COMMENTARY From Robin Wonsley: Join Me in Fighting for Local Democracy

People sometimes ask why I don’t seek the DFL endorsement. Since 2005, Ward 2 in Minneapolis — where I serve on the city council — has been independent from the established DFL party in Minneapolis, allowing our community to pursue truly progressive agendas without influence or censure from the often more conservative DFL party leaders.

I’ve enjoyed a warm and productive relationship with my DFL colleagues and supporters while remaining independent within the city’s political infrastructure.

During my first campaign in 2021, and again this year,  conservative power players have backed challengers seeking the DFL endorsement in an attempt to prevent me from being elected to the Minneapolis city council. This year two of my opponents are backed by the Super PAC “We Love Mpls” in an attempt to pull City Hall further rightward.

Right now, the local democratic process is being undermined in ways that bear unsettling resemblance to our national situation. At the Ward 2 caucus on April 8, my supporters — many of them college students — arrived ready to participate in local democracy at next month’s DFL convention. But at our caucus, my supporters were aggressively confronted in person, precinct meetings were chaotic and inaccessible, and delegate forms completed by first-year college students went missing and are still unaccounted for.

Last weekend, the DFL announced it would move the convention to June 7 from its original date of May 3, citing limited capacity at the caucus site.

This new date is problematic for two major reasons: 1) It occurs after most college students have left campus for the summer, 2) It coincides with Eid al-Adha. This revised date would disenfranchise Muslims, college students, and any other delegates who coordinated their schedules around a May 3 convention.

After pushback from my campaign, the University of Minnesota’s College Democrats, and other local progressives, the DFL updated its website to list a convention date of June 1 — which still hinders attendance from college students.

For this DFL move to happen during an unprecedented federal assault on our country’s infrastructure and civil rights is alarming.

I’m insisting that the DFL preserve its original convention date of May 3. All Ward 2 DFL delegates, regardless of the candidate they support, deserve a transparent, orderly convention process. In this historic moment, when even  national Democratic leadership has not yet been able to offer guidance and protection to counter conservative movements, the move to change at this late date a DFL convention date seems a disorganized step as our democracy faces deep existential threats.

Despite my disappointment in DFL leadership, I still have faith in the democratic process and the hard work that so many DFL volunteers are doing. I am proud to run an inclusive campaign supported by delegates, volunteers, and office holders who are DFL members.

If you are committed to a transparent, accessible, and equitable DFL endorsement process, please 1) sign this petition opposing the DFL’s disenfranchisement of students, 2) contact local DFL Committee Chair Conrad Zbikowski to insist that he preserve the May 3 convention date and, 3) if you’re a delegate, keep your plans to attend on that day.