A Conversation with Rep. Cedrick Frazier — labor’s choice for Hennepin County Attorney
Note: This article first appeared in the Minneapolis Labor Review September issue print edition.
HENNEPIN COUNTY — On November 3, Hennepin County voters will choose their next County Attorney. Labor unions, along with the DFL and many others, have endorsed former labor attorney and current State Representative Cedrick Frazier (District 43A) for the role.
Why care about voting in this race?
The county attorney is the lead civil lawyer for the county and prosecutes adult criminal felony-level cases and all juvenile delinquency cases. The office also represents the county in child protection/support cases. The next elected county prosecutor will have the power to determine the outcome of criminal and juvenile cases, influence bail decisions and plea bargain, sentencing and have a visible leadership position to influence how the system and community address individual rights, public safety, and community health.
Read on to get to know Rep. Frazier and his vision for the county.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
What has shaped your view of unions?
“I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. My grandfather and father both started my work on a labor track. My grandfather worked at a paint manufacturing company in Chicago and was very active in his local union. He nearly lost his life one day when pipes burst in the factory. He went back in to save his union brothers; half of his body was burned from the pipes that were burst when he came back out.
I remember the sacrifices. I remember his coworkers showing up on the days after at the hospital and in our home, checking in on him and making sure he felt encouraged and knew he was brave for what he did. He saved their lives and came back for them when he had gotten out safely. That always stuck out to me on what it means to have union siblings and labor family with you every step of the way — not just on the job site.
My father has been a Teamster since he was eighteen-years-old loading the docks in high school. He’s still active with no plans of retirement, which is wild to me because he has one of the best public packages in the union space. He says he enjoys going to work and connecting with people through that. My grandfather used to organize a back-to-school kind of rally every year. He’d collect supplies and we’d go out to the park and have a big party to get people ready. That was the neighborhood’s transition mark from the summer into the fall. My stories of the union just being there, helping, supporting, being present in the workplace and out in the community shaped how I saw labor unions’ role in our larger society.”
What’s your vision for your office?
“My office would have a first-of-its-kind connection to labor — frequent communication, transparency, collaboration and working collectively to get things done for workers. Throughout the county, I want to make sure we treat wage theft as what it is: a crime.
Making sure we hold people accountable and get folks restitution is important. When people work hard to earn their wages and don’t get them, it’s deflating and destabilizing. When families and communities are destabilized, we have more public safety issues in those communities. Going after wage theft to hold employers accountable is a preventative measure for some of the public safety issues our community is facing.
You’re going to be seeing someone’s going to be out there every single day thinking about how I can fight for the hard-working families within the community of Hennepin County, which is connected with people across this great state of Minnesota.”
What are some misrepresentations of being a public defender that you’d like to correct?
“People sometimes think if you’ve been a public defender that somehow you don’t understand why it’s important for people to feel safe within the community or somehow you won’t do the work in a way to make sure that you’re using the power and tools of the office to ensure that safety for folks in the community.
In fact, my public defender experience makes me more compassionate. It helps me have an understanding of how to make sure cases are being worked up in an appropriate way. I’m able to see what type of weaknesses may be in those cases, because you had a mind of thinking about how to pick apart a case that is being presented to the jury, to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, or which of the judge. I think it’s a skill set that is invaluable.
If you ask any prosecutor that has had defensive experience, they will tell you that that defensive experience has been invaluable to them as they’re working up their cases for, for charging it for prosecution, and taking those cases through trial when they’re working as a prosecutor.
The way other campaigns frame my experiences as a labor and defense attorney is a campaign tactic to distract from the fact that nobody else in this race has my experience. They also don’t want to talk about the breadth of my resume because it’s broader than any other candidate in this race. Nobody else in this race has been elected — I am proud to currently serve in the Minnesota House of Representatives representing District 43A.
I have a rounded view and perspective to come in this office and leave this office and address many of the issues that have led to a lot of the distrust and communities that come from where I come from, have similarity experiences that look like me, have had with officers like, there’s not only in the state of Minnesota, but around the country.
Voters have a first-ever opportunity to select someone as a leader that has felt the brunt of what this institution and what this system is like when it’s not working for everybody. I’m looking forward to leading in that way and being able to connect with the broader community — all of the community — in Hennepin County.” ▪