1:23 PM | Monday, May 18, 2026<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn Park community is mourning former state lawmaker Rep. Michael Nelson, who passed away, according to family and legislative leaders.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers and others posted tributes to Nelson on social media over the weekend.<\/p>\n
He was 71 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nelson spent 22 years in the Minnesota House of Representatives as a DFLer.<\/p>\n
A carpenter by trade and a union official, Nelson was first elected to represent Brooklyn Park and parts of Osseo in 2002.<\/p>\n
At various times during his tenure, he chaired the Government Operations Committee, the State Government Finance and Elections Committee and the Labor Committee.<\/p>\n
While an obituary has not yet been published, a social media post by a family member said Nelson passed away after a short illness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nelson retired in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We] got a lot of things accomplished,\u201d Nelson said in an interview with CCX News shortly after announcing his retirement.<\/a> \u201cWhen I first ran, I didn\u2019t think I was going to be here that long. Like I said: It was 11 terms, 22 years. It\u2019s time to move on with my life, actually retire and see what that is like.\u201d<\/p>\n Nelson was a graduate of Park Center High School and Hennepin Technical College, according to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library.<\/p>\n He leaves behind a wife and three children.<\/p>\n Related: Longtime Brooklyn Park State Rep. Mike Nelson Announces He Won\u2019t Seek Re-Election<\/a><\/p>\n Brooklyn Park<\/a> | Osseo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1:23 PM | Monday, May 18, 2026 The Brooklyn Park community is mourning former state lawmaker Rep. Michael…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-235883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}