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SD63 Update for March 14

In this Update:

Happy Pi Day!

Announcing our spring dinner speaker: Naomi Kritzer

We are excited to announce the speaker at our 2025 Southside Spring Dinner: author Naomi Kritzer!Author Naomi Kritzer is the featured speaker at this year's Southside Spring Dinner Here in the Twin Cities Naomi is well-known for her political columns, which provide deep-dive information on candidates in local political races. Her science fiction and fantasy writing has won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Edgar Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. You can find Naomi online at her website or on Bluesky. Liberty’s Daughter, her latest book, came out in November 2023.

Before dinner we’ll start the evening off with a reception with candidates for this year’s municipal elections. We’ve invited candidates seeking the DFL nomination for mayor, for the city council candidates in districts overlapping SD63, for Park Board, and for the Board of Estimate and Taxation. You can meet the candidates, find out where they stand on the issues important to you, and become an key early volunteer for those who best reflect your values and goals for our city.

Get your tickets now — take advantage of our Early Bird discount while it lasts!

Four things you can do now

Here are four ways you can put your DFL values into action right now.

Minnesota State Capitol

  1. Take a stand for inclusion for transgender athletes, Add your name to Gender Justice’s petition for fair treatment of transgender athletes, and take a public stand for equality. Better yet, convince your employer, church, or community group to take that stand with you: sign their open letter here.
  2. Phone bank for the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Our neighbors do seem to have frequent high-stakes judicial elections: this one’s on April 1 (no fooling!). Help the WisDems canvass for this race: get more info and sign up here.
  3. Apply to serve on Minneapolis boards and commissions. Twice a year, the city recruits citizens to serve on these groups that advise the city council and mayor on various matters. This month the city is recruiting for eight groups including the Community Commission on Police Oversight (CCPO), the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committees, and the Advisory Committee on Aging. Applications for the CCPO are due March 16; for other groups, March 31: apply today.
  4. Volunteer to help with YDA’s spring meeting. The Young Democrats of America will be holding their next national meeting right here in Minneapolis, May 9-11. They need local helpers to staff the registration desk and welcome 200 young leaders to our city. To volunteer or for more information, contact YDA Chair Quentin Ocama.

Talking points

All four of Minnesota’s Republican U.S. Representatives (Stauber, Emmer, Fischbach, and Finstad) are hiding from their constituents, who are furious at them for supporting the Trump administration’s latest attacks on working people.

Minnesota State Capitol

Legislative newsletters

Emma Greenman and Samantha Sencer-Mura Our HD63A Representative Samantha Sencer-Mura sent a Legislative Update last week, with an early look at how Trump’s economic mismanagement is impacting Minnesota’s state budget forecast. Samantha also writes about Paid Family and Medical Leave updates, grant opportunities from the Office of Cannabis Management, and more: Read it all here.

Our HD63B Representative Emma Greenman has been posting (captioned!) video updates via Instagram and Facebook about the coming biennial budget process. Stay up to date, and look for opportunities to voice your opinions on Minnesota’s budget priorities!

Around town

Find and support 2025 DFL candidates!

For Minneapolis mayor: 2025 Minneapolis mayor candidates seeking DFL endorsement

For Minneapolis Council District 2:

Ward 2 incumbent Robin Wonsley has not sought DFL endorsement in the past.

For Minneapolis Council District 6:

For Minneapolis Council District 8:

Ward 8 incumbent Council Member Andrea Jenkins is not seeking re-election.

For Minneapolis Council District 9:

For Minneapolis Council District 11:

For Minneapolis Council District 12:

For Minneapolis Council District 13:

We will add information about Park Board and Board of Estimate and Taxation races closer to caucuses.

Events

Ongoing

Thursday, March 13

Friday, March 14

Saturday, March 15

Sunday, March 16

Monday, March 17

Tuesday, March 18

Wednesday, March 19

Thursday, March 20

Friday, March 21

Saturday, March 22

Sunday, March 23

Monday, March 24

Tuesday, March 25

Wednesday, March 26

Thursday, March 27

Friday, March 28

Saturday, March 29

Sunday, March 30

Monday, March 31

Subscribe to our calendars on your handheld device or personal calendar manager

Be sure to add our calendars as separate calendars, and not by importing the events — keeping our calendar separate will allow your device to get updates as we add or change events, and will let you give this calendar its own distinct color, and will let you turn its visibility on or off at your convenience.

Community outreach groups and caucuses

In the DFL, sometimes we organize based on geography (like us: the DFL in Senate District 63!). But the DFL’s community outreach organizations and community caucuses are based on shared identities and interests. All DFLers are invited to participate in any of these interest groups. You can use the contact information linked below to find out about the process for joining each organization, and for any meetings beyond what we’re able to list on our calendar here.

The DFL’s community outreach organizations include:

There’s a full list of community caucuses on the DFL website. We are happy to add other community outreach organizations active near Minneapolis to this list; please contact us with details.

Our meetings

Hosmer Library The next SD63 Central Committee meeting will be on April 2 at 6:30pm. Our meetings are hybrid: the upcoming in-person session will be at Hosmer Library, 347 East 36th Street, and the online session will be via Zoom. All SD63 Central Committee meetings are open to the public.

Support SD63

Donations to SD63 are used to run caucuses and conventions, maintain web and email servers, support campaigns, and hold issue forums and other community events. We have no paid employees.

Thanks this week

This issue’s talking points are from the DFL Toolkit, an excellent weekly message from the State DFL office.

Mission statement and editorial policies

The mission of the SD63 Update is

  1. To promote the DFL and the DFL’s values, activities, endorsed candidates, and platform,
  2. To develop community support, volunteers and material support for the above, and
  3. To raise public awareness and involvement in civic and other community processes as a means to implement DFL values and platform items,

especially as originating from and applying to Minnesota Senate District 63, and especially with the target audience of SD63 DFL participants and supporters. The editors and contributors of the Update shall execute this mission in a manner consistent with DFL policies and codes of conduct.

Inclusion of official public material

The Update may include content from or references to newsletters and announcements from community groups and elected officials when, at the sole good-faith discretion of the Update editor, these materials support the mission of the Update. Such official, non-campaign materials may be excerpted or referenced even when originating from an elected official who was not endorsed as a candidate by the DFL. Excerpts of and references to such material shall not be understood to be an endorsement, material support or other support of any kind of any candidacy by DFL SD63.

Contested endorsements

Between Election Day of one year and the convention of the relevant DFL Endorsing Unit of the following year, the Update editor may choose either:

  1. To provide coverage of campaign events, volunteer opportunities, and material support opportunities of all candidates who have informed the Update editor of their intention to seek DFL endorsement for a particular endorsement contest, or
  2. To cover no candidates for that endorsement contest.

If a DFL Endorsing Unit (and the SD63 DFL, if different than the Endorsing Unit) declines to endorse any candidate in some endorsement contest, then this policy shall also apply to that contest between the Endorsing Unit’s convention and the subsequent primary election or ranked-choice general election.

Some notes on the Contested Endorsement policy:

  1. Excerpts from and references to the announcements of public officials as described in the Policy on Inclusion of Official Public Material shall be seen as separate from campaign activity for the purposes of this policy.
  2. Note that the editor may opt to cover some endorsement contests but not others, as deemed feasible and appropriate by the editor. The editor’s two options in this Contested Endorsement policy are intended to provide fairness to the candidates for endorsement in any given endorsement contest. The statement of two options for each contest shall not be interpreted to compel or forbid coverage of candidates in any particular contest.
  3. The description of informing the Update editor of candidacy for endorsement described in Option 1 of this Contested Endorsement policy shall be satisfied by a direct communication to the Update editor, or by inclusion in an announcement recorded in the minutes of a meeting of the SD63 Central Committee. The Update editor may also take note of announcements in public forums, or of campaign activity oriented to potential caucus-goers or convention delegates, to serve as such a declaration. However this policy shall not be interpreted to expect the Update editor to discover endorsement candidate intentions outside of the two forms of declaration specified in this note.

No part of the Contested Endorsement policy is intended to contradict the prohibition of supporting candidates opposing a DFL-endorsed candidate, nor shall it compel any SD63 editor or contributor to do so.

Promulgation of this statement and policies

From their approval, the full text of this statement and these policies shall be included below the web publication of all Update issues. Moreover, a reference and link to that web publication shall be included in all email or physical transmissions of the Update. These publications of this statement and policies shall be taken as sufficient disclaimer that the contents of the Update represent a good-faith effort to adhere to all DFL policies and codes of conduct, including but not limited to the avoidance of endorsement of non-DFL-endorsed candidates in the context of an election including one or more DFL-endorsed candidates.

Questions and comments

Questions, comments and concerns regarding this policy or any content in the SD63 Update should be directed initially to its editor via email to newsletter AT sd63dfl DOT org. Further inquiries may be directed to the SD63 DFL Chair, or to DFL Party Affairs.