Nelsie Yang’s 3-year-old niece was at her side when she learned that she’d been elected to the St. Paul City Council, after eight hours of ballot counting and 18 months of campaigning.
“I’m just so happy she’s here,” Yang said after her victory in the Sixth Ward race was called Friday. “When I was 3 years old, I never would have imagined myself being here.”
The newly elected women say the trend has been building over the last few years, and they credit each other for support and inspiration, as well as organizations such as TakeAction Minnesota, Women Organizing Women and Women Winning, aimed at encouraging women to seek public office.
Such women are “feeling a sense of confidence because they are seeing representation now that look like them,” said Pahoua Yang Hoffman, executive director of the Citizens League. “The community is also rallying around them.”
Buoyed by a series of powerful labor organizations, TakeAction Minnesota organizer Nelsie Yang defeated five fellow candidates on Friday to win the open seat on the St. Paul City Council representing Payne-Phalen and the Greater East Side.
A bevy of progressives are challenging longtime Democratic incumbents in the Legislature in next year’s elections, potentially sending more women, millennials and people of color to the State Capitol while shifting the DFL dialogue to the left.
This year they’ve trained 25 activists, including state Rep. Hunter Cantrell, DFL-Savage, and Chauntyll Allen, a candidate for the St. Paul school board.
What’s different is that they’re focused as much on governance as they are on winning elections, according to a memo from TakeAction spokeswoman Kenza Hadj-Moussa
They have a lot in common. Both are second-generation Hmong women under 30 who became progressive operatives despite expectations they would get well-paying corporate jobs, marry, and retreat to lives of suburban quietude. They’re also unlikely friends.
When I came to the legislature I didn’t expect to be working on taxes so much. But I’ve found that it’s a place to stand up for working people and
Angela Conley was born and raised in South Minneapolis. A leader and mother, she not only worked with people directly impacted by the services controlled by the Board of Commissioners
Dear Friends,
In this 90 second video, Ricardo Levins Morales explains that when it comes to political change, the soil is more important than the seeds. That means, the political landscape we’re working in matters. And we can cultivate the soil — that is, the values, narratives, and ideas — so that more is possible in the future.
During midterms, TakeAction Minnesota members, member leaders, and volunteers showed up joyfully and powerfully. And it paid off. At TakeAction Minnesota, we’re working toward a bold, progressive vision for our state and a people-centered democracy.
