Temperature check by voters in Minnesota : NPR
In Minnesota’s first election temperature check since President Trump launched Operation Metro Surge to tighten immigration controls in the state, voters had a lot to say.
EMILY KWONG, HOST:
Minnesotans are making their voices heard in the caucus. This week, tens of thousands of voters flooded their precinct caucuses to express their preference for the governor and selected delegates, and immigration enforcement was a priority. Minnesota Public Radio’s Dana Ferguson reports.
DANA FERGUSON, BYLINE: Caucus organizer Andy Dawkins greeted Democratic voters as they entered a classroom Tuesday.
ANDY DAWKINS: We’re going to run out of chairs. No, it’s great.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.
DAWKINS: Good turnout.
FERGUSON: And they escaped, they did. Here it was standing room only. Across Minnesota, voters filled cafeterias, classrooms and community halls for precinct caucuses. The gathering is an opportunity for political parties to hold straw polls in the state’s gubernatorial race and weigh in on key issues facing the state. Theresa Baker said she was drawn to the caucuses for the first time since high school because of the Trump administration’s recent immigration enforcement actions.
THERESA BAKER: I have my passport in my car. I was born in Saint-Paul. It doesn’t matter anymore. And so I have to worry about it. I have to care. So that’s what gives a boost, I have to give a damn.
FERGUSON: The Minnesota Democratic Party reports that more than 30,000 people attended their meetings across the state, close to the turnout they would experience in a presidential election year. Amino Warsame lives in one of the neighborhoods hardest hit by immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. Warsame is a Somali American.
AMINO WARSAME: Yes, no one feels safe right now, even citizens. I am a citizen. I have never felt so unsure and, well, unsure in my life. And now we have ICE, you know, going around the neighborhood and terrorizing.
FERGUSON: She said President Trump’s comments about the Somali people were damaging. They strengthened his resolve to vote for Democrats.
WARSAME: I still agree with Republicans on some issues, right? – and some values. But now, whatever those values are, whatever those issues are, I don’t include myself.
FERGUSON: On the other hand, Republican voter Lisa Burth saw Democrats as the problem in the immigration debate. She had a caucus in northwest Minnesota.
LISA BURTH: What’s happening in Minnesota right now? People are getting hurt and killed, and, you know, the people who are rioting have been told everything is fine by the governor.
FERGUSON: Kimberly McDonald, from the same caucus, says people need to respect law enforcement. And she has doubts about people protesting ICE’s actions in the Twin Cities.
KIMBERLY MCDONALD: Then I hear about these paid protesters who are in Minnesota and all that and, you know, running into the police, you know, harassing the police and the ICE agents, and it’s just… it’s not normal.
FERGUSON: Not all Republican voters agreed with the Trump administration’s rise in Minnesota. Ian Johnson met with Republicans about an hour south of the Twin Cities.
IAN JOHNSON: There are people coming into the country, and they’re not here legally, and maybe they’re committing crimes, but I think what we’ve seen is that we’ve – we’re just using this to group people together, in a sense, to separate people.
FERGUSON: Ann Van Ryn, 84, is caucused for the first time. She said she’s tired of President Trump and his actions on immigration in Minnesota. She wants her party, the Democrats, to get in the way of Trump.
ANN VAN RYN: I think they could do more. I wish they would step it up more.
FERGUSON: From there, party leaders will analyze turnout and voter reactions for clues about what might lie ahead in this midterm election year.
For NPR News, I’m Dana Ferguson in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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