Minnesota State Rep.-elect Jay Xiong (D-St. Paul) hasn’t been sworn into office yet, but he’s already vowing to oppose the nation’s “vile president” and stand against “bigotry and racism, sexism and all other isms.”
On Friday, Xiong released a statement discussing the actions of President Donald Trump as well as the 2020 census, which could cause significant changes to Minnesota’s congressional districting. Xiong pledged to support any Minnesota House bills that condemn “racist, sexist and hateful presidential executive orders,” such as H.R. 1—a resolution introduced by now Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) condemning Trump’s travel ban.
“We stand united against a single idea that we all must fight til the end: hate. It is the vile bigotry and racism, sexism and all other isms that spew from the horrid mouth of an unqualified and unfit president,” Xiong said Friday. He claimed he will do his part at the Minnesota Capitol to oppose “hateful presidential executive orders which have one clear intention: to keep black and brown people out of the process, the polls, and the political and physical body politic of this country, which was founded on immigration.”
https://twitter.com/RepJayXiong/status/1081159724710719488
In a subsequent tweet, Xiong mocked Republicans as “snowflakes” after they criticized Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) for calling to “impeach the motherf—.”
“It is okay for Trump to be a sexist, racist, piece of sh—, but wrong to call out the ‘motherf—,’” Xiong said Friday.
https://twitter.com/RepJayXiong/status/1081288099118960640
In response to Tlaib’s comments, Minnesota Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnahan called on Minnesota’s newly elected Democrats to “immediately denounce these divisive words and pledge to work towards a more civil discourse.”
“Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s disgusting rhetoric towards our nation’s president is both equally harmful and appalling,” Carnahan said in a press release. “Tlaib’s comments have no place in American politics and we deserve more from our elected officials.”
Xiong also warned his constituents to “brace ourselves for a fight” ahead of the 2020 census in Minnesota. State Demographer Susan Brower has already started a statewide tour to spread the word about the census, and warned as early as 2017 that Minnesota could lose a congressional seat due to population changes.
“It’s not certain, but it looks serious and it looks like it’s maybe even likely,” she said previously, according to The Star Tribune. Losing a seat means Minnesota would be redrawn into seven districts, and one current member would have to step aside.
“The fight is to inform our communities to make sure everyone understands and appreciates the value of partaking in the census, not just to bring money to our communities, but to have true representation in all levels of government,” Xiong said. “The fight will be in the courts over redistricting and the fight will be in the polls over House and Senate majorities between this year and next year. But we need to get all our people to fight back [against] the hateful policies of this vile president.”
Just for safe measure, Xiong concluded his statement by saying that “together, we can fight corruption, dark money and hate.”
– – –
Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Jay Xiong” by HmongDFL. CC BY-SA 4.0.
.jpg){kind=link}