Alumni campaign to be the next leader of St. Cloud

No matter the outcome on Election Day, the next mayor of St. Cloud will be another St. Cloud State University graduate.

Current city council members Jake Anderson and Mike Conway are currently campaigning for the position. Anderson serves Ward 3 while Conway serves Ward 4.

Husky beginnings

Anderson graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School in 1998 before attending SCSU. Initially considering mass communications, political science and then psychology, he ultimately earned his bachelor’s in information systems — then called business computers, in 2003. He worked a variety of information technology jobs before joining Stearns County as an IT project manager, and has held that position for 15 years. Anderson credits St. Cloud State with giving him a solid foundation in the IT field, as well as with some of his earlier connections in the community.

“The people that I met, whether it was typically through work but they also attended St. Cloud State, those are very valuable. Obviously being an information systems major, there was a lot of system design and analysis — a lot of my IT project management involves system design and analysis — so there’s a lot of those questions that were pondered in academics but now are applied in the ‘real world,’” he said. “It was a very valuable experience, and I think one of things that people often miss out with universities especially is: the college experience is not about just you getting a job or obtaining a career at the end of it. That will occur, but it’s about growing as a person, identifying who you are, learning about topics and subjects you may not have known anything about, and trying to build an open mind to really just expand your own skillset and toolset in your head as well as then how you can apply that to the next phase of your life.”

Conway said he was more of a non-traditional student. He graduated from high school in 1984 before attending University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and then the University of Minnesota before making his way to SCSU. He double-majored and then minored in biology, life science and earth science, graduating in 1994. In the 10 years between his high school and college graduations, he got married and had three children while working different jobs.

“I chose to come to St. Cloud, and I think I was much better for it. I really enjoyed the fact that St. Cloud gave me a chance,” he said. “My educational start was a little rocky — getting married early with three kids, trying to hold down some jobs was a little tough to do, and St. Cloud took a chance and it paid off.”

While he initially taught high school and junior high school students in St. Paul and then Sartell, Conway ultimately decided the teaching profession wasn’t for him. He has spent the last 23 years working as a solutions specialist and consultant with Wolters Kluwer Financial Services.

Making change through public service

Both Anderson and Conway see public office as a chance to help improve their communities — even though their initial introductions to campaigning were hit and miss.

“Going back to high school, going back for a long time, it’s trying to be a person of change that can help bring people together to create a betterment of society. That was my idealistic rose-colored glasses. So I ran for mayor when I was in college in 2001 and got absolutely crushed. I then ran for city council in 2007 in a primary and also fared poorly, so at that point I sort of gave up the theory of running for office, and instead embarked on appointed office,” Anderson said. “So in 2009 I was appointed to the St. Cloud Planning Commission — where I served for 11 years — and I found that to be extremely valuable and really enjoyed it because it’s contributing to how we are as a city but also understanding it. To me, if you’re a person that just wants to simply complain about things and not do anything, that’s fine. Just sit at your keyboard and type away in the comments. If you actually want to be involved in understanding — and it’s not necessarily to make change, but to just feel an impact — I think getting involved in public service is extremely important.”

He ultimately ran for and was elected to city council in 2022, and now represents the northwest part of St. Cloud. When current mayor and fellow SCSU alumnus Dave Kleis announced in April 2024 he would not seek re-election, Anderson said he was approached by multiple people about running for the position. He was initially hesitant, but was swayed when hearing people’s reasons for suggesting him.

“After numerous conversations with folks, they were really seeking a moderate voice, somebody that’s more of a pragmatic person that balances the interests between business community, residents, etcetera — that’s always a constant balance. So after many meetings and many emails and text messages and phone calls, I finally decided that I would enter the race,” Anderson said. “And that’s the message I try to bring to voters, the message that I try to bring to anybody — even the ones that call me or email me with any issues — is that I want to get things done. I have no — I don’t run on any ideology. I’m not here to tell you that conservative ways are better than liberal ways or whatever point of view you may have. it’s just what is the problem we’re trying to solve and how are we going to solve it.”

Like Anderson, Conway’s first attempt at running for public office was also unsuccessful. He initially ran for school board, and said he later realized he ran for the wrong reasons.

“I was running against the school board, trying to prove a point, and about six years ago I ran for city council, and found out I was running for something, which is a little different momentum,” Conway said.

He was elected to city council to represent the southwest corner of St. Cloud in 2018, and was re-elected in 2022.

“The fourth ward is a little unique in that it has parts of what I would call the main part of St. Cloud — because it goes all the way from Third and Cooper and University area down through the southwest, so it’s got a very diverse population — and I really felt that that group needed a voice to be continued on the council,” Conway said. “And I said, ‘If you elect me, I’ll be your voice.’ And they did. So that was my main focus: just represent the ward — but as a council member, we represent all of the citizens of St. Cloud. So it’s not just specific to our area.”

It’s Conway’s hope, if elected as the city’s next mayor, to continue to be a voice for citizens and to continue moving St. Cloud forward.

“Being a council member, you get subtle impacts here and there. I think the major impact that we’ve had has been being able to keep St. Cloud kind of in a growing-forward momentum,” he said. “How do we move St. Cloud in a forward motion, and not back into past history or historical views of things? It’s time for us to start and continue moving forward.”

A vision for St. Cloud

St. Cloud is special, and there’s work to be done in order to keep it that way while also improving the city, both Conway and Anderson said.

“St. Cloud has always been a small town wrapped in a big box — in a big city box. We have music, we have entertainment, we have all the foods, we have all the different restaurants and bars and activities, we have the parks, we have the outdoor activities right here. We’re close enough that if we want to go down (to the Twin Cities) and catch a professional sports game — whether it’s baseball or football or hockey or whatever — we can do that,” Conway said. “We’re also far enough away that we get to enjoy the somewhat smaller-town feel of St. Cloud.”

