A sitting DFL legislator plans to continue serving in the Minnesota House despite just being named the new CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which provides abortions to women in the Upper Midwest.
Rep. Ruth Richardson defended her new position in a statement Wednesday, saying she won’t “oversee political work or lobbying for Planned Parenthood while I hold this legislative seat.”
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The chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is now sitting on a state government board that hands out taxpayer-funded arts and culture grants.
On Monday, Ken Martin was appointed as a member of the State Arts Board by Gov. Tim Walz. Martin occupies the seat previously held by Sean Dowse, former mayor of Red Wing in southeast Minnesota, who recently resigned from the post.
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“We have to look at President Lincoln every day we’re in this space,” DFL Minnesota Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn recently bemoaned on the House floor.
The progressive lawmaker’s anti-Lincoln position came up during debate on an education bill as she critiqued the way indigenous history is taught in Minnesota schools.
Her specific complaint regarding America’s 16th president centered around a series of executions that saw 38 Dakota men hanged in Mankato under Lincoln’s approval. Becker-Finn retold the story on the House floor, upset that the executions drew a bloodthirsty crowd that reportedly clashed with law enforcement and cheered when the gallows dropped.
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A consulting firm co-owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar is “back in business,” a new report says.
According to Federal Election Commission paperwork, E Street Group received $15,000 from the Minnesota DFL Party’s federal committee on Feb. 25, just two days after Rep. Omar’s campaign paid the DFL committee the same amount on Feb. 23.
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Minnesota State House Democrats recently filed a complaint against their Republican colleagues who raised concerns about changes to Minnesota’s election laws, urging them to “repent of their foolish statements.”
Concerns about the complaint were brought up by Republicans during a Thursday House session.
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Minnesota Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-Saint Paul, called an anti-lockdown protest outside of his home “terrorism.”
Anti-shutdown protesters held a demonstration Saturday outside of Mariani’s home, using a similar tactic as the left-leaning Sunrise Movement, which has endorsed several DFL lawmakers.
During the protest, attendees blocked the street with vehicles and chanted for the representative to come outside to meet them. Some of the protesters arrived with body armor and firearms, including handguns and rifles.
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Data from the Federal Election Commission show that 90.8 percent of the top 100 donations to political candidates and committees from University of Minnesota employees and affiliates went to Democrats, according to a recent report by Minnesota Business Daily.
The analysis found that UMN employees and affiliates donated $201,383 to political candidates and committees. Of that amount, $182,919 went to Democrats. Another $11,125 went to the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party.
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U.S. Senate candidate Jason Lewis has closed the gap between him and his opponent, Sen. Tina Smith, to only one point, putting Democrats on edge.
A survey released Wednesday by KSTP shows the margin between former congressman Lewis and Sen. Smith has closed to just one point in their race for the Senate. A MinnPost poll released Tuesday had Lewis trailing by four points.
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Representative Ilhan Omar (DFL-MN-5) stated that the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) hasn’t solved half the homicides and destroys rape kits. Because of this, she says, the MPD should be dismantled.
“We can reimagine a public safety system that empowers and provides safety for every person in our city regardless of the color fo their skin or zip code,” the freshman congresswoman tweeted. “Dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department is necessary in order to heal and move forward as a community.”
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party has officially postponed its event with Democratic candidate John Thompson due to widespread pushback. A reporter with The Star Tribune announced the fundraiser’s indefinite delay.
However, DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman did not initially want to remove Thompson from the event.
The DFL House Caucus plans to host an official fundraising event this week with John Thompson, Alpha News has learned.
Thompson was at the center of a viral video captured by Alpha News last month in which he screamed profanities at a group of young girls and threatened to burn down a neighborhood. At one point he told a man holding a blue lives matter sign to “take that sign” and “stick it in your ass.”
