News That Didn’t Make the Headlines: The Minnesota Miracle
In 2022, the post-Dobbs turnout surge gave Democrats control (without a vote to spare) of the governments of Minnesota and Michigan for the first time in decades. Control of Minnesota’s state senate was decided by just 186 votes in district 35, giving the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party 34 votes to Republicans’ 33.
This margin paved the way for Gov. Walz to sign a flurry of progressive legislation. Here’s a taste:
- Paid sick leave
- A state-level child tax credit and earned income tax credit
- Gun control
- Free universal, paperwork-free school breakfasts and lunches, saving parents time and improving school performance
- Massive investments in housing and infrastructure
- State-run family and medical leave
- Reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, trans healthcare refuge
- Free college for families making under $80,000 per year
- Expanding Medicaid coverage to all who want it (i.e., instituting a public option) and opening up traditional Medicaid to all regardless of immigration status
- Drivers licenses open to all, regardless of immigration status
- Voting rights restoration for returning citizens, automatic voter registration, expanded absentee and early voting, new protections for voters and election workers
- Bans on no-knock warrants and chokeholds
- Sectoral bargaining for home care workers
- A faster timeline for decarbonizing the grid than California’s
- A nation-leading plan for decarbonizing transportation (including adopting California’s clean passenger vehicle standard, expanding passenger between the Twin Cities and Duluth and Chicago, and regional planning that targets infill density and reductions in vehicle miles traveled)
These wins were made possible thanks to the attitude of Walz: political capital is to be spent not banked. And, as Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan explains, the close ties between the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and the broad progressive coalition of labor and social movements. Flanagan spent decades building this infrastructure, as Walz’s Camp Wellstone trainer, a Native organizer, and a child care advocate. When Walz is elected Vice President, she will become the future first Native woman to serve as governor of a state.