It’s been a powerful, heartbreaking, smoky summer. Thank you for the ways you’ve been showing up in our communities with care and courage. Local Progress is a network to fuel the strategy, resilience, and power of progressive local electeds, in deep collaboration with our partners. In this issue of the LPMN State Download, I hope you find something to fuel you, give you comfort, or spark your clarity and understanding. Read below:
✊🏿✊🏽✊🏻 Register now: Minnesota State Strategy Meeting
🌲 Recap: Northern Minnesota Meet-Up and Regional Strategy Meeting
💥🧊 Pushing Back on Authoritarianism
💫 Recapping the 2025 Local Progress National Convening
Let’s talk: Local Progress members have access to a slew of policy and strategic resources, but sometimes it can be hard to know where to start, so let’s talk about it. I am based in Saint Paul and I would love to meet with you online or wherever you are. (Schedule a virtual meeting. Schedule an in-person meeting).
Minnesota State Strategy Meeting
Friday, September 26th
Minneapolis Central Library, Doty Board Room
Our annual Minnesota State Strategy Meeting is coming up next month! This is an event where our chapter comes together to learn and support one another, diving deep into not only urgent challenges of our moment, but charting the course to wins that may be years in the making.
Check out the draft agenda and logistical details here.
Along with building our knowledge and relationships, an important element of the Strategy Meeting will be informing our Chapter priorities. Setting priorities will allow us to get organized, to declare and commit to our roles in the fight and how we can relate to one another. Priorities yield campaigns, teams, and actions that we are taking together in structures that are sustainable. We know that big fights take time, even years. By looking at the reality of the long-term, we can plan for how our work may need to adapt with changes, still move us forward towards our goals, and share leadership.
🌲 Northern Minnesota Meet-Up and Regional Strategy Meeting
At the end of July, members and partners gathered in Duluth for the Northern Minnesota Meet-Up and Regional Strategy Meeting to share community, learn from one another, and dig in on some of the biggest challenges we face together including finding ways to fund our community in the face of Federal moves to austerity, meeting our housing crisis, and making our schools safe places to work and learn.
Huge thanks to Duluth City Councilmember and Local Progress Member Leader Azrin Awal for hosting us, to LP members who participated, to special guest Sen. Jen McEwen, and partners from SEIU Healthcare MN, OutFront MN, Duluth Tenants, and Duluth NAACP for investing in these energizing events!
💥🧊 Pushing Back on Authoritarianism
Following the June 3 ICE Raid in Minneapolis, Local Progress members on the Minneapolis City Council are using their voices and power to strengthen protections of residents targeted by authoritarian Federal forces. As Councilmember Aurin Chowdury pointed out in the Aug. 5th hearing reviewing the actions of MPD and the City administration during the hearing, she named clearly: “The militarized federal operation that took place on June 3 did not happen in a vacuum. The following day, under the direction of the Trump administration, ICE set a record for arrests made in a single year at 2,200 people.”
The Minneapolis City Council is operating under a strong mayor system where power is concentrated with the Mayor, but still they have found ways to use their informal and formal power to push back and protect constituents. This includes writing op-eds, encouraging supporting local businesses, using their oversight authority to get an After Action Report, and proposing changes to strengthen their separation ordinance.
Councilmember Robin Wonsley reflected on the role of electeds in this moment: “I know residents are looking to local government to lead on standing up against Trump. And across the country we’re actually seeing electeds do that and they are being detained, and arrested and having their First Amendment rights also attacked for doing the same thing. But that is what is expected from us. June 3rd was a test.”
Every local leader must consider: “What will I do when the federal administration comes for my constituents? What support do I need to be ready?”
As part of our State Strategy Meeting on September 26th, we will dive into conversations aimed at getting us clear on what actions we each will take to defend our communities and what supports we need to take those actions. The goal of the “Backfire” model, as articulated by the HOPE-PV Project, is to make sure that when any kind of political violence takes place, perpetrators face high costs for their actions. When their actions are counterproductive for them, their actions can be said to backfire. One of the assets of our chapter is the structure to learn from one another.
💫 Recapping the 2025 Local Progress National Convening
Organize Together, Govern for All was this year’s theme which served as a reminder that our collective efforts have a real impact in these times where our communities are unjustly targeted. This year, eleven members from Minnesota made the trek from seven different jurisdictions across the state including Duluth, St. Louis Park, Minneapolis, and more, representing school boards, counties, and cities.
Panelists included member leader Jeremiah Ellison sharing a deep dive into the Corcoran Five apartment buildings, where tenants won a years-long battle to buy their multifamily complex from one of the most infamous slumlords in Minneapolis. Thank you to everyone who invested in making a fantastic convening! Read the full recap in our blog here!
📝 Member Survey
Our Member Survey is now live! At the National Convening, over 150 members shared their thoughts about Local Progress, and we want yours too! The results will help inform our future work and priorities. As a thank you for taking the time to complete the survey we’re offering a $25 virtual Visa gift card or donation to the charity of your choice.
🧰 Tools to Interrupt Criminalization
As local elected leaders continue to stand with and fight for the protection of their immigrant communities, we want to ensure that you have the resources you need. Use LP’s updated guides–Protecting Immigrant Rights Under a Hostile Federal Administration and Let’s Talk Real Safety–to align around a strong, consistent narrative. New content includes Best Practices for messaging on immigration and guidance on Responding to a Raid in your Community; and Addressing Public Suffering and Ending Harm and Surveillance, emphasizing the urgent need to move away from carceral solutions and toward real investments that address the root causes of harm.
📣 What the Billionaire Tax Scam Means For Our Communities
The Trump Administration and its Congressional allies just took away life-saving healthcare and food assistance from millions of Americans. All to give themselves – and their billionaire donors – massive tax cuts. In this dire moment, local leaders will be the first line of defense to support our communities against a hostile federal government. Learn more about this billionaire tax scam, its impacts, and check out our messaging toolkit to find out how you can fight back.
🛑How Local Leaders Can Protect Communities from AI and the Tech Oligarchy
This past May, OpenAI and Microsoft lobbyists called for a shutdown on AI regulation. And recently, Congress passed a tax bill with a provision that would restrict states from regulating AI for 10 years (though it faces a steep challenge in the Senate). Our recently released report details how local elected officials and local communities should approach governance as the tech oligarchy’s influence grows in the era of AI. You can also rewatch the webinar we held this past May with AI Now Institute, New York City Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez, and report author, former San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen where we discussed this topic and more.
Cheniqua Johnson represents Ward 7 in Saint Paul and is the newest member of our Local Progress Minnesota Organizing Committee.* Cheniqua grew up in Worthington, Minnesota, and graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2017 as a first generation college student.
Before her election, Cheniqua served as a program officer for the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation. She also served previously as constituent services and policy aide to Congressman Keith Ellison, Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley, and the US House of Representative Subcommittee on Aviation program working with residents to navigate federal and county government to find solutions to the challenges our communities faced.
On council, Cheniqua has emerged as a stalwart supporter of renters and championing housing solutions that support vulnerable families.
🏡 Stay Connected to our Caucuses!
Join us for the November All Caucus Meeting – Wednesday, November 12th! We will bring together the general membership of each caucus to build community and share space across identities. This gathering will be an opportunity to learn from one another, deepen cross-caucus relationships, and strengthen our individual caucuses through the sharing of our collective brilliance. 👉 Register Here.
👩💻 Steering Committee
The LP School Board work is shaped by a Steering Committee made up of school board members from across the country. This group meets on zoom for about an hour every month (typically Friday afternoons) and helps set the agenda for our school board work across the network. We have a strong group but need help from more school board members across the network to add capacity to this important body! Are you interested in learning more? Fill out the form here.
