Get-Out-The-Vote effort moves into full-swing

Photo above: A group of Carpenters union members posed for a photo after a labor Get-Out-The-Vote rally November 2 at the Carpenters union hall in Saint Paul.

By Steve Share, Minneapolis Labor Review editor

SAINT PAUL — After months of campaigning, and millions of dollars spent, the outcome of the close race for U.S. President now comes down to a final few days of Get-Out-The-Vote door-knocking and phone-calling.

Here in Minnesota, some 200-plus union members and other volunteers gathered early on Saturday, November 2 outside the St. Paul union hall of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters for a Get-Out-The-Vote labor rally with labor-endorsed and DFL-endorsed candidates. The event was one of several planned for the weekend across the state.

The DFL's campaign bus arrived carrying the candidates, the bus decked out with the design and colors of the new Minnesota state flag and photos of presidential ticket Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and US Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin emceed the event, beginning: "This is how we kick off GOTV — with labor at a labor hall with 200 people!"

Martin added, "as long as I'm the chair of the DFL, the 'L' in 'DFL will matter."

Pat Nilsen, executive secretary-treasurer of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, welcomed the crowd: "Today is not about the other side… today is about delivering on freedom…"

He said the outcome of the election will impact union members' paychecks, benefits, pensions.

"Today we will help keep the 'trifecta' in Minnesota," he continued, working to elect not just the Harris-Walz ticket but labor-friendly majorities to the Minnesota House and Minnesota Senate.

"We are all exhausted and we want this election to be over," Nilsen added.

The line-up of speakers included Melissa Hortman, Speaker of the Minnesota House, and Erin Murphy, Majority Leader in the Minnesota Senate, who together with the state's labor movement helped pass historic legislation this year to benefit working families and advance labor rights.

Hortman said, "the thing that unites us all is labor."

Murphy told the crowd: "What we did in the last two years is everything we fought for for years."

Another featured speaker was U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is running for re-election this year, endorsed by the Minnesota AFL-CIO and DFL Party.

"When labor is strong, our economy is strong… And when our economy is strong, America is strong," she said.

"I wouldn't be here except for unions," Klobuchar said, sharing stories about her grandfather who worked in the mines in northern Minnesota as a union member, her father who was a Star Tribune writer and member of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, and her mother who was a teacher and moved to Minnesota from Wisconsin because the teachers unions were stronger here.

"That is what unions and labor are about," Klobuchar said, "they bring everyone up."

If the Democrats win the presidency, retain control of the U.S. Senate, and win the U.S. House, she said one priority will be passing the PRO Act — the Protect the Right to Organize Act.

Klobuchar emphasized the far-reaching stakes of this year's election: "On that ballot is your own family… on that ballot is your co-worker who needs healthcare if something goes wrong… on that ballot are your neighbors."

She underscored the importance of the door-to-door canvassing that the volunteers in the crowd were going to do following the rally. "Everyone who has been going door-to-door has been making a huge difference in this election… No one has more power than all of you… Use that power in the next three days and we will win this election!"

A campaign to continue the Minnesota 'trifecta'

Bernie Burnham, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, underscored how Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's vice president has been part of one of the most pro-labor administrations in U.S. history.

She added that Governor Tim Walz, Harris's running mate, is "hands-down the most pro-union governor in the nation."

Burnham noted that the "trifecta" elected two years ago in Minnesota — a DFL governor with a pro-labor majority in both the Minnesota House and Minnesota Senate — broke a logjam in state governance. "Big ideas… became a reality."

She went through a partial list of gains enacted to benefit working families and worker rights:

• free school breakfast and lunch for all public school students;
• greater collective bargaining rights for workers at the University of Minnesota and state university system;
• a ban on employers' "captive audience" meetings used to spew anti-union propaganda when workers are organizing;
• making sure the rich and big corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

"We could be here all day," if she went on about the wins, Burnham said.

As a former teacher, Burnham said she was giving everyone an assignment to help Get-Out-The-Vote: "I'm asking you to volunteer with your local DFL Action Center."

US House candidates Kelly Morrison, Angie Craig, Betty McCollum

Rally speakers also included three labor-endorsed and DFL-endorsed candidates for U.S. House of Representatives: Kelly Morrison, who is seeking an open seat, and incumbents Angie Craig and Betty McCollum.

Dr. Kelly Morrison, candidate for Third District U.S. House in the west Minneapolis suburbs, would be the only pro-choice ob-gyn in the U.S. House if elected. She's making women's reproductive freedom a top issue in her race.

