A Democratic mayor in Minnesota is currently under investigation for alleged sexual harassment. According to reports, she sent unsettling text messages to her staff, including a remark about receiving a “good weinering.”
Kaohly Her, who made history as the first female mayor of Saint Paul, is under scrutiny just six months into her leadership. The city’s police chief, Axel Henry, lodged a formal complaint with the city attorney on April 1. He claimed that Her sent “inappropriate, and indeed, unlawful text messages” to city employees.
One particularly troubling text exchange highlighted in the complaint, obtained by KSTP, shows Her, 53, wishing one of her staff members “Happy Weiner Wednesday.”
She reportedly followed that message with another text stating, “Wish I was having a
In another alleged incident, the mayor sent an altered photograph of a baby swaddled in a blanket, accompanied by a message that read, “When she wraps you up in her blanket after you gave her a good weinering.”
The face of the baby in the altered image was redacted in the complaint; however, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that it was the face of an officer who had previously worked as part of her security team.
While the term “weiner” can refer to hot dogs, it also has sexual connotations.
“The city is on notice that Mayor Her has engaged in illegal conduct towards City employees,” Henry’s lawyer Chris Madel wrote in the complaint, sent to Saint Paul City Attorney Irene Kao.
Madel called for a “full filesystem extraction” of the cell phones.
Henry, who was named police chief in November 2022, filed the complaint after receiving reports that the pol’s alleged behavior “extended beyond isolated incidents and has included sexual harassment of subordinate City employees, including members of the Saint Paul Police Department,” the letter states.
“In choosing to act, Chief Henry is not only seeking to address the wrongdoing but to create a measure of protection for his team, signaling that such conduct will not be tolerated,” it concludes.
The mayor’s office said they wouldn’t comment on an “active investigation.”
“The mayor has deep respect for city employees and regrets any unintended impact her actions may have had,” a spokesperson said in a statement to KSTP.
Her, a Hmong-American who moved to the US from Laos at age 3 after the Vietnam War, defeated incumbent Melvin Carter III, Saint Paul’s first black mayor, in November’s general election.
“My family came here as refugees. Never in their wildest dreams would I be standing here today accepting the position of mayor,” she said after her victory.
“Three months ago, people told us this was impossible — look at us now.”
She served in the Minnesota House of Representatives between January 2019 and November 2025.