The DFL office at 2708 E. Lake Street in Minneapolis was the starting point on Oct. 10 for a canvass launch built around SEIU International President April Verrett’s “Money, Power, and Respect” get-out-the-vote tour.
Verrett joined Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, the DFL candidate for U.S. Senate, in a door-knocking canvass with Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis City Council President Elliot Payne, a former SEIU member, and state Sen. Omar Fateh. The aim was to talk with community members about what is at stake in the midterm election. Ellison and Fateh are seeking reelection.
The Twin Cities stop was the first in the cross-country tour that would take Verrett to Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania. SEIU said it launched its largest-ever member-led political program this summer, engaging 1 million members to reach 10 million to 15 million voters across the country by the midterm elections. The union said the Twin Cities, where tens of thousands of workers took to the streets this winter to defy what it called a brutal surge by ICE and Border Patrol, showed what workers can do when they stand together across race, background and zip code.
SEIU said the tour was driving home workers’ demand for “Money, Power, and Respect.” A second Twin Cities stop took place Sunday, Oct. 11, with a visit by Verrett and Ellison to Mercado Central, 1515 E. Lake St., to meet small businesses affected by the Metro ICE surge earlier this year.
Verrett said she is proud to lead the union and prouder still to be standing on Lake Street. “I am proud to be the president of the Service Employees International Union. And I am even prouder to be standing on Lake Street with all of you.”
She thanked the candidates and local officials: “Thank you to Attorney General Keith Ellison. Thank you to the next United States senator from Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan. And thank you to two of our own, Council President Elliot Payne and Senator Omar Fateh. When working people run, and working people win, this is what it looks like.”
Verrett turned to the past winter. “I want to start with this city. This past winter, Minneapolis and Saint Paul were targeted. Families were afraid to go to work. Small businesses on this very street went quiet. And we lost neighbors, Renee Good and Alex Pretti.”
“But here is what I know about this city. You did not turn on each other. You turned toward each other. You stood up across race and zip code and you said, not here. Not our neighbors. Not our family. And tens of thousands of you showed up in the streets to fight for truth and freedom. That’s what this election is about,” she said.
She tied the election to the tour’s three words. “It’s about money. It’s about whether the nurse, the janitor, and the home care worker can earn enough to raise a family in the city they keep running. It’s about power. It’s about whether working people have a seat at the table, or whether the billionaires keep eating off our plates. And it’s about respect. It’s about whether every worker, no matter where they were born, can go to work and come home safe.”
“Peggy Flanagan has been in this fight her whole life. She helped win earned sick time and paid family leave for every worker in this state. Keith Ellison has stood up to every boss and every bully who came for Minnesota families. These are pro-worker champions, and they are in close races,” Verrett said.
“So I’m not going to pretend this is easy. The polls are tight. The money on the other side is big. And they are counting on us to stay home. Well, I’ve got news for them. We don’t stay home. We knock. We call. We bring our people. Early voting is open right now. Every door you knock today could be the vote that decides this race. Every conversation counts. So here’s what I need from you. Knock every door on your list. Make your own plan to vote. And bring two people with you. We are going to leave everything on the field. Money. Power. Respect. Minneapolis, let’s go get it!”
Ellison called SEIU an amazing union, in the company of the Nurses, the Steelworkers, the Carpenters and the Teamsters. He said Verrett came to rally people and to remind them that the job does not end on Election Day. He said Verrett was cheering people on, telling people to make sure they get the vote out, “reminding us that it’s not just a matter of getting to November 3rd, but what about after November 3rd—counting the vote, making sure everybody’s vote is counted.”
That distinction—between campaigning and protecting the integrity of the count—became a central theme of the interview with Insight News. Asked, “Is there a threat?” Ellison said there is, and pointed to his own record in court. “Clearly, clearly there is. I’ve been in court with them already. I have had to sue Trump over mail-in ballots—we beat him.” He described a second lawsuit over a requirement for a birth certificate and said that case was won as well. He said he is ready to fight Trump if Trump tries any games, and that his side will go to court if it must. “We’re prepared to litigate,” he said.
Asked whether the concern that democracy was at risk amounted to an overreaction, Ellison said it did not. “No, you’re not overreacting,” he replied, offering three examples. On the press, he said Trump had barred Politico, MSNBC and CNN from the White House, and he called that an assault on press freedom. “He just told Politico, MSNBC, and CNN that they couldn’t come into the White House. That is a direct attack on freedom of the press. If a leader doesn’t want the people to know what he’s doing and will punish anyone who criticizes him, that’s dictatorship stuff right there.”
On the courts, he said the Justice Department has filed a complaint against every federal district judge in Minnesota, which he described as an attempt to intimidate judges and undermine an independent judiciary. “This Department of Justice—which is a misnomer, actually—has filed a complaint against every judge in the federal district court in Minnesota, meaning they’re trying to intimidate judges, meaning they don’t want an independent judiciary.” He compared the loss of a free press and an independent bench to Nazi Germany. “If you have no freedom of the press and a judiciary that is obedient to the leader or dictator, not the rule of law, you’re in Third Reich territory.”
His third example was what he described as the president’s targeting of an ethnic community. “A president, arguably the most powerful person in the world, calls an ethnic community garbage, then gets back on and says that the community needs to fight back against an ethnic group,” Ellison said. He likened that to the actions of Hitler and Franco. “This is Third Reich stuff. This is the very essence of what Hitler did, Franco did.” He added that dictators throughout history have singled out scapegoat communities for hate and derision.
The attorney general said voter mobilization is the answer and that Trump will lose because of it. “He won’t win because we’re going to outwork him,” Ellison said of Trump. “He won’t win because we’re going to make our win too big to rig. He won’t win because we won’t allow it.” He said a free press would keep telling the truth about Trump. “He won’t win because we have a free, independent media like you who’s going to keep telling the truth about all of his lies. That’s why we’re going to win.”
Insight News also spoke with Rachel Anderson, an operating-room nurse at Fairview Southdale Hospital. She said she became active in her union in 2021 after two hospitals were closed during the pandemic, and that patients were treated as expendable. “My patients who were on life support were basically just dust in the wind to them and we had to figure something else out,” she said.
“I’ve been front and center for healthcare and for my members and my patients and community since ’21.” — Rachel Anderson, Minnesota Nurses Association
Anderson said her work since then has centered on healthcare, her members and her community. “I’ve been front and center for healthcare and for my members and my patients and community since ’21,” she said.
Anderson said she is chair of the Governmental Affairs Commission of the Minnesota Nurses Association through December and will become the union’s second vice president on Jan. 1.
Anderson described how workplace and patient-care experiences led her into union advocacy.
Ellison presented voting and the counting of ballots as connected obligations. SEIU framed the weekend as the start of a national effort to turn union membership into