“One of the things that I think people may not necessarily recognize, is we have an extremely strong nonprofit, arts and entertainment section. I serve on the Paramount board; there’s a lot of good artists out there and there’s a lot of folks that bring a lot of value that you just don’t see, that are really doing cool things,” Anderson said. “So I think what’s most unique and what’s most special about St. Cloud is our people, and — I think it’s an untapped resource oftentimes — but I think if you hang out here, if you live here and you get to meet all sorts of people, you’re really going to learn that there’s a lot of special, unique individuals in this city that make it a strong city and a strong region.”

While St. Cloud faces its share of challenges, as other cities do, both candidates feel there’s much to be proud of. Their respective visions for St. Cloud include balancing celebrating the city’s successes while addressing areas that need improvement.

“The vision of St. Cloud is really an interesting question, because there’s the standard visions — which is make sure the roads are good, the city’s safe and help grow business from where it is to where it could be — and one of my visions is to build the next great neighborhood. St. Cloud celebrates a lot of its older neighborhoods: University, Pantown, the Lake George neighborhoods, but we need housing, so one of my visions is to find a way to get that and develop the next great neighborhoods where people can move in and really lay roots down and become invested in the community,” Conway said. “Obviously we need to figure out what’s going to happen with the downtown area. There’s a lot of opportunity, a lot of changes there. So continuing the current vision of growing that area, I think it’ll be interesting to see how that’s going to change with some things — with the county moving out and a few other areas. We’re going to have some challenges, but we’re going to have some really good opportunities as well, and that’s kind of what I’m looking forward to.”

Anderson hopes to encourage an attitude change among some residents, whether elected mayor or in his current role with the city council.

“The impact that I hope to have in any role that I’ve served, whether it’s planning commission, city council or potentially the mayor: I want to make life better for folks, I want people to feel pride in the community. I want people to not hate on the city so much. That happens a lot and I know that happens in other communities, too, but I would really like to instill that — you know what, average people can do extraordinary things. You can represent folks, you can help the community, you can build a smarter, better place and just an overall happier and healthier community. To me, that’s what’s most important, is how do we move our city forward? How do we make sure our residents are moving forward with the progress that we’re attempting to make, and how do we just better all of St. Cloud?” Anderson said. “If you take a step back, and you go to other communities that have large universities in them, there’s often a lot of community pride in those universities, right? It’s a hand-in-hand type motion where the city is proud of the university and vice versa, and I would really like to build in St. Cloud — I want to instill a lot more pride in our city. I think there’s things that we can do — improving the aesthetics of our community, reinvigorating our downtown, building a strong employee base, building or obtaining higher paying jobs, working toward more affordable housing for all really — those are the things that in the vision I have: St. Cloud is on the rise. And I think we can get there.”

The relationship between St. Cloud and SCSU

Conway and Anderson feel that what’s good for St. Cloud State is good for St. Cloud, and vice versa. Conway feels the city and the University draw momentum from each other.

“SCSU’s importance to St. Cloud really is that without SCSU, I don’t necessarily know that St. Cloud as a city would be where it is now and kind of vice versa. The two have a very symbiotic relationship. When St. Cloud State is booming, the city booms. Sometimes when neither one is booming, then we both have things we need to work on,” Conway said. “It’s interesting because I don’t think anybody that comes to St. Cloud, visits St. Cloud, works in St. Cloud could understand what this city would be like without the University. And I think when students come here — staying on campus and around campus but having the access to all the amenities that downtown provides — I don’t necessarily think St. Cloud State would be the university it is if it didn’t have the city associated with it.”

Anderson believes SCSU plays an important role in the region’s economy as well as its overall success.

“St. Cloud State is a vital economic driver for the region. I mean, it draws in students. You can tell, based on the number of retail establishments we have, the number of restaurants, a lot of those have relied for a long time on student labor and those students, like I did, that work in those. Obviously, the hope is that the folks that attend St. Cloud State will want to stay in the community and maybe start a business or work for someone or work for a business that’s in the community,” Anderson said. “I cannot imagine a St. Cloud without St. Cloud State. It simply shouldn’t be plausible to anyone. Universities are key; there’s studies that show the economic impact — it’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s important, and I think it’s important for the city and the University to have a great relationship and to really, like I said before with pride, do what we can to instill some pride, whether it’s St. Cloud State, St. Cloud Technical & Community College — what can we do to enhance that relationship and make the partnership stronger.”

The fact that leadership of the city will pass from one SCSU alum to another following November 2024’s results is an excellent example of how closely the University and city are intertwined, according to the candidates.

“I think that says a lot of the quality of individuals that attend St. Cloud State and the longevity of the University and city’s connection,” Conway said. “There are many people that work at the city that have graduated from St. Cloud State, there’s a lot of people that have jobs and careers in St. Cloud that came up here for school (and) never left, and so I think that continuity of leadership both at the city and with the city around and the University itself is an important thing to recognize.”

“I think it shows the importance of St. Cloud State to the community. St. Cloud State at this point is getting a lot of flack. I hear it, and you can do one of two things when you get negative feedback. You can just respond to it and be reactive, or you can take it as an opportunity to go forward,” Anderson said. “I’m excited that either myself or Mr. Conway as St. Cloud State alumni will take that leadership role from Mayor Kleis, and I think, again, it symbolizes how important St. Cloud State is to the community.”

Both candidates will participate in a debate sponsored by KVSC Radio and St. Cloud Live at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15 in SCSU’s Ritsche Auditorium. Huskies with questions about voting in this year’s election can go to the University’s Get Out the Vote website.