As the nation gears up for a presidential election, Sahan Journal brought together a panel of political experts and activists for a Sahan Community Live event about what’s important for Minnesota voters of color this fall.
Hosted August 15 at the Wellstone Center in St. Paul, the community conversation brought together a political scientist, a voting-rights expert, a Duluth city councilor, and Minnesota advocates for both the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and the Republican Party. Sahan Journal reporters Joey Peters and Katelyn Vue hosted the event, which was also live streamed and recorded for air on Minnesota Public Radio News.
For Democrats, the sudden switch at the top of the ticket from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris has excited progressive voters in Minnesota and across the country, said consumer protection attorney and DFL-leaning political analyst Abou Amara. The recent addition of Governor Tim Walz as Harris’ running mate underlined that change for Minnesotans, he said.
“Progressives had been a bit depressed,” Amara said. “The change at the top of the ticket with Kamala Harris has really galvanized people.”
An indicator of this, Amara suggested, was the boost in primary turnout this election cycle for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, compared to two years ago. To Amara, Omar’s bigger margin of victory in 2024 shows “some level of increased intensity within the progressive coalition.”
Some Black men find a positive message in the Republican Party
AK Kamara, who is one of two Republican National Committee members for Minnesota, described a similar spike in enthusiasm for the Republican Party. Kamara pointed to the U.S. Senate race and the party endorsement and primary victory for Royce White: a former college basketball standout who is Black.
“For him to win the plurality of that vote shows that people in the Republican Party are not maybe the way people frame it,” Kamara said, “as in, ‘You’re racist or xenophobic,’ or something like that.”
White’s victory pointed to the growth of the populist wing of the Republican Party, Kamara said, and also the changing dynamics of conservative voters.
“You’re starting to see a lot more Black males get involved in the Republican Party,” he said.
Immigration policy divides Minnesota voters – and immigrant communities, too
Kamara argued for the Republican position on immigration, which he said should favor U.S. citizens and legal immigrants. He noted that his father immigrated to the United States legally in 1979, and said he understands why some people fleeing a bad situation in their home country come here illegally.
But Kamara argued that the government must enforce federal immigration laws, and that the country ultimately should use its finite resources on benefits for its own citizens.
Former president Trump has pledged to deport undocumented residents: a population of almost 80,000 people in Minnesota. “It’s very simple: If you are a legal immigrant, you have nothing to fear,” Kamara said. “If you are not here legally, I think self-deportation is probably your best option.”
Amara credited Kamara for being “honest and transparent” about Republican Party positions, but argued that most Minnesota voters don’t agree with them.
“I would argue that’s why they have not won a statewide race since 2006,” Amara said. “They continue to lose at the ballot box. Minnesotans continue to reject those ideas.”
The war in Gaza continues to trouble some Minnesota voters
National polling suggests that progressive voters are more enthusiastic about Harris’ candidacy than they were about Biden’s reelection. Yet Duluth City Councilor Azirin Awal states that many Minnesotans – and Muslims in particular — remain uncertain over Harris’ to-be-determined stance on Israel’s war against Hamas.
Awal said she voted uncommitted during the March presidential primary over the issue: The uncommitted campaign drew 46,000 votes in Minnesota. She said she’s now waiting to hear what Harris’ plan will be. While Harris’ rhetoric has been “more empathetic to the Palestinian cause,” uncommitted voters need “not just words, we need actions,” Awal said.
“We are hearing from international courts that what is happening is not OK, and yet we are continuing to enable a genocide,” Awal said. “We’re continuing to enable vast human rights violations and tremendous loss of life, loss of youth. So I am struggling quite a bit.”
Are voters of color motivated by ‘historic firsts’?
The prospect of Harris becoming the first woman and first South Asian president will likely motivate Democratic Party base voters to turn out this fall, said University of Minnesota professor of political science Michael Minta.
“Harris is way ahead in polls for enthusiasm for minorities, young people, women — and that’s usually what happens when you have one of these historical firsts,” Minta said. “This is what the Democrats wanted, and it seems to be working.”
Michelle Witte, executive director of League of Women Voters of Minnesota, addressed the rights voters in Minnesota have to get out to the polls, or even stay home in some cases. Witte referred to a law in Minnesota that allows all voters to register only once to receive mail-in ballots to all future elections.
“If you don’t want to go to the polls, you can have a permanent absentee ballot sent home to you,” Witte said.
She also praised recently passed voting laws in Minnesota, such as one that allows felons who just ended prison sentences to vote, even if they’re on probation; pre-voter registration for 16- and 17-year-olds; and automatic voter registration at the DMV.
“We’re a very amazing state for voters,” Witte said.
Watch the full conversation below:
