Congratulations to Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota’s first female governor; Peggy Flanagan, our new U.S. senator; Zack Filipovich, our new state auditor; and Cedrick Frazier, our new Hennepin County attorney. Better Minneapolis hopes they all do well in office, and we invite each of them onto the podcast to share their priorities for Minnesota.
Here are a few things that stand out to us about Tuesday’s election that we feel worthy of more attention:
The election was peaceful and lawful, setting up an orderly transfer of power. Many of us were anxious heading into the election that federal agents would inflame violence or create an atmosphere of fear that kept people home. Instead, people of all backgrounds came out in droves to reject the Trump agenda.
Like watching the Milwaukee Brewers win the World Series, this election showed that money isn’t everything. People know when government isn’t working for them. Millions of dollars in dark money flooded the airwaves and social media with attack ads, and it failed to convince us otherwise.
Troy Jackson of Maine unseated Susan Collins, who had held the Senate seat since 1997, and he did it in about 100 days after Graham Platner left the race. This race showed that the election cycle doesn’t need to run all year, every year. Shorter, less expensive campaigns would be a welcome change for everyone except the campaign consultants who make a living off elections.
America embraced diversity, and voters made history in many races. A few examples: Flanagan, a Native American female senator; Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia, the first Black female governor; Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, the first Muslim U.S. senator; Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, the first openly gay male senator; and Josh Turek, who uses a wheelchair because of spina bifida and flipped Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat.
Minnesota will once again have a Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) trifecta, meaning the party controls the governor’s office, the state House and the state Senate. The election map shows that DFL victory runs through the Twin Cities. Not only do our votes determine the outcome of state elections, but our taxes keep the state running. According to a 2023 Minnesota Reformer article:
Twin Cities metro residents paid an average of $4,362 in taxes and received $3,252 in aid and credits per capita in 2019, according to analysis by the Minnesota House Research Department. In the non-metro area counties the same year, residents paid an average of $2,871 per person in taxes and received $3,423 in state aid and credits per capita.
We’ll continue to advocate for more Local Government Aid, the state’s payments to cities to help pay for basic services, for Minneapolis. As the tax and vote engine of the state, it’s time we got a raise.
Thank you to every resident who expressed care and concern for their neighbors, their city, their state and their country by voting Tuesday.
