St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her said Wednesday she has no intentions to leave office amid an investigation of claims that she directed inappropriate sexual comments toward Police Chief Axel Henry and other city employees, but acknowledged that what she intended as a joke was misguided.

“As Mayor, I take my responsibility to treat every employee with professionalism and respect very seriously. I recognize that some of my attempts at humor fell short of the standard I expect of myself,” Her said in a statement, adding that her office has “fully cooperated” with the investigation and will continue to do so. “I remain confident that the full facts will come to light, and I will continue to focus on serving the people of St. Paul with integrity and dedication.”

News of the ongoing investigation has garnered social media snickering over texts Her reportedly sent to a city employee, which included a sexual innuendo, but also raised questions about Her’s highly personal leadership style, the budget fight brewing between the mayor and the police department in St. Paul and a previous restraining order petition against Her that was denied earlier this year.

Minnesota law enforcement and political leaders have been left baffled by the accusations, but few people were willing to react publicly Wednesday to the news without a complete investigation.

David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University, found it surprising someone in public office would make the kind of jokes Her is accused of sending to city employees.

“You would have kind of thought that politicians in Minnesota would not be doing this kind of stuff because of the lesson of Al Franken,” Schultz said Wednesday, referring to the rapid fall from grace of the former U.S. Senator who resigned after photos surfaced of him pretending to grab the breasts of a colleague on a U.S.O. Tour.

Schultz noted it has been 40 years since the United States Supreme Court made sexual harassment a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

“Most of us have come to realize at this point you just don’t pull those kind of jokes at all,” Schultz said.

Her prides herself on the ability to develop personal relationships and is often known to give hugs to colleagues and constituents. In the backrooms of the state’s public safety offices Wednesday, debate was vigorous over whether that style had turned into sexual harassment or if the allegations were part of a campaign by the police department to muddy the waters against Her ahead of an expected budget fight over police funding.

When asked if there was any political calculation to the allegations, Henry’s attorney, Chris Madel, said, “Desperate people say desperate things, that could not be further from the truth.”

At the heart of an April 1 letter sent by Madel notifying the city that Henry had filed a formal complaint is a screenshot of a text message allegedly sent by Her to a city employee that reads, “Happy Weiner Wednesday!” and a note expressing regret that she can’t be with the employee to eat a hot dog that day.

Beneath the message is a partially redacted image showing an internet meme that was posted by a comedian earlier this year. The meme shows a swaddled baby with an adult’s head.

Above the photo, a caption reads, “When she wraps you up in a blanket after you gave her a good weinering,” with two laughing emojis. The term “wienering” is often used as sexual innuendo on the internet.

According to a person familiar with the inquiry who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, the redacted part of the image was altered to include the face of a St. Paul police officer assigned to Her’s security detail superimposed on the baby’s body.

According to people familiar with the St. Paul Police Department, a civilian employee typically brings in hot dogs for a small group of staff on Wednesdays, which has been informally dubbed “Wiener Wednesdays” by some employees.

The text messages were met on social media with bemusement. The Black Hart of St. Paul bar, where former St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter held his post-election party in 2025, posted a “Wiener Wednesday” special for half-off hot dogs. Another social media post showed a photo of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile driving on St. Paul’s Harriet Island with the caption “The Mayor of St Paul arriving to work this morning.”

The harassment allegations also brought renewed attention to a restraining order petition filed against Her last year. The petition was denied, but the Star Tribune obtained text messages sent between Her and Shirly Yang, the woman who filed the petition.

They show how quickly Her and Yang’s life became intertwined after they began exchanging text messages on April 11, 2025, and Her set Yang up on a date with state Rep. Ethan Cha, DFL-Woodbury, on April 21.

The more than 100 pages of messages touch on Hmong culture in America and work at the Legislature, but most of the conversations were about the different relationships between Her, Yang and Cha.

At one point, Her explains that her life has been a journey to understand how her sexuality relates to others, largely through love.

“It transcends. I have soul mates, kindred spirits and twin flames,” she wrote.

The intensity of the messages waned around the time Yang and Cha appeared to develop a deeper relationship and the murder of Rep. Melissa Hortman, one of Her’s closest colleagues.

In July, Yang suddenly warned Her that her behavior had become inappropriate. Yang alleged that Her was intruding on her relationship with Cha and threatened legal action if she didn’t stop.

Her’s attorney Charles Nauen told the Minnesota Star Tribune on Wednesday that when the court denied the restraining order, the referee said the situation was clearly a “personality clash” between two former friends, but “that is not harassment.”

In declining to issue a restraining order against Her, Ramsey County Referee Elizabeth Clysdale ordered that while it was clear the two friends had a falling out, Yang’s argument that she only engaged in the intimate conversations because Her “held a position of power” were not supported by the evidence.

Clysdale also said there was no evidence that Her had threatened Yang. Several files were sealed because Her agued they posed a risk to her safety and were not related to her employment or role in the community.

Yang declined to be interviewed for this story. Cha did not respond to messages.

The investigation comes as Her attempts to build her vision of St. Paul after defeating Carter, a two-term incumbent, by fewer than 2,000 votes last November.

St. Paul faces a $26 million shortfall as Her drafts the city’s 2027 budget, and she has said all options for cuts are on the table — including cuts to the police department, which was long sheltered from austerity under Carter.

The St. Paul Police Department’s habit of overspending its overtime budget by millions of dollars each year has been a key point of tension during the last several budget negotiations between the mayor and City Council. Where Carter defended the department’s spending against criticism from the City Council, Her has shown more willingness to scrutinize costs.

Her’s first months in office have seen highs and lows.

Her’s administration was able to pry $40 million from the Legislature to begin long-awaited renovations on the Roy Wilkins Auditorium as the city hopes for more funds to renovate the larger Grand Casino Arena complex. It also secured funding commitments from the Minnesota Wild that had eluded her predecessor.

Several high-profile downtown buildings have sold, including the First National Bank building, the St. Paul Hotel and the Great Northern Building. These sales, and the scheduled opening of a downtown Aldi grocery store after the 2025 closure of the downtown Lunds & Byerlys, has some seeing the sparks of a downtown revival.

But the mayor’s tenure has also seen major controversies, angering St. Paul’s left-leaning residents.

She declined to call for an independent investigation of the police response to an ICE raid until the internal affairs investigation is complete. Police used chemical irritants and less-lethal munitions on protesters and journalists at the site of the raid in an East Side neighborhood, but the internal investigation has stretched on for months.

Residents in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood voiced frustration with Her’s approach during a community meeting where Her said she had met with leadership of the Northern Iron foundry, as neighbors push for the facility’s closure over pollution fears.

This month, Her has been criticized for her administration’s plans to close a large homeless encampment at Pig’s Eye Park in early August. Demonstrators have packed City Council meetings to criticize the plan.

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