Kaohly Her
Introduction
Kaohly Vang Her is an American politician serving since 2026 as the mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota — the first woman and the first Hmong American to hold the position. A DFL member and former Hmong refugee, she served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2019 to 2025, where she was majority whip from 2021 to 2022. In September 2026, less than a year into her mayoralty, her own police chief filed a 73-page civil lawsuit against her and the city alleging sexual harassment and retaliation, days after a city investigation found she had engaged in “offensive and inappropriate behavior” but did not substantiate sexual harassment or retaliation.
Background Information
Her was born in Laos on June 18, 1973, where her family lived in a refugee camp; her grandfather had fought alongside the U.S. Army and the CIA in the Laotian Civil War. The family resettled in the United States when she was four. She earned a business degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and an MBA from Northeastern University, spent 15 years in finance, then worked as a community organizer and founded a PAC for Hmong-American women.
Elected to the Minnesota House in 2018, she represented District 64A in Saint Paul as one of the first two Hmong-American women to serve in the chamber. She authored Minnesota’s End Child Marriage Bill, raising the legal marriage age to 18 without exceptions. In November 2025 she defeated incumbent Melvin Carter in what was considered an upset, and was sworn in as mayor on January 2, 2026.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from a civil lawsuit filed by St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry, and from his earlier complaint to the city, as reported by the NY Post and MPR News. They were never admitted by Her, never criminally charged, and never adjudicated in court. Her denies them through her office, which notes that an independent investigation did not substantiate sexual harassment or retaliation.
Henry’s 73-page complaint, filed Wednesday, September 23, 2026, in Ramsey County District Court by attorney Chris Madel, alleges a pattern of inappropriate conduct beginning in late 2025. The suit claims that at a Police Academy graduation on February 19, 2026, Her asked Henry about a ribbon on Deputy Chief Tim Flynn’s uniform, “Why is Tim’s bigger?” — which Henry says he understood as an innuendo about the size of his penis — and that she quipped about a “MFF” (Mobile Field Force) ribbon, “Oh, I thought it said MILF so maybe I could get one,” the self-description echoed in the NY Post’s headline.
At the police department gym, beginning in November 2025, Henry alleges Her showed up daily when she knew he would be working out and made loud grunting and moaning noises that at least five officers who witnessed them said sounded like she was having an orgasm; she allegedly also called officers “beefy.” On multiple occasions in January 2026, the suit claims, Her photoshopped officers’ faces onto boy-band members, UFC fighters and “bodybuilders with prominent bulges in the crotch area of their compression shorts,” printed the images in gold frames and hung them in department hallways, even pasting her own headshot over official command portraits and SWAT retirement plaques.
The suit further alleges unwanted physical contact: on March 18, 2026, during a police budget meeting, Her allegedly placed her hand beneath the table on Henry’s upper thigh twice without his consent, the second time extending her fingers toward his groin — contact an assistant chief witnessed, per MPR News. On February 6, 2026, she allegedly followed him to a Woodbury golf simulator where he was on vacation, saying she “had to come like this because you guys wouldn’t invite me.” Henry also alleges she repeatedly raised trouble in her marriage and once said the two needed to be friends or “this was not going to work,” which he took as a possible threat to his job.
The complaint additionally alleges violations of three Minnesota statutes — the Government Data Practices Act, the Whistleblower Act and the Human Rights Act — and accuses the mayor’s administration of retaliating after Henry’s formal complaint to the city attorney on April 1: excluding him from personnel decisions, publicly criticizing his complaint, and giving raises to other command staff but not to him. His suit demands release of the full investigative report and a jury trial on damages. His attorney said Henry “came forward because what happened was wrong and needed to be reported,” adding, “we look forward to proving our allegations in a court of law.”
Public Reaction and Consequences
The suit landed six days after the city released a two-page summary of an outside investigation into Henry’s allegations, which concluded that Her “engaged in offensive and inappropriate behavior” with city employees but did not substantiate sexual harassment or retaliation. Her said afterward that she had become too informal in some communications and had “crossed lines” inconsistent with the city’s workplace conduct policy, per MPR News; the full report has not been publicly released.
The suit drew national coverage, with the NY Post labeling Her a “self-described ‘MILF’” mayor sued by her own police chief. It compounded an earlier episode that had drawn wide attention: in June 2025, while still a state representative, Her publicly revealed that she came to the United States without legal status as a child, and her remark about her family’s arrival — “My family broke the law to come here” — drew national coverage, facts recorded on her Wikipedia page.
Current Status
Her remains mayor of Saint Paul. Through a spokesperson, she said the independent investigation did not substantiate sexual harassment or retaliation against any city employee and that the mayor would follow its recommendations; “beyond that, the City of Saint Paul doesn’t comment on active litigation.” The lawsuit is pending in Ramsey County District Court, and Henry remains police chief; no removal proceedings had been announced as of the latest reports.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The suit against Her is remarkable in part because of who filed it: not a constituent, activist or political rival, but the city’s own police chief, whose allegations come wrapped in court filings rather than anonymous quotes. Whatever the outcome, the allegations have defined the opening year of a barrier-breaking administration, and their progress will test both Her’s political durability and the city’s handling of harassment complaints against its highest elected official.