What would happen next if St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her resigns amid sexual harassment allegations? 

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her said Thursday she has no plans to resign amid allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior toward city employees.

What if circumstances change? How would St. Paul choose its next leader? It’s a question that came up this week on social media.

To figure out what happens in a mayoral vacancy, I first dug into St. Paul’s city charter. It states that when the office of mayor becomes vacant, the St. Paul City Council has 30 days to elect a qualified voter who lives in the city to become the interim mayor until an election can be held.

If a vacancy occurs in the office of mayor, the council shall within thirty (30) days elect a qualified voter of the city to fill the vacancy as an interim appointee until such time as a successor is elected as set forth below or for the remainder of the unexpired term if the vacancy occurs on or after July 1 of the third year of the mayoral term.

Pretty simple! But it very quickly gets a little more complicated.

If the mayor’s term is very close to over, the interim mayor can just ride out the rest of the term until the regularly scheduled mayoral election takes place – but that would only apply for a vacancy that took place after July 1, 2028. (Her was only elected to a 3-year term due to St. Paul’s switch to even-year elections.)

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But Her is just seven months into her time as mayor – meaning the city would need to get around to electing a successor. Again, taking a look at city code, I found that it calls for a vacancy prior to that July 1, 2028, date to be filled at the next general election – unless that election is more than 180 days away.

If a vacancy in an office occurs before July 1 of the third year of the term, the vacancy shall be filled at the next general election being the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, unless the next general election occurs more than one hundred eighty (180) days after the vacancy is created, in which case, the council shall call a special election for the purpose of filling the vacancy.

The Nov. 3, 2026 general election is just 95 days away – so that’s settled, right? Except the window to file an affidavit of candidacy for this year’s general election has already closed, meaning that date is off the table.

So we’d be looking at a special election, which the St. Paul City Council would have to officially call.

State law is firm that, except in response to an emergency or disaster, there are specific dates on which special elections can be held, generally on the same dates as existing elections.

The next options would include Feb. 9, 2027, April 13, 2027, May 11, 2027 and Aug. 10, 2027.

Either way, the winner would complete the remainder of the term, which in this case would be in early 2029.

It would be the first mayoral vacancy since St. Paul moved to a strong mayor system in 1972, but the city has more recent experience filling a City Council vacancy. After Council President Mitra Jalali resigned from her Ward 4 seat last year citing health problems, the city held an Aug. 12, 2025, special election, which was won by Molly Coleman.

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