Duluth city council candidate: Miranda Pacheco

There are eight candidates running in next month’s primary election to fill two at-large Duluth city council positions. One of the candidates, Miranda Pacheco held a campaign event Friday night at the Harrison community club.

It was an indian taco fundraiser. Pacheco says indian tacos are made with frybread instead of tortillas and represent Pacheco’s background as an ojibwe woman and a latina.

“This is what we do,” she said with a big smile. “We feast together as a community, hopefully looking forward tonight to talking to other community members and see where they stand on things.”

Pacheco is one of two DFL endorsed candidates running for the two at-large city council seats. She has been very open about her journey from being a felon and homeless, to now being a trained drug and alcohol counselor.

“I was homeless, I was in active addiction. I lost my kids to the system when I moved to Duluth and I worked my way out of that deep dark hole. And I’m here now and I get to see all different sorts of people. It keeps me humble, I know where I came from.”

Pacheco says affordable housing, more mental health resources, potholes and infrastructure are some of her top priorities to tackle if elected.

“We’re all just humans and we all have something to offer. Yeah, it’s cool getting together with all these public officials, but I like everyday people because we all live here, we all share this community. I do have my values and but I allow space for other people to have their values. People don’t see how I see because we come from different backgrounds. But we do connect on one thing for sure, we all love Duluth!”

Duluth’s primary election is Tuesday, August 8th.