District 3 county commissioner candidates weigh in on issues as Election Day nears

On Monday, Sept. 21, WTIP hosted the first of three candidate forums as part of the station’s 2026 coverage ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

Monday night’s candidate forum featured the two candidates, Dave Mills (incumbent) and Roger Westerlind, running for the Cook County Commissioner District 3 seat.

Topics included issues facing Cook County, housing and the cost of living, county spending, maintaining and strengthening a relationship with the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the county’s role in providing services to children and families, emergency response, and more. Audio is below.

The next two scheduled candidate forums are:

Monday, Sept. 28: Cook County Commissioner District 1 candidates Deb White and Matt Kelm.

Tuesday, Sept. 29: Cook County Sheriff candidates Ben Hallberg and Ty Backlund.

Each forum will be one hour and will be moderated by WTIP’s Kalli Hawkins. The forums will be broadcast live beginning at 5 p.m.

The forums will give candidates an opportunity to respond to questions about local issues and priorities ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

WTIP has also collected questions from listeners and Cook County community members to help shape its 2026 election coverage and will incorporate those questions into the forum.

The forums can be heard live on WTIP at 90.7 FM in Grand Marais, 89.1 FM on Gunflint Lake, and 90.1 FM in Grand Portage, and streamed online at WTIP.org or on the WTIP App.

WTIP is also conducting candidate interviews for other local races and seats, including Cook County Commissioner District 5, Grand Marais City Council, ISD 166 School Board, North Shore Health Hospital Board, and the Cook County Soil and Water Conservation District. WTIP will make all candidate interviews available on wtip.org throughout the next week.

Kalli Hawkins September 22, 2026