Minnesota Miracle: Democrats Use Supermajority to Pass Abortion, Voting, Labor Reforms & More

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez we turn now to Minnesota where the state legislatures democratic super majority and Democratic governor Tim Walls just enacted sweeping Progressive reforms during its legislative session which lasted only four months the series of bills is being praised as the Minnesota Miracle 2.0 as Democrats successfully codified abortion rights protections for transgender people

driver's licenses for undocumented residents new gun control rules Paid Family Medical and sick leave the restoration of voting rights for previously incarcerated people a one billion dollar investment in affordable housing that includes rent assistance and stronger protections for workers seeking to unionize among other reforms the original Minnesota miracle was a nickname given to reforms enacted in the early 70s by a less Conservative Republican legislature and

then Democrat Governor Wendell Anderson for more we go to Saint Paul Minnesota where we're joined by Peter Callahan staff writer at the men post who's covered all of this closely Peter thanks so much for joining us why don't you lay out what happened how much time do you have you know a lot happened I mean to us and looking at this uh it's less of a

last November delivered narrow majorities for Democrats but it was a different kind of a majority than they'd had 10 years ago in that it was also an ideological majority not just a partisan majority so it was one of the really few uh pro-choice majorities that there had been in Minnesota even when Democrats had control in past sessions they weren't abortion rights majorities so they they pretty

much decided a couple of things one they had four years meaning they could lose the house in two years but they couldn't lose the governor's office or the state senate until 26. so whatever they passed could stay in place for these four years uh it's harder to harder to rescind things than it is to pass things and that they were going to make a list and

check it off as they went and so it was kind of less of a surprise to us here that all these things passed and I think it was nationally the non-profit organization home lined has described the tenant landlord law as the the most substantial change in the state's history yeah I'll give them a pass on how they know uh what the landlord tenant laws were like

at statehood but that sort of hyperbole is pretty common now uh as you go through the the landlord tenant changes are again a result of pent-up demand for all these years anything that passed in that realm had to be a compromise between landlords and tenant organizations and with the trifecta a democratic Trifecta they no longer really needed to bring in the landlord groups and a lot

of these issues were things that had passed in other states and had been proposed by democrats in Minnesota in the last decade but just didn't have the bunch to pass so that uh landlord-tenant changes were significant but you really can't look at those without looking at the billion dollar investment in affordable housing a typical budget for housing in Minnesota is 150 million to 200 million in

a biennium so that gives you some sense of what a billion dollars is and that money isn't just going to build housing you uh with both public housing and with non-profits it's the first ever State vouchers rental voucher system similar to the Section 8 program on the federal level uh it's a first-time home buyers down payment assistance it is a renewal of rental assistance similar to

what went on during the pandemic across the country that that money is also significant and coupled with the tenant rights bill is interesting because the landlord groups after the session were not happy with the changes to landlord-tenant law but they're pretty happy about the billion dollar investment because their their members will see that through rent payments and other things and what are the potential for legal

challenges to some of the uh this legislation uh I don't know that there's really anything that was thought to be outside the realm of the authority of the legislature um the the uh bills sort of have all been all been vetted over the last several years I'm not aware of anything significant challenging uh similar to several years ago when they passed the opioids protections uh the

farmer definitely was going to sue and did Sue in that case is still pending but I don't know of any litigation right now uh Peter Callahan we were just talking to New York folks about their fight right now to get health care for all New Yorkers including undocumented New Yorkers in fact Minnesota did just that is that right can you talk about health care for all

there and also the issue of abortion what was passed yeah it's that that in fact I was listening to that segment and thinking that past here uh really with not a lot of attention on it um Minnesota does a system I worked the Washington legislature so I know some contrast um a lot of things show up in Omnibus bills at the end of session so 10

big fat hundreds and hundreds of page bills and things can get put into that those bills that maybe were heard later were talked about but but there was no uh obvious sense that they were passing and things like uh Health Care under the Minnesota CARE program for people who do not have documentation was put into one of those bills so really didn't get a lot of

attention what we do after session is we start going through all of these bills to find all the things that were put into those bills they don't make the list that we wrote about on adjournment but there's some there's significant things and that was one of them and the abortion rights issue that was really yeah I think it's I'm comfortable in saying that these were abortion

rights majorities uh the the Democrats didn't think they were going to win the majorities in either the house of the Senate they thought the Senate Republicans would retain control and the house dfl I think thought they were going to lose control of the legislature in November I want to bring into the conversation Robin wansley minneapolis's first black Democratic Socialist city council member longtime Minneapolis organizer and

activist the Minnesota Governor Tim Walls faced backlash from labor organizers after in may he issued the first veto in his entire tenure blocking a bill that would have granted minimum wage and better working protections for Uber and Lyft drivers The veto came just hours after Uber threatened to pull out of Minnesota your response Robin um yeah I think you know as Peter highlighted what we saw

at the state level um and what was very crucial in delivering this Minnesota Miracle 2.0 is we saw finally the uh Coalition the strong Coalition be built between um Progressive and Democratic Socialist uh elected officials along with uh you know key grasper groups who have been organizing for decades around some of the key demands that you mentioned um as well as labor labor was part of

that Coalition too um and as part of that Coalition you know we saw some amazing you know pieces of legislation be delivered um but we also should you know see this veto as a clear indicator that corporate interest still holds significant Sway and influence over um our our state government and over our contingency of the democratic party specifically The Establishment wing of the democratic party um

and that was manifested yes in The veto against the a ride share protection legislation that would uplift uh workers who are doing you know necessary uh work with Uber and Lyft but we also saw it with the nurses Staffing legislation too where Mayo Clinic threaded to pull out billions of dollars of investment because nurses there to say that we actually need to Center the needs of

our health care workers and our patients as opposed to the profits of corporate Health Care Executives um so those were the two instances where in light of this entire session we saw still uh the The Establishment wing of the democratic party a b pool to fulfill the interests of uh the corporate establishment in the state um and you know in light of that I'm very excited

though that my office is working with those drivers who push for such an unprecedented part of you know of legislation that will uplift this segment of workers who are on the work right now or on the ground right now Minneapolis to get that done here um and to you know support our colleagues as they bring that fight forward once again at the state coming um into

the 2024 legislative session I also want to comment that uh um that uh Peter kept referring to dfl which for a global audience is the Minnesota Democratic farmer labor party the Minnesota affiliate of the U.S Democratic Party