The Math Teacher Betting on Showing Up

Jake Johnson is one of 11 kids. His dad collected garbage. His mom read meters for the gas company. The family was on SNAP and Medicaid, and Johnson says he wouldn't have made it to college without Pell grants and subsidized Stafford loans. Now he's running for Congress in Minnesota's first district—a seat his Republican opponent won by 17 points in 2024. He taught high school math for 20 years. His wife is a paraprofessional who works with deaf and hard-of-hearing students. When he saw his congressman "so actively going after that dream" by celebrating cuts to SNAP and Medicaid and slashing the Department of Education, Johnson decided it wasn't "a good time to sit on the sidelines hoping that somebody else might do something about it."

The Mechanics of Showing Up

Johnson's core strategy is disarmingly simple: he holds town halls. His opponent, Representative Brad Finstad, called constituents who wanted public meetings "a pitchfork wielding mob throwing a hissy fit." Johnson took the opposite approach. He promised to hold a town hall in every county in the district before election day—and he's done it. More than that, he's committed to doing it every term. "It's really important for people to rebuild their faith in democracy to know that it's not just a one-off conversation," he says. "This is part of a bigger relationship."