Bravo TV star makes surprise run for Congress — in rural Minnesota

A former Bravo television star is trading boozy Hamptons blowouts for politics — launching an unlikely bid to unseat a sitting Republican in Congress in rural Minnesota.

Luke Gulbranson — a model-turned-actor known for his role on “Summer House” — said he’s done with showbiz and has moved back home to Minnesota’s Iron Range to run for the state’s 8th congressional district, representing the rural northeast region.

Now a youth hockey coach, the reality TV alum is blasting rising prices and foreign policy chaos — including the Iran war.

“We’re spending billions of dollars a day right now in Iran when people in our own country can’t take care of themselves,” Gulbranson told the California Post in an interview.

“Inflation’s at 3.3% right now. It’s ridiculous,” he said.

Gulbranson, an Eveleth native, said he grew up on welfare and “powdered milk” and was hit with culture shock after relocating to New York City and the Hamptons, where money seemed to be no object.

“I didn’t have support… I was chasing a dream,” Gulbranson told The Post, recalling his leap from a tiny town of just 3,000 to the glitzy world of modeling.

He first landed in New York, then China, alone at just 19.

Gulbranson was then cast in Bravo’s “Summer House,” which chronicles hard-partying New Yorkers’ booze-soaked escapades and hookup drama in a weekend home in the Hamptons. He also landed acting jobs, appearing on HBO Max’s comedy-drama series “The Flight Attendant.”

“It was the complete opposite of what I knew,” he said.

The low-key Gulbranson had a “Summer House” rep as nature-loving and artsy, but was caught up in a “love triangle” with co-stars Ciara Miller and Hannah Berner on Season 5 of the Bravo series, Page Six previously reported. He left the show and launched a beer line, Happy Dog Lager — later decrying the “fake drama” stoked by reality TV producers.

“My roots are deep in the red dirt here, and I’m proud of where I’m from,” Gulbranson said, adding that Minnesotans are “hardworking people that are some of the nicest, most kind people you’d ever meet, and I would get a little pissed off when I saw … the top 1% getting tax breaks, for instance.

“It really lit off something inside of me.”

Gulbranson is hoping to unseat the Republican incumbent, Rep. Pete Stauber, whom he slammed as ineffective and disengaged with rural voters’ struggles with health care accessibility and the cost of living.

Other Democrats running in the primary include Emmanuel Anastos, Wendell Smith and Trina Swanson.

Asked how his reality TV background could affect his aspiring political career, Gulbranson said he was grateful for the friendships he made in showbiz.

“You know, we have to raise money and I think there will be some creative and interesting ways we can fundraise and help the campaign.

“But one of the things it did show me is I’ve always been this kid from Northern Minnesota. I love my family and friends and our way of life here,” he added.

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