Sen. Hawj was elected to the Minnesota Senate in 2012 and has been a member of the influential Senate Environment Committee for his entire tenure, a committee that he now chairs. He is widely respected on both sides of the aisle for his gentle and respectful, yet steadfast, leadership style. As a legislator representing east St. Paul, he has repeatedly championed not only local park and trail projects near his district – he’s authored numerous bills for Como Regional Park, Battle Creek Regional Park, Pig’s Eye Regional Park, and the Bruce Vento Trail – but also regional and statewide park and trail projects.
Since Sen. Hawj joined the Environment Committee, the state parks and trails general fund appropriation has increased every biennium. Today, the parks and trails general fund appropriation is more than double what it was when Sen. Hawj joined the committee 11 years ago. In his first year as chair of the Environmental Committee in 2023, Sen. Hawj spearheaded the effort to use the state’s surplus to increase state park maintenance funding; he authored the Get Out MORE law that allocates $110 million to modernize Minnesota’s outdoor recreation infrastructure; he tweaked how lottery money is spent to increase funding for park and trail projects and connect underserved Minnesotans to the outdoors; and he co-chaired the Legislative Citizens Commission on Minnesota Resources that funded $80 million in environmental grants.
Perhaps most impressively, he accomplished all that while resisting pressure, including from within his own party, to increase state park fees, instead arguing that we must keep our special places affordable for everyone. On the Senate floor, defending his bill, Sen. Hawj told the assembly that he was proud to stand his ground and not increase fees on fishing or state parks.