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How bad do things look for Joe Biden’s campaign right now? Consider this: Democrats are worried about Minnesota, a state no Republican presidential candidate has carried since Richard Nixon’s 1972 landslide. Yet polls show President Trump gaining ground in Minnesota, and Democrats are worried because they haven’t seen any appearances by Biden or his running mate Kamala Harris. “Why aren’t they here?” one Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party official told Minnesota Public Radio last week. “We need to hear from them. We need to see their presence on the ground.”
Biden’s peril in Minnesota is in many ways emblematic of everything that’s gone wrong for Democrats in this campaign. While the Real Clear Politics average of Minnesota polls still shows Biden leading Trump by more than five points, a poll by Emerson College earlier this month had Trump within three points, and a poll by the GOP-affiliated Trafalgar Group two weeks ago showed a tie in Minnesota. How could a state that twice gave majorities to Barack Obama, a state that not even Ronald Reagan could win in his 1984 landslide, be in play for Trump this year? Well, in a word, riots.
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Over the weekend, Democratic candidate John Thompson spoke at a Black Lives Matter protest by the home of police union leader Lt. Bob Kroll. Thompson recently won the Democratic primary for District 62A in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Multiple video coverages of Thompson’s seven-minute speech show him calling for violence against the “racists” of Hugo, Minnesota.
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Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) filed a complaint against Democratic challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, claiming that his campaign created LLCs to shield the identity of several consultants and donors. The DFL filed the complaint exactly one week before the upcoming primary on August 11.
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The Minnesota DFL Party launched a new ad campaign this week targeting key Republican state senators who are accused of “standing in the way of passing real police reform.”
Jason Lewis, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said in a recent interview that Democrats don’t “want reform” so much as they “want a political issue.”
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Democrats who control the Minnesota House announced a $300 million economic aid proposal Monday for businesses that were damaged or destroyed during the civil unrest over the death of George Floyd.
The legislation is aimed at commercial corridors in lower income neighborhoods that were hardest hit as protests over Floyd’s May 25 death while in Minneapolis police custody turned violent. Many of the affected small businesses along Lake Street and Broadway Avenue in Minneapolis, and University Avenue in St. Paul, are owned by people of color and immigrants.
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A DFL lawmaker revealed on Twitter this week that she’s “tried a bunch of times” to get a portrait of President Abraham Lincoln removed from the Minnesota House chamber.
State Rep. Mary Kunesh-Podein (DFL-New Brighton) said it’s “hard to look at” House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) when she’s “standing in front of Lincoln.”
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DFL lawmakers want the state and federal governments to chip in to help repair the estimated $55 million in damage caused to Minneapolis in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and the Legislature’s People of Color and Indigenous Caucus called for “immediate legislative funding for Minneapolis and St. Paul rebuilding efforts” in a joint statement.
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The Minnesota DFL Party, which supported accused domestic abuser Keith Ellison in his run for attorney general, criticized a Republican lawmaker Thursday for “trivializing the severity of domestic abuse.”
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has endorsed Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) for a second term in Congress.
“I see U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar as a leader who is disrupting conventional wisdom and challenging 50 years of thinking that has brought us stunning inequality, weakened public institutions and an utter lack of preparedness for a global pandemic,” Ellison said in an endorsement of Omar in The Star Tribune.
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Minnesota’s political establishment and mainstream media mocked and condemned the Trump-backed protesters who gathered outside the Governor’s Residence Friday, but were silent just two days later when hundreds gathered for a demonstration in Minneapolis.
According to the St. Paul Police Department, an estimated 800 people were in attendance at Friday’s “Liberate Minnesota” protest, which called for an end to Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order issued in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called for nationwide mail-in voting in a recent op-ed published in The New York Times.
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Minnesota Democrats are pushing for several sweeping election changes to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic, including universal mail-in ballots and even ballot drop-boxes.
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A DFL bill seeks to close Minnesota’s “gender wage gap” by prohibiting employers from asking about an applicant’s past pay.
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Minnesota Democrats have proposed an amendment to the state constitution guaranteeing the right to “free, fair, and equal” elections in response to Republican efforts to pass a voter ID law.
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Archbishop Bernard Hebda urged clergy in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to “abstain from voting” in Minnesota’s March 3 presidential primary.
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A Democrat-backed bill making its way through the Minnesota Legislature seeks to repeal the state’s informed consent laws for abortion.
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A new DFL-backed bill would prohibit local governments from contracting with federal agencies like ICE for the purpose of detaining illegal immigrants.
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A new bill introduced in the Minnesota House would allow gun owners to pursue civil litigation if they suffer an injury, or worse, while in a gun-free zone.
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Minnesota House DFLers unveiled their “Great Start for All Minnesota Children Act” this week, a nearly $500 million investment in early childhood education.
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Since many of our stories receive national attention, readers are often confused by the odd acronym frequently appearing in our headlines. What the heck is the DFL? And who is a DFLer?
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A group of Minnesota House Democrats introduced a bill this week that would require restaurants to serve certain drinks as the “default beverage” for children’s meals.
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A Minnesota Republican thinks his Democratic colleagues are sending “mixed messages” to Minnesotans on the impact of substance use.
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A Minnesota Democrat introduced a bill last week that would ban discrimination based on “hair texture and hair styles.”
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Gov. Tim Walz announced Friday that he raised more than $1 million in 2019 for his reelection, but he won’t face voters again until 2022.
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Gov. Tim Walz announced Friday that he raised more than $1 million in 2019 for his reelection, but he won’t face voters again until 2022.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said laws requiring voters to present a photo ID are “clearly a bad thing” in a Sunday Twitter rant. “If you believe that elections should be decided by We the People, then photo ID is clearly a bad thing. In Minnesota, we beat the…
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State party leaders exchanged a number of accusations throughout the week regarding the release of voter data under Minnesota’s presidential primary law.
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Two DFL lawmakers plan to introduce a “Religious Freedom Day” resolution that condemns “Islamophobia” and celebrates “religious pluralism.”
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A Minnesota senator said he is “deeply disturbed” by House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler’s (DFL-Golden Valley) threat to cut state aid from Beltrami County after it voted to opt out of refugee resettlement.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) accused Beltrami County of “denying refugees a chance at a better life” after it voted to opt out of refugee resettlement.
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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) said she feels “ill” and “stricken with PTSD” in response to the conflict with Iran before she laughed and joked with her peers while a colleague discussed U.S. casualties in Iraq just moments later.
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A high-ranking Minnesota lawmaker is threatening to withhold state aid from Beltrami County after it became the first county in the state to opt out of refugee resettlement.
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Minnesota Senate Republicans said they plan to introduce a “Clean Energy First” bill during the upcoming legislative session that will “prioritize clean energy” and “modernize Minnesota’s energy resources.” According to the Associated Press, several different versions of the “Clean Energy First” legislation were introduced during the last session, but…
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Minnesota’s largest teachers union has named “defeating Trumpism” and getting out 100 percent of the educator vote as some of its goals for the 2020 election cycle.
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A report released Monday “completely exonerates” Minnesota Rep. Jamie Long (DFL-Minneapolis) from allegations of illicit lobbying activity, according to House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park).
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A recent Minnesota Senate hearing reignited the debate surrounding the state’s firearm laws and prompted DFL lawmakers to renew their calls for red flag legislation and universal background checks.
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Republican lawmakers say an expected cap on probation in Minnesota would result in lenient sentences for a number of “heinous crimes like domestic assault, sex trafficking, and gang-related crimes.”
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Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party Chairman Ken Martin applauded the U.S. House for voting to impeach President Donald Trump, but claimed that it brings him “no joy.”
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DFL members of the Minnesota Senate announced the formation of a new “Senate DFL Clean Energy and Climate Caucus” last week.
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