Election Activities
Despite all the chaos and hardship of 2020, staff, volunteers and activists came together to bring the voices of our 80,000 Minnesotans to some of our biggest challenges. We put together our largest effort to support climate and water champions ever. We know our new elected officials will have a tremendous impact on our ability to create the just, sustainable future we need.
The North Star Chapter focused on state races, knowing our national counterparts were focusing on federal elections, including the Presidential and close Congressional contests. Here in Minnesota we:
- Conducted a thorough candidate vetting and screening process, resulting in 117 endorsements by our Political Committee volunteer leaders.
- Prioritized 10 Senate Districts and 22 House Districts.
- Built a team of nearly 100 dedicated SierraVotes volunteers with whom we hosted weekly phone and text banks to reach out to 28,141 climate voters in our priority districts.
- Trained 31 Relational Organizers to talk with their own networks about voting and climate justice.
These volunteer efforts were supported by a digital and print campaign highlighting our candidates’ support for our shared values — clean air, water, climate and our communities.
- We sent 60,791 Minnesota voters at least two informational mailings with the facts on our endorsed candidates,along with the anti-environment records of their opposition.
- We ran digital ads in 15 races across the state which reached 81,000 Minnesotans with positive messages for our candidates.
- We emailed our members and supporters statewide to share our slate of endorsed candidates.
Election Results & Analysis
Minnesotans voted in record numbers, with nearly 80% of eligible voters turning out in support of their values. We saw voters reject Trump and his politics of fear in Minnesota with 52% of the vote. We also saw that voters in Minnesota remain divided between urban and rural areas and along partisan lines. We fought hard for climate and water champions — supporting new leaders, defending current leaders, and building power for the 2021 legislative session and beyond.
State Senate Majority: Closer, But Not Yet
Corporate polluters currently benefit from a State Senate controlled by a 35-32 Republican majority. So we needed to flip at least two seats. Three Sierra Club priority candidates, Lindsey Port, Aric Putnam and Ann Johnson Stewart won and flipped seats our way. Unfortunately, two DFL incumbents who did not seek or earn our endorsement, Matt Little and Dan Sparks, appear to have lost their seats. So as of press time, the net partisan change is 1 seat for a 34-33 Republican control.
We were not relying on those non-Sierra DFL candidates to win their elections. In addition to our three winning candidates, we worked hard for six other environmental challengers, including Sara Flick and Aleta Borrud in the Rochester area who each lost with 49% of the vote. While those close losses are heartbreaking, it matters that all but one of our six challengers performed dramatically better than previous challengers in the same districts four years ago. We hope these great candidates run again. They have built campaign teams and name identification that could make the difference in two years.
You read that right. This new Senate term is not 4 years. This Senate term is just two years. Because of redistricting required by the 2020 census, every member of the Legislature, both House and Senate, will be up for re-election in 2022. Anti-environment Senators from the Rochester area just got a big scare. If they keep voting against clean air, clean water and the climate, we’ll be ready for them in 2022.
House Environmental Majority: Protected
Sierra Club participated in maintaining an environmental majority by helping to re-elect first term environmental legislators including Patty Acomb, Shelley Christensen, Kelly Morrison, Todd Lippert, Kristin Bahner, Kelly Moller, Ginny Klevorn, Heather Edelson, Steve Elkins, Dan Wolgamott and Ami Wazlawik. In particular we put our resources into defending Christensen, Morrison, Wolgamott, Lippert and Wazlawik. All five were elected on explicitly pro-environment platforms and only two were re-elected with more than 51% of the vote. Whew!
There are some other notable positives coming out of the election:
A More Pro-Environment Senate DFL Caucus
For many years, the Senate DFL Caucus has been significantly less assertive than House Democrats when it comes to standing up for the environment. But that is starting to change. New Senators endorsed by Sierra Club including Jen McEwen, Omar Fateh, Mary Kunesh-Podein and Erin Murphy will have an impact. This was not a guaranteed outcome. The Sierra Club put significant resources into the Senate primary in Duluth where Jen McEwen was running a strong challenge to an incumbent Democrat with a bad record on the environment. We did this not only to help McEwen win, but to also send a strong message to other Democratic incumbents that we will hold them accountable. We are proud to report that Jen McEwen won the primary and general election, bringing a bold, new progressive voice to the Capitol from Duluth.
House DFL More Representative of Minnesota
Already strong with environmental leaders, the House DFL will be much more racially diverse in 2021 with new Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) leaders. Sierra Club endorsed Cedric Frazier, Esther Agbaje, Heather Keeler, Athena Hollins and John Thompson who will take office in January. Together with first term legislators Tou Xiong, Ruth Richardson, Mohamud Noor, Hodan Hassan, Aisha Gomez, Samantha Vang, Kaohly Her, and Jay Xiong, the House of Representatives will be far more representative than at any time in Minnesota history.
Where We Go From Here
We did incredible work together. The election is not the end; it is a goal post. We will keep organizing for our voices and values to be heard. Thank you for supporting this work with your dollars and time.
Mary Blitzer, Margaret Breen, Natalie Cook, Margaret Levin, Sophia Pechaty, and Peter Wagenius compose the staff team leading our political program.