Kraus, a Republican, who represented District 27A, which included all of Freeborn county in the southeastern part of the state.
His mother remarried when Ron was 6 in 1962 to James (Jim) E. Zimmerman (1923-2015), a widower who had lost his wife and 6 kids in a train accident in 1959.
Kraus also served on the Albert Lea Planning Commission and the Community Foundation Board.
Kraus became a successful business owner running an empire of 41 Dairy Queen restaurants in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Florida and two Convenience Stores called Korner Mart in Albert Lea, Minnesota.
In March 2008, Kraus sold 33 of his 41 Dairy Queen restaurants to Bloomington, Minnesota-based Fourteen Foods.
He also was able to get $800,000 for the Blazing Star Trail, $250,000 for Albert Lea schools to develop a unique kindergarten and first-grade pilot program, and a $250,000 "Mighty Ducks" grant for a second ice sheet in Albert Lea, Minn. Kraus also worked hard to reduce commercial and industrial property tax rates.