Hello.
I’m Doron Clark.
I’m a husband, Edison High School Dad, a former chair of Senate District 60 DFL, and a SD 60 resident for nearly 25 years.
How did I get here?
I grew up on a family farm in southeast Minnesota. After my dad died, my mom quickly learned the importance of community and government structures to help us survive. I’m grateful for the free and reduced-fee school lunches I received in elementary school, and I’m proud that Rep. Sydney Jordan brought those free lunches to every child in our state. I moved to St. Paul in 1996 to attend Hamline University. I graduated with degrees in Religion and Economics.
New Beginnings
After college, I moved to Marcy Holmes (near Santana Foods and Alma) for easy access to my job at Target downtown. I took the #6 bus to work every morning, and if I didn’t walk home across the Stone Arch bridge, I took the same bus back home in the evening. In 2004, I bought my first house on Ulysses Street, and the #4 became my daily route. My wife, Molly and I met some of our best friends on the bus.
Community building and organizing
At home in Windom Park, I jumped into community work and chaired the community planning committee for Northeast Park. When we finished, Northeast Park had a new rec center and ball fields. As a chair of the Windom Park neighborhood board, I focused on getting loans and grants to make homes more energy efficient. After George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis Police Department, white supremacists tried to exploit this tragedy to spread their hatred and divide our community. My neighbors and I diligently went around our neighborhood to take down their paraphernalia and show that far right extremism is not welcome in our community. In 2020, I organized get-out-the-vote actions through SD60 DFL to help increase voter turnout and helped our Somali and Oromo-speaking neighbors in Cedar Riverside access culturally appropriate transportation to the polls. In 2022, I was honored to be elected chair of the Senate District 60 DFL by my neighbors.
Minneapolis is home
Today, I live in Windom Park (just a few blocks from our place on Ulysses Street) with my wife and two children who attend schools in our neighborhood: Edison High School and Yinghua. I work in ethics and compliance at Medtronic and serve on the boards of my church and Hamline University (Go Pipers!). I love to run and have helped build a welcoming community at Mill City Running - even getting several runners and friends to move into the neighborhood. This place is special - and my family and I are grateful to call it home.
Doing the work
My stories of working alongside Kari Dziedzic are similar to so many in Minnesota. Kari knew just when to call to offer support, when to provide advice, and when to just listen. In 2019, she and I discussed how to honor Rep. Diane Loeffler after her passing. I shared that I felt sick about recruiting candidates for Diane’s seat. Kari agreed, and added, “We get to be sad and, at the same time, we need to get to work.” I feel the same now. Losing Kari is devastating. We need to mourn. And we need to get to work to honor her legacy.
Please join me. Together, we can get to work for our neighbors and for Minnesota.
*Photo from an event we hosted with Kari in our front yard in 2012.
