[1] He was elected to the Crow Wing County Board in 2012 and re-elected unopposed in 2016; he represents the first district which contains the southern portion of Crow Wing County, including Fort Ripley, Roosevelt Township, Oak Lawn Township and the extreme northeast portion of the city of Brainerd.
In a notable exception to that conservatism, he has sided with Senate Democrats in opposing restrictions on gay rights.
The pivotal moment came on April 7, 2005, when then-State Senator Michele Bachmann used procedural tactics that would have forced a vote on her constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota.
This vote coincided with the gay and lesbian justFair lobby day at the Capitol, as well as the second anniversary of the death of Koering's mother.
[5] Some public commentary questioned how this disclosure would affect his prospects for re-election in 2006 in a rural, right-leaning district, but he won by over 12 percentage points.