"You all know what's on the line… we all have to do everything we can to get out the vote," Morrison said.

In two terms in the Minnesota House, and one term in the Minnesota Senate, Morrison earned a nearly 100 percent voting score from the Minnesota AFL-CIO on working family issues.

(To learn more about Kelly Morrison:  https://minneapolisunions.org/news/mlr2024-10-19-cd3-kelly-morrison)

Second District U.S. Representative Angie Craig is running for a fourth term after first winning office by flipping her south suburban district from red to blue. She emphasized: "You know who put me in office? Labor!"

"I'm still a trailer park girl," said Craig, who has earned a 100 percent voting record on working families issues from the national AFL-CIO.

(To learn more about Angie Craig: https://minneapolisunions.org/news/mlr2024-10-19-cd2-angie-craig).

Betty McCollum, Fourth District US Representative, shared with the crowd: "Both my grandmothers — a Democrat and a Republican — were Teamsters."

McCollum also spoke to the importance of the direct person-to-person voter contact the volunteers were doing: "You're the validators… You're the validators of what Project 2025 would do to labor."

(Project 2025 is a right-wing policy agenda developed for a second Trump administration).

"You validate what Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are saying," McCollum said. "I can't describe how important you are."

Special election for Minnesota Senate District 45 will determine the majority

The Senate District 45 race is the only Minnesota Senate seat on the ballot this year, a special election to fill the vacancy created when Senator Kelly Morrison resigned to run for U.S. House. The district includes Lake Minnetonka area suburbs.

Former state Senator Ann Johnson Stewart is running with the endorsement of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and DFL Party.

"I'm running to ensure we keep our Senate pro-labor and pro-teacher and pro-infrastructure," Stewart told the crowd at the rally. "Infrastructure brings jobs and money to local economies."

"So much progress has been made in the past two years," said Stewart, who previously served in the Minnesota Senate.

She warned: "If we do not keep the Senate [majority], we're not going to keep our pro-labor agenda."

(To learn more about Ann Johnson Stewart: https://minneapolisunions.org/news/mlr2024-10-19_SD-45-Ann-Johnson-Stewart).

Nobody mentioned it, but all the candidates and elected officials who spoke at the rally were women!

The two exceptions to the line-up of women speakers were DFL Party chair Ken Martin and the Carpenters' Patrick Nilsen.

'This is where it all began'

The final speaker was Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan. 

Flanagan said it was "no accident" that the labor and DFL rally to kick-off the GOTV weekend was planned for the Carpenters union hall.

"In that building 20 years ago, I met a guy named Tim Walz," she related.

Back then, Flanagan was one of the instructors at "Camp Wellstone," a weekend training for candidates and campaign activists to impart the grassroots campaign skills that became part of the legacy of the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone. A Mankato high school teacher named Tim Walz was one of the students that weekend, preparing to make a long-shot run for Minnesota's First Congressional District — a traditionally red district. He won that race, served six terms in the U.S. House, and then went on to win two elections as Minnesota Governor before Kamala Harris chose him as her running mate.

"This is where it all began — in the Carpenters hall," Flanagan said.

Flanagan echoed the importance of door-knocking over the next few days. "Field is how we win," she said. That person-to-person contact, she said, is how to connect with voters and counteract "the hot garbage fire of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance."

If the Harris-Walz ticket wins election, Flanagan will become Minnesota's Governor. Should the election send labor-friendly majorities back to the Minnesota legislature, Flanagan will be the one signing bills into law. "This pro-worker majority we have, we are not done yet," Flanagan promised.

After the rally concluded, the candidates boarded the DFL bus for a next GOTV stop.

Inside the Carpenters hall, union members and other volunteers picked up door-knocking routes.

Get-Out-The-Vote work will continue Sunday, November 3 and Monday, November 4 — and well into the day on election day, Tuesday, November 5.

To sign-up to volunteer for Get-Out-The-Vote:

Go to https://aflcio.mn/gotv24 to find doorknocks and phonebanks near you.

When you register, look for the question asking, "Are you a union

member?" Use the pull-down menu to select your union.

To volunteer at locations where the Minnesota AFL-CIO has targeted key legislative races in the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation's area, choose one of the following:

• Brooklyn Park Action Center (34A&B, 37B, 38A&B)
• Coon Rapids Action Center (31B, 35A&B)
• Lino Lakes Action Center (32A&B, 36A)
• Northfield Action Center (58A)
• Shakopee Action Center (48B, 54A&B)
• Wayzata Action Center (42A,45A&B, 49A)