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Harris campaign zeroes in on female voters
Even before Vice President joined the race, polling showed Trump led with men, but trailed with women.
MINNEAPOLIS — The newly minted Harris Campaign is already working to highlight the divide between Democrats and Republicans when in comes to abortion and other reproductive rights for women.
U.S. Senator Tina Smith led a large group of fellow female Democrat elected leaders and activists at the Minnesota State Capitol Friday, at an event co-sponsored by the Harris Campaign and Women Winning, a political organization that works to elect pro-choice women.
“With this election, the choice could not be more clear,” Sen. Smith told reporters.
“Vice President Harris has been a tireless advocate for women’s rights and reproductive freedom and we know we can trust her to stand with us!”
Smith said she worked alongside Vice President Kamala Harris in the U.S. Senate and trusts her to work to improve the lives of women and their families.
“We understand the freedom to make decisions about our own bodies and our own lives is fundamental to our liberty and our equality.”
The group also took aim at Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who is former President Trump’s running mate, for statements implying that women without children have no stake in the future of the country.
“We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choice they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too,” Vance told FOX News’ Tucker Carlson in a 2021 interview that is now being widely circulated.
“If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
Former Sen. Kelly Morrison of Deep Haven, a physician who is running for Congress in Minnesota’s 3rd District, said there are many women who have not been able to conceive and others who have chosen not to have children.
“To mock them and to imply they are somehow less worthy in our country, is cruel. It’s disgraceful!” Morrison asserted.
Most polls show that men in Minnesota heavily favored Trump in a head-to-head matchup with President Biden. Some analysts have said the election in Minnesota could be determined by how many white men turn out to vote in the suburbs.
That’s one of the reasons the battle for women voters in Minnesota and other Midwestern battleground states will be so critical in 2024.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said former President Trump and Sen. Vance are trying to take the country back in time, to a place where women had fewer rights and less control of their bodies and their lives.
“Having women in leadership isn’t just cosmetic. It’s essential!” Flanagan told reporters.
Nevada Littlewolf of Women Winning pointed to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump term, which includes steps to impose a national ban on abortion. Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but his critics point out that many of the authors to the document are former members of the Trump Administration.
“Now is the time to show Donald Trump, JD Vance, and his gang of MAGA minions that we will not tolerate any more threats to our democracy, our community, or our rights to make decisions about our own bodies.”
Elected Republican women assert electing Donald Trump won’t endanger women’s access to abortion in Minnesota. They note the DFL majority in the legislature in 2023 and 2024 put abortion rights into state law, and those rights were already established in the Minnesota Supreme Court’s 1995 Doe v. Gomez decision.
“That is not going to change here in Minnesota. We know that,” Rep. Lisa Demuth, the House Minority Leader, told KARE 11.
“But, if we are going to talk about being pro-woman, and making sure women have what they need, we need to support women at phases of their life and everything they’re facing.”
She said the definition of pro-women should be expanded to include pocketbook issues. She said the new sick and safe time law and the paid family leave system approved by the legislature will harm women who own businesses.
“Right now, we have high taxes, we have child care that is not accessible or available as people need. Women business owners specifically are facing mandates that were put on over the last two years by the full Democrat Trifecta.”
Minnesota GOP Deputy Party Chair Donna Bergstrom said that Democrats can’t win elections in this state running on the abortion issue alone.
“I think the Democrats at large and the DFL here in Minnesota really only have abortion to campaign on. Really that fear factor that they want to go after,” Bergstrom told KARE.
“We need to get back to the basics in our communities. Inflation is killing us. Our families can’t fill their gas tanks, put groceries on the table, meet their basic needs.”
Bergstrom criticized Democrats for their efforts to link Project 2025 to Trump.
“It would sure be a lot easier if we didn’t have people elected to office, like Senator Smith, saying this is the Trump agenda because it’s not.”
Gary Peterson and his friends are collecting donations to help people in their community.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — A St. Louis Park pumpkin display is raising money for their local food shelf.
Gary Peterson started carving and painting three pumpkins over a decade ago. It’s now grown to over 100.
“I’ve heard people say they’ve come from Hutchinson,” he said.
Peterson along with two of his neighbors have spent the last 14 years growing their display, turning it into a neighborhood event.
“It’s been incredible, I just can’t believe how much this has expanded,” he said. “We did it just because we like to and then people were asking to give us money to cover the cost.”
The trio refused to take people’s money, but then one of them had an idea.
“My neighbor, Steve Leensvaart, just mentioned how about we just do it for the STEP program and the STEP program is our local food shelf in St. Louis Park,” he said.
So, they started to collect donations to help families in need. They’ve raised hundreds of dollars and donated hundreds of pounds of food over the last few years, carving for a cause.
“It is more gratifying every year,” Peterson said.
He estimated they have over 100 unique pumpkins in their yard. They’ve created the displays and come up with new family-friendly concepts for people to enjoy. Peterson said about 30 of their neighbors carved their own pumpkins to be put on display, and it’s been a big hit.
“It’s great. In the last couple of years, it’s turned into more of a neighborhood event,” said Sarah Durch.
“We love this Halloween display, we come every year to see it. We love that the whole community gets involved to craft and carve the pumpkins,” said Jami Gordon-Smith.
“The shading and the details are unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Hanson.
Hanson hopes to take her 2-year-old son trick or treating for the first time but is worried the cold temperatures might keep them indoors.
“We’re going trick or treating hopefully,” she said. “He’s going to be a firefighter, but we’re probably going to have sweatshirts maybe like two pairs of sweatpants underneath. We’re going to be bundled up.”
Gordon-Smith said her family will be out Halloween night no matter the weather.
“Halloween only comes once a year, so you really have to take advantage and enjoy the evening no matter what the weather brings,” she said. “Guess it’s not totally unheard of in Minnesota to have a cold Halloween, but we are going to try and modify and do a lot of layers underneath our costumes and then we might add some hats and maybe some warmer socks.”
Durch also isn’t surprised they’re in for another chilly night.
“Well, what would Halloween be without Minnesota cold? I feel like every time you plan a costume you have to plan for how you can make this work if it’s snowing,” she said.
Peterson said they will have a bonfire and some hot chocolate and cider on Halloween to keep trick-or-treaters warm while they look at their pumpkins.
Click here to learn where you can see the pumpkins and how you can donate.
Jeremy Jourdain was 17 when he was last seen on Halloween 2016.
BEMIDJI, Minn. — The search for Jeremy Jourdain, who was last seen on Halloween in 2016, continues now eight years later.
Jourdain was last seen at a family member’s house in Bemidji, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. He left the residence near the 500 block of Wood Avenue after midnight and while people followed him, no one was able to find him.
Jourdain was 17 at the time.
Officials said he was wearing a blue and grey sweatshirt, and blue jeans when last seen. He is Native American and is described as 6 foot 5 and 175 pounds.
If you have any information on his whereabouts, you can contact the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111. Tips can also be sent to 1-833-560-2065, or you can email ojs_mmu@bia.gov.
The organizations say many Asian Americans are planning to vote despite lack of candidate outreach.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Most people have been contacted in some way shape or form by a campaign in the last few weeks. And if the polls are right and the race for president is a dead heat, every vote will matter.
That’s why this is a head scratcher:
According to a September 2024 voter survey by Asian American Pacific Islander Data, 27% of Asian-American voters said they hadn’t been contacted by either political party trying to get their vote. Last spring, earlier in the voting season, it was even more – 42%.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest growing racial or ethnic group nationwide.
Their voter participation levels are growing too, with 60% of eligible Asian-American voters turning out in 2020. And AAPI Data reports as many as 90% of Asian Americans they surveyed said they plan to vote this cycle.
“Candidates are not reaching out to Asian Americans, which is a huge mistake,” said ThaoMee Xiong, executive and networking director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders.
She says even though there are more than 200,000 eligible Asian voters in Minnesota, the Asian vote is under-appreciated.
“Neither the Democratic or Republican parties have been reaching out in huge numbers,” Xiong said. “They’re sending general mailers to everyone but … they need it in their native language.”
That’s why CAAL is partnering with two more organizations to keep voter turnout high and reach anyone candidates or advocates missed.
Xor Xiong is from Asian American Organizing Project, which focuses on engaging metro-area teens and young adults.
“Many of our communities are still facing barriers to go to vote,” he said. “There’s been more times than I like to admit in terms of when I was having a conversation over the phones of voters being surprised that they can take time off to go and vote, or they can bring the kids to the polling locations, or they can even bring someone to translate for them.”
“In Ramsey County, because of the large Hmong American population there, the polls in Ramsey County are federally required to provide interpreters and translated materials,” ThaoMee added.
Their nonpartisan campaign, Get Out the Vote for Asian Minnesotans, aims to get people registered and well-informed.
“Throughout Covid, there was a lot of anti-hate around the AAPI community and we are still feeling the impact of that to this day,” said Amanda Xiong, a community organizer with a group known as CAPI USA. “Even if folks are afraid to go to the polls, due to that, we try our best to then educate them around absentee ballots, voting early.”
“And so yes, there is a huge increase in terms of voter turnout, but then why is it still 70% feel as though they don’t belong?”
In 2021, the FBI reported a 168% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes.
In Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, the groups knocked on at least 700 doors in one session alone while keeping safety top of mind.
“We make sure that there’s a car following all the door knockers,” ThaoMee said. “We put everyone on text chain … and we are putting a lot of precautionary measures in place for the day of voting.”
After the election, the CAAL plans to conduct surveys and send the results to county election officials. They’ve done this before and say it led to policy changes this year at the legislature including measures to ensure people have easier access to interpreters.
