Senate committee advances bill to bar employers from firing employees for running for office

Senate File 863, a bill that would expand protections against employment reprisals to explicitly cover candidates running for elected office, was advanced by the Senate Elections Committee on Feb. 11, 2025, and sent to the Judiciary Committee.

Sponsor Senator Putnam told the committee the measure responded to a constituent’s case in which an employer explicitly terminated an employee for running for mayor of Saint Cloud. “He was fired for running for office,” Putnam said. “In a country that aspires to democracy, everyone should be able to run for office without fearing retribution or the end of their livelihood.”

The bill adds “running for office” to the statute that already bars economic reprisal, termination and coercion for political activity and, as initially amended in committee, included a civil penalty of up to $3,000 enforceable by the Campaign Finance Board. The committee accepted an author’s A2 amendment early in the hearing to put the bill into the form the sponsor preferred.

Testifier Stephen Duane Schiller, who described himself as a retired combat-disabled…