At a recent campaign rally for Attorney General Keith Ellison, Sen. Tina Smith, Rep. Ilhan Omar, and Ellison talked about several key issues impacting voters this season. Following are excerpts of the discussion, including Ellison's talking points about the economics of daily living, healthcare, housing, and other details related to how affordability is tied up in government policy and enforcement.

Whether it is Jewish people, Somalis, Indigenous, and the many others who have been labeled as inferior by those who see people by skin color and birthplace, our children are noticing the propensity toward racism and violence. Why speakers at a rally in support of Rep. Ilhan Omar Monday see Minnesota as the birthplace for a new promised land of unity and solidarity.

We recently talked to a few riders in a Twin Cities motorcycle club — including people named Barbie, Kassie, Bridget, Rachel, Amie, Marni, and Megan. The group is known as Bikers Riding Against Policy Brutality, and was formed to protect protestors after George Floyd was murdered by police in 2020. Today they are still engaged in marshaling at various marches, but also in fundraising and mutual aid efforts.

Minnesota has mined iron for well over a century, and it is still the largest producer of iron ore and taconite in the United States. Now the state is at the center of a bigger question: should it open a second kind of mining, for copper, nickel and other metals, in some of its most water-rich landscapes? This Explainer is part of a series designed to help people understand how the government — and the people we elect to it — serve the common good with the decisions they make about policy and funding priorities that impact the interconnected whole.