Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidates have virtually sworn off door knocking for now. “We don’t want to put volunteers and staff at risk, and we really don’t want to risk the health of voters,” Senate Minority Leader Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury, said.
GOP campaign aides advise their candidates to knock on a door, take a few steps back, have a face mask hanging from one ear and put it on if asked.
Pioneer Press
Join Us on the Trail!
Get Out The VOTE (GOTV) Gets Wheels in 2020
Please join us on the trail at Senate District 53’s Get-Out-The-Vote Car Caravan to jumpstart our early vote push for DFL voters in Senate District 53.
Who? Anyone who wants to have a great time supporting the Get-Out-The-Vote effort and our endorsed candidates.
Where? We’ll start Brookview Elementary in the north parking lot off of Brookview Rd. Then we’ll head on a pre-planned route across the Senate District. We’ll have printouts of the route as well as a google link we’ll share in advance.
Timing: Please arrive by 1:30 if you have things to still put on your car in the lot or by 1:40 if you are ready to go so we can get all the cars lined up in the parking lot. At 2:00 the candidates will kick us off with a few words and we’ll head out on our drive (estimated driving time 45-60 min).
What to bring?
- Your own vehicle(s). If you have more than 1 driver, feel free to bring more vehicles to include in the caravan. The longer the caravan, the better!
- Feel free to decorate your car in advance or bring the materials you’d like to use (ex streamers, pre-made signs, balloons, glass/auto markers).
- Please keep messaging focused on Getting Out the Vote messages and/or the locally DFL endorsed/supported candidates (you can see a full list on sd53.org).
- Where possible use BLUE. Be as creative as you’d like but please keep all messaging positive (no negative messaging against opponents please).
- If you have a passenger who will be riding with you, it can be fun to have something in hand to wave (ex a small sign about voting)
Social Distancing? This will be a social distancing event inherently with everyone in their own cars. During prep we will keep socially distanced but please also wear a mask when you’re outside your car.
Guidelines: Please make safety your top priority and follow all traffic laws, stop signs, stop lights, etc. We will have several point people in communication so that we can coordinate as needed if the caravan is disconnected. Have fun and please be positive and courteous at all times.
What if it storms? In the event that weather is not looking good Senate District 53 event coordinators will make the call whether to fall back to the rain date which will be Sunday, 9/13 at the same time of 1:30.
Questions? Event logistics are being coordinated by Senate District 53. Please contact them at sd53communications@gmail.com.
Jacob Blake, BLM, Civil War Statues. It’s Time to Act Against Racism.
Because of a recent Twitter exchange, I want to talk about something important, but I need to use a few more words.
For context, I retweeted a news story that a confederate monument had been toppled in Lake Charles, by Hurricane Laura. It turns out the local government had recently declined to remove that statue. My retweet affirmed my belief that these statues must come down, and I added an observation about a hurricane’s effectiveness in making it happen.
Bring ‘em all down. This way works, too… https://t.co/THUB4TKOxq
— Sen. Susan Kent (@SusanKentMN) August 27, 2020
That tweet, and a response I added, generated a lot of positive reaction but some disagreement – some civil, others not.
Let me be clear that I encourage the LEGAL removal of these statues. I do not advocate people do so outside of legal channels. But we must be urgent in legally bringing them down.
Let me also be clear to those who try to equate taking down these statues with erasing history. We must learn and understand history, and in this case I do.
First, several of my ancestors are named on some of these statues. They weren’t celebrated or even talked about in my family, and I grew up fully understanding that our ancestors were on the wrong side of history. I mostly learned about their military service from genealogy. I‘d known that my family had been modest farmers across the south until my grandparents became teachers, a salesman, and a secretary. I did later learn at a family reunion about my 2nd great-grandfather being listed on the statue on the town square of Troy, Alabama. I can’t help but think that Congressman John Lewis, who grew up in the same area, would have walked by that statue when he went to town. And that breaks my heart.
These statues were erected years after the Confederacy surrendered. They were placed in prominent public locations during the Jim Crow era as a deliberate sign of white supremacy.
If there’s any doubt, the picture I’ve posted is from a statue that former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu had removed, along with three others. Read it. His actions were attacked, but righteous. No one should have to walk in public spaces surrounded by monuments and symbols of hatred toward them.
As a proud Minnesotan who has the great privilege of representing my community in the Minnesota Senate, the only confederate flag I’m ok seeing displayed publicly is the one captured by the 1st Minnesota from a Virginia regiment at Gettysburg.
Moving these statues and symbols from public pedestals and into history museums and textbooks is the best way to teach the real history of slavery in the United States. I know many people of my generation believed or hoped that the Civil Rights actions of the 1960s would solve the problems of racism and disparities. I also know many have since realized that much work remains to be done. Speaking to my white sisters and brothers, we have to be comfortable with the discomfort of this truth and these conversations. And that includes questioning how Jacob Blake could be shot in the back seven times – with his young kids watching – for being a threat, while a vigilante shot and killed two people and went home that night.
Dr. Martin Luther King told us that the “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” We each have a role to play in that journey, with many miles left to travel. I also believe that the pandemic, resulting economic crisis, and George Floyd’s murder have shined a very bright light on our racial disparities – giving us an historic opportunity to make meaningful and transformative changes in many of the institutions of our society.
In the immediate weeks after George Floyd was killed, in the Minnesota legislature, we were able to make an important first step in police reform and accountability. I was honored to be a part of the work done under the great leadership of members of our People of Color and Indigenous Caucus. But we know there so much more to be done, and I am committed to doing my part.
Susan Kent, Minnesota Senate DFL Minority Leader
The Minnesota Senate Should Not Be For Sale
Senate Republicans quietly met to pass a resolution to hire an outside law firm.
by Senator Susan Kent, DFL Minority Leader to the Star Tribune
The Minnesota Senate has a longstanding reputation for upholding traditions and maintaining a high standard of ethics. As a state senator, I know firsthand how our members aim to prioritize and preserve the Senate’s integrity and transparency. However, the Senate’s Republican majority has recently taken official actions that put that integrity, transparency and high standard of ethics in serious jeopardy.
Late on the Thursday evening before a long July 4th holiday weekend, Senate Republicans held an under-the-radar Rules Committee hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to pass a resolution that would allow the Senate to hire an outside law firm.
This law firm, funded by the extreme, national, anti-abortion organization, Life Legal Defense Foundation, would be hired to intervene in a lawsuit we’re not even involved in — the Ramsey County court case of Dr. Jane Doe v. the State of Minnesota. Senate Republicans were clearly evasive in acknowledging the ideological record of the law firm they sought to hire, unable to name the organization that would pay the bills of outside counsel.
While the state already has legal counsel in this lawsuit, the attorney general of Minnesota, the resolution passed on a party-line vote.
The actions taken in the late-night hearing violate our Senate values and ethics. It sets a disturbing precedent of any extreme right- or left-wing law firm being involved in a lawsuit regarding legislation. Special interests should not be able to buy their way into the legislative process for the sole purpose of driving their political agendas across the three branches of government.
The Minnesota Senate is not named in the court case we discussed. Yet, we are unnecessarily involving the Senate because a well-funded, extreme national group convinced the Senate majority to do their bidding. We are a separate branch of government that should not be joining lawsuits for partisan purposes. The court system has had no problem stating when the Legislature should change statutes while considering legislative intent when considering cases. There is no need for us to intervene.
The Minnesota Senate should not be for sale to anyone with special interests looking to curtail the checks and balances established in the creation of our state and nation. It is imperative that we uphold a high standard of ethics in the government process. The Senate majority is failing to preserve that standard.
There is a distinction between partisan debate at the Legislature and attempting to inject partisan politics into what is supposed to be a neutral judicial process. The attorney general was elected by Minnesotans to represent them and the state’s best interests. He will do his job, and we should let him.
This lawsuit is not within the Legislature’s purview, and there is no reason for our involvement. We are not a party to the lawsuit and there is likely no precedent for this extremely political maneuver by Senate Republicans. What was abundantly clear at the Thursday hearing was a deliberate attempt, by Senate Republicans, to delegitimize the attorney general while aligning with those who share their ideological stance.
In reality, Attorney General Keith Ellison moved to dismiss this case immediately after the state was sued last year. Despite the supposed bias claimed by Republicans, he attempted to stop the case from moving forward. Republicans have no basis for challenging his commitment to Minnesota statutes and his obligation to defend them. Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, himself acknowledged the attorney general hasn’t violated any rules of professional conduct.
While Senate Republicans took this troubling action without consulting me or any of my colleagues first, it has become a predictable pattern of failure to reach across the aisle and work in a bipartisan, good-faith manner. Their lack of transparency, bipartisanship and dialogue has been a common thread all session, special session and now during the interim. Minnesotans should rightfully be concerned knowing this has led to an extreme, partisan group footing the bill for outside litigators to involve us in a lawsuit we’re not party to.
If there is only one thing we can all agree on, it is that the Minnesota Senate should not be for sale.
Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury, is minority leader of the Minnesota Senate.
DFL Wants Action on Racial Injustice After George Floyd, GOP Stalls
“…Minnesota and America is watching to see what our first step will be, we have the opportunity to set the bar high and lead by example and not tiptoe around the issue of racial injustice.”
KTOE
— Senator Susan Kent, DFL Minority Leader
