Minnesota

What Minnesota did in its legislature can inform NM’s work

Published

2 years ago

January 7, 2024

What Minnesota did in its legislature can inform NM’s work

Peter Goodman
| Las Cruces Sun-News

In November 2022, when Minnesota Democrats elected a governor, gained narrow majorities in both state legislative offices, and had a Democratic attorney-general, they became a laboratory for how to effectively use that power to achieve progressive policy priorities.

Our imminent legislative session, plus the return from Minnesota of a friend who’s a seasonal Las Crucen, prompts this look at all that Minnesota has done – including things we did before them and others where we lag.

As soon as the 2023 legislative session started, Minnesota protected abortion rights by encoding Roe v. Wade, expanded background checks on gun purchasers and passed a “red flag” measure through which officials can take guns away from people deemed to be threats to themselves or others, legalized recreational marijuana, and enacted major protections of voting rights. (They instituted automatic registration, pre-registering 16- and 17-year-olds, and cut the use of “dark money” in state and local races).

Minnesota has also increased school funding (including providing universal breakfast and lunch for every student in the state); expanded public child care support; increased paid family and sick leave to 12 weeks; provided legal refuge to trans youths from states that restrict gender-affirming and other medical care; set minimum wages for Uber and Lyft drivers; enacted “green” energy goals such as requiring utility companies to offer carbon-free electricity by 2040; and expanded public child care support programs. Governor Tim Walz says he wants Minnesota to be the best state in the union to raise a child in.

As U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said, these policies “have a direct and clear impact on improving people’s lives;” but Minnesota enacted them with a slim majority and while also maintaining a robust economy and keeping crime rates low, the criteria by which conservatives judge progressive local governments. The narrow majorities might have suggested caution; but Minnesotans, deciding that doing good beats doing nothing, took massive steps to improve the lives of real people and protect citizens’ rights. Some say there’s a lesson here for the national Democratic Party.

People call Minnesota a laboratory for progressive policy and a model for what the states can accomplish. Such a laboratory reassures other states that enacting laws to protect people and the environment can be done; and that such pro-people steps can succeed in a state that’s relatively moderate, socially.

I recall a very different episode in Kansas, where Republican Governor Sam Brownback and his Republican-controlled Legislature abused their unhindered power so extensively and created such a huge deficit that people wondered if the state could keep funding basic needs like public education. That seared the conservative state (where Republicans outnumber Democrats nearly two to one) so badly that Democrats have held the governorship ever since.

It’s essential to maintain basic services and help the state’s economy; but let’s also compare Minnesota and New Mexico with neighboring states where close-mindedness, intolerance, and hatred of folks who are different rule the day. States that try to erase slavery and racism from history, minimize assistance to poor folks, suppress minority voting, beat gay kids into submission with cruel “therapies,” and jail not only pregnant women seeking abortion but the bus driver who takes them to the Minnesota or New Mexico border to get medical care. Abortion-rights advocates note that Minnesota’s new law is especially crucial for pregnant women in neighboring states, where abortion remains illegal since the Supreme Court vaporized Roe v. Wade. That sounds quite familiar.

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Minnesota

Where to watch Minnesota Twins vs Pittsburgh Pirates: TV channel, start time, streaming for May 30

Published

18 minutes ago

May 30, 2026

Press Room

Where to watch Minnesota Twins vs Pittsburgh Pirates: TV channel, start time, streaming for May 30

The 2026 MLB season has surpassed the quarter mark, and after each team’s first 40 games, there’s plenty of reasons to tune in all summer long.

Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami has already proven doubters wrong by launching 17 home runs, Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes consistently looks like the best version of himself on the mound and Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski is throwing harder than any starter in the majors.

The MLB action continues on Saturday as the Minnesota Twins visit the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Here’s everything you need to know to tune in for the first pitch.

See USA TODAY’s sortable MLB schedule to filter by team or division.

What time is Minnesota Twins vs Pittsburgh Pirates?

First pitch between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota Twins is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, May 30.

How to watch Minnesota Twins vs Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday

All times Eastern and accurate as of Saturday, May 30, 2026, at 6:33 a.m.

Matchup: MIN at PIT
Date: Saturday, May 30
Time: 4:05 p.m. (ET)
Venue: PNC Park
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
TV: Twins.TV and SportsNet Pittsburgh
Streaming: MLB.TV on Fubo

Watch MLB all season long with Fubo

MLB regional blackout restrictions apply

MLB scores, results

MLB scores for May 30 games are available on usatoday.com . Here’s how to access today’s results:

See scores, results for all of today’s games.

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Minnesota

Minnesota DFL Convention gets underway in Rochester

Published

11 hours ago

May 29, 2026

Press Room

Minnesota DFL Convention gets underway in Rochester

(ABC 6 News) — It’s a big weekend for politics in Minnesota as both the DFL and GOP conventions are getting underway.

The DFL Convention is being held in Rochester, and delegates will endorse candidates for attorney general, secretary of state, and governor on Friday night.

Current Attorney General Keith Ellison received the DFL endorsement for attorney general.

Meanwhile, endorsements for U.S. Senate will be up on Saturday.

On Sunday, delegates will be voting on who they will back for state auditor.

A big shakeup in the convention took place earlier this week with Rep. Angie Craig announcing she will not seek the DFL endorsement as she campaigns for U.S. Senate.

Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig no longer seeking DFL endorsement in Senate race

Both Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan are running for the seat on the DFL side.

This U.S. Senate seat is open after current Sen. Tina Smith announced she will not be running for reelection.

Senator Tina Smith will not seek reelection in 2026

As for the gubernatorial race, Sen. Amy Klobuchar is expected to receive the DFL endorsement on Friday night. ABC 6 News is at the convention, and we will have the latest updates throughout the weekend both on air and online.

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Minnesota

The midterms loom as another chance for Minnesota to set an example for the nation

Published

23 hours ago

May 29, 2026

Press Room

The midterms loom as another chance for Minnesota to set an example for the nation

by Tom Mohr, MinnPost
May 29, 2026

How often history turns on the courage and conviction of a desperate few.

Consider Ukraine. Consider Minnesota.

Two peoples. Different arenas. Yet in the crucible, each faced the same demand: defend your own and save democracy — or lose both.

And the people answered yes.

Ukraine has shown the world what it takes to fight an authoritarian force from without: courage, ingenuity, self-sacrifice, stamina. A love of country so great that a whole people has willingly suffered years of war rather than bow to tyranny.

Minnesota has shown the world what it takes to resist authoritarian force from within: moral clarity, peaceful and creative mass action, legal resistance, public witness, democratic solidarity. A love of neighbor so deep that fear, winter and even bloodshed could not empty the streets or silence the whistles.

The lesson is the same in both places: Democracy is fragile. It cannot save itself. It survives grave threat only when ordinary people decide that comfort and normalcy must give way to the defense of freedom.

Minnesota: This past winter, we awakened America.

We showed millions that hate can be defeated by love, tyranny by unity, and anti-democratic machinations by the disciplined courage of a free people. We did it, in the words of Bruce Springsteen, with “our blood and bones and these whistles and phones” — and with them, we stirred the conscience of a nation.

But Minnesota: We must awaken America again.

For the midterms loom.

Our winter fight was one skirmish in a much broader battle. Across this nation, the assault on our constitutional republican democracy continues unabated. Free and fair elections are under attack. The rule of law is under attack. The separation of powers is under attack. The free press, freedom of speech and the right to protest without intimidation are under attack.

So the question rings out: Who will stoke the fire of resistance? Who will stand again for democracy? Who will bring America back to the streets, and from the streets to the ballot box in November?

Minnesota, let it be us.

Doubt not that our president, his administration, and his Republican Party are working in lockstep to bend our free republic toward tyranny. They advance by pressure, threat, intimidation, distortion and the steady bending of rules. Watch them gerrymander where they can. Restrict voting where they can. Flood the zone with lies. Attack election workers. Pre-poison trust in outcomes.

All to make us feel powerless. Isolated. Afraid.

We cannot let that happen. We must rise again, Minnesota; we must lead America again — all the way to the ballot box.

Let this be our next Minnesota miracle.

Because we cannot lose this election. We must win. Not narrowly. Not barely. We must win so decisively that no trick can overcome it, so broadly that no lie can explain it away, so clearly that America’s birthright is reclaimed — and the long journey of healing can begin.

Our part is to flip Minnesota’s two most reachable red congressional districts — the First and Eighth. We will do it by forging a grand coalition:

Minnesota Blue joined with Minnesota Middle.

Let’s be clear: In Minnesota and across the nation, it will not be enough simply to turn out the blue base. A victory large enough to overcome every trick, lie, and scheme will require the middle.

And the middle can be won.

Not by asking people to abandon every conviction they hold. Not by asking conservatives to become liberals, or independents to become Democrats. But by helping our neighbors see the stakes clearly: this is not an ordinary election, to be decided by ordinary policy preferences or old party habits.

This is a democracy election.

And in a democracy election, the question is not: Which party do I usually prefer?

The question is: Which vote will best preserve our constitutional republican democracy?

Minnesota, it’s on us to build on the moral authority we won this winter. To show the nation the way: Blue and middle, hand in hand.

Democrats. Independents. Disillusioned Republicans. People of faith. People of conscience. Veterans. Students. Teachers. Nurses. Farmers. Union workers. Small-business owners. Parents, grandparents and first-time voters.

All gathered around one sacred civic duty: to defend the republic.

With whistle parades and coffee meetups, voter registration drives and neighbor-to-neighbor conversations, let us organize. Not only in Minneapolis and St. Paul. In Rochester, Duluth, Mankato, Winona, the Iron Range, and in Olmsted, Blue Earth, Steele, Freeborn, Carlton, Itasca, St. Louis and Beltrami counties.

Let us go to college towns and mining towns, lake country and Trump country — wherever blue voters must be reawakened, and wherever voters who have voted red may yet prove to be members of the vast quiet middle, ready to hear the call of democracy.

This is our hour, Minnesota.

Let not our whistles go silent. Let not our streets stay empty. Let not the blue base grow weary. Let not the middle go unreached.

Organize. Mobilize. Work. And win.

Win by a margin no scheme can defeat.

Toward that end, may we Minnesotans highly resolve anew:

“That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Tom Mohr is founder and CEO of CEO Quest, a CEO coaching company; author of “Letters to Rising Leaders”; and creator of the “We The Middle Vote” substack (WeTheMiddleVote.substack.com).

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