacted several ordinances targeting federal law enforcement, such as requiring officers to clearly identify themselves.
Her took office following years of tension between the city council and the mayor’s office over the city’s increasing policing budget and overtime spending.
During his eight years in office, Carter consistently raised the department’s budget despite pushback from council members, who argued for limits to police overtime spending to keep a lid on property tax increases.
Her’s proposed budget, which she plans to present to the council in mid-August, will likely feature cuts to the Police Department’s budget.
The impending cuts to several city departments, in addition to property tax hikes, have been floated by the mayor as a way to address the city’s $26 million budget deficit.
The allegations against Her also come days before the city is expected to clear its largest homeless encampment, which is located at Pig’s Eye Park.
Earlier this month, Her announced that the city would soon clear its three largest encampments, which resulted in pushback from nonprofits and community groups.
In recent weeks, City Council members have been pushing Her’s administration for more information about its plan and have expressed concern about where unhoused individuals will be able to go.
The encampment is scheduled to be cleared on Aug.
5.
Justin Lewandowski, the executive director of Open Hands Midway, said that Her has been notably absent from community forums and meetings about the encampment sweeps.
“We’ve got hundreds of people who are about to be displaced, and we can’t get an honest answer from the mayor’s office about anything,” Lewandowski said.
Political leaders react
“I always wondered what comes after the feminists tear down the patriarchy,” Republican National Committee member AK Kamara wrote on Facebook , noting that St.
Paul has an all-female City Council and a female mayor.
“Turns out the creation of Weiner Wednesdays and overt sexual harassment is what comes next.”
The reaction from Democrats was more muted.
U.S.
Rep.
Angie Craig, D-Minn., who is running in a competitive DFL primary against Lt.
Gov.
Peggy Flanagan for an open U.S.
Senate seat, had previously touted the endorsement of both Her and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
But by Wednesday, the day after the allegations broke, Her’s endorsement had been removed from her website.
Craig’s office did not respond to Sahan Journal questions about why it removed the endorsement or provide comment on the allegations.
Her was slated to headline a fundraiser with the Legislature’s St.
Paul delegation Wednesday night, the day after the story broke.
Sahan Journal reached out to each of the elected officials who co-hosted the fundraiser.
Rep.
Leigh Finke, DFL-St.
Paul, said she wasn’t able to attend the fundraiser, which she had previously communicated to the mayor, and that she would wait to see the results of the investigation.
“All accusations of sexual harassment are serious and need to be taken seriously, and people are also afforded due process,” she said.
“We will see what the investigation holds.”
Sen.
Clare Oumou Verbeten, DFL-St.
Paul, also said she did not attend the fundraiser.
“I take allegations of [sexual] harassment very seriously,” she said.
“What’s been alleged needs to be fully investigated to understand what next steps should be taken.”
Through a spokesperson, Sen.
Erin Murphy declined to comment, saying she had been out of town.
The rest of the St.
Paul legislators co-hosting the fundraiser — Sen.
Foung Hawj, Rep.
Meg Luger-Nikolai, Rep.
Dave Pinto, Rep.
Samakab Hussein, Rep.
Athena Hollins, Rep.
Liz Lee, and Rep.
Jay Xiong — did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
Council member reactions
Most St.
Paul council members declined to comment on the allegations, but Saura Jost and Molly Coleman shared concerns and Her’s right to due process on their Facebook profiles.
“I am deeply concerned to learn of the allegations made against Mayor Her,” Jost posted on Facebook on July 30.
“Every city employee deserves respect and a safe, welcoming, inclusive workplace; especially from leaders to whom we have entrusted the most power.”
She also feels frustrated by the “situation” shifting attention from challenges facing the city, such as the encampment closures and the city’s budget gap.
“Trust is at the heart of local government.
Even the perception of impropriety can undermine public confidence and distract from the important work before us,” read Jost’s post.
In a thread on BlueSky on July 30, Coleman said that she and other council members learned about the investigation and allegations against Her from the media this week.
She wrote that Her’s administration should have informed council members “as soon as it was apparent that there were serious allegations against the Mayor, and before an external law firm was retained.”
“The lack of transparency related to this matter to date is unacceptable,” Coleman wrote.
“Transparency moving forward is non-negotiable if we are going to restore trust and faith in City Hall.”
Council President Rebecca Noecker was unavailable to comment, according to her legislative aide.
Council Members HwaJeong Kim, Nelsie Yang, Cheniqua Johnson and Anika Bowie did not release public statements or respond to multiple requests for comment.
Her’s budget proposal has not been released to council members yet, according to Jost’s legislative aide.
This isn’t the first time Her’s alleged behavior resulted in formal complaints against her.
Last year, former friend Shirly Yang filed a restraining order against Her alleging “deeply unsettling” behavior from Her that included constant unwanted texting, messages and questions about her personal life.
“She shared deeply intimate details about her own love life, spirituality, sexuality, attachment styles … without me asking for such information,” Yang wrote.
“These disclosures were overly intimate, felt like sexual harassment, and were completely unsolicited.”
When Yang threatened to file a restraining order, Her allegedly retaliated by using her political influence to get Yang off of the board of the Minnesota chapter of the National Kidney Foundation, according to Yang’s petition.
A referee rejected the restraining order petition in January.
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Paul Mayor Kaohly Her embroiled in sexual harassment probe amid high-profile camp closure, budget rollout appeared first on Sahan Journal .
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