Trahern Crews
Age: 42
Bio: Crews was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and graduated from St. Paul Central High School. He's spent his career working with youth and on issues like urban farming, sustainability and homelessness.
Education: St. Paul Central High School, class of 1993.
Work experience: Crews runs an organization called Original Man Farms working with youth to teach growing food, selling food and sustainability. They also work on the on the issues of violence prevention and homelessness, and are currently partnered with a Better Road Foundation. Crews formerly worked at Truth Academy, where he facilitated an urban farming project for kids from kindergarten through 6th grade. Before that, he worked for Dayton’s Bluff Community Project on housing, police brutality, police-community relations and homelessness.
Political and public experience: Campaign manager for Marcus Walker for state senate and Lena Denise Buggs for state representative, Green Party spokesperson for the 4th Congressional District. He also ran for Minneapolis City Council in 2015.
Main issues: "I want to tackle the disparities in the City of St. Paul. St. Paul and the Twin Cities have some of the worst disparities in the country. It’s detrimental to our city and our state because of the changing demographics. The east side, for example, the median income keeps dropping and it’s starting to be a majority people of color, so we have to make sure the incomes aren’t dropping."
Party: Independent
Why he is running: "I decided to run for mayor because nobody was really addressing the disparities how they need to be addressed. I think that the City of St. Paul needs a leader and a visionary leader. In 2015, when I ran I called for an independent investigation into all police shootings that result in deaths. Today, the City of St. Paul and other counties now conduct independent investigations. I’ve been working on raising the minimum wage since 2013. Now all the other candidates believe we should raise it to $15 an hour. I was also one of the first people to recognize that we need Amazon here in St. Paul."
What you might not know about him: He loves chocolate candy. His favorite? Heath bar.
Website: www.facebook.com/CrewsforSaintPaul/
Note: Responses were submitted directly by the candidates and may have been edited for clarity.
Candidate provided responses via phone
