Meet Adam.

My name is Adam Jennings. I’m a dad, a veteran, a small business owner, and the mayor of Tonka Bay. I’m running to be the next Minnesota State Auditor because, at its core, the Auditor’s job is about service and accountability, and that’s been the story of my life.

I’m a finance guy who stumbled into politics, not the other way around. After 9/11, I joined the National Guard because I wanted to serve. I was supposed to go into artillery, but it turns out I’m color blind, which is not the best trait when you’re supposed to be loading color-coded powder bags. So instead, I was introduced to finance, and that set me on a path I never expected.

When I was deployed to Kosovo, I took a macroeconomics class, while witnessing firsthand the work NATO was doing to help rebuild the local economy, and fell in love with it. When I came home from my deployment, I decided to get my MBA in finance and went on to manage billions of dollars for a global insurance company. I eventually found my way into local government after a neighbor encouraged me to run for city council. After leaving the military, I was looking for ways to get involved in my community, so I decided to go for it. That led me to where I am today as mayor of Tonka Bay.

Now, you might ask: why does a finance guy, a mayor of a small city, want to be State Auditor?

Because the Auditor’s office is about making sure Minnesotans can trust how our tax dollars are spent. It’s about overseeing more than $60 billion in public spending: the budgets that run our schools, our counties, our cities, and our pension funds. It’s about finding fraud, fixing mistakes, and giving local leaders the tools they need to make good decisions.

It’s not a glamorous job. In fact, it shouldn’t be. The Auditor’s office should be steady, trustworthy, and, dare I say, a little boring. And that’s a good thing because when politics is boring, government is working the way it’s supposed to.

I bring the right mix of skills and values to this office. As a veteran, I know service comes first. As a finance professional, I know how to dig into the numbers and keep them honest. As a small business owner with roughly 30 employees—all of whom get health care coverage that doesn’t cost them a dime—I know what it takes to put values into practice. And as Mayor, I’ve worked with neighboring cities across the West Metro on joint powers agreements for police, fire, and other services, because I know collaboration is the only way local government works.

At the end of the day, this office isn’t about me. It’s about making sure Minnesota has an Auditor who maintains the integrity of the job, and who carries on the legacy of Democratic leaders like Mark Dayton, Rebecca Otto, and Julie Blaha. The Auditor’s office works best when it’s about good governance, not partisan games. That’s the kind of Auditor I’ll be. Someone who shows up, does the work, serves with integrity, and never forgets that in Minnesota—just like in finance—everybody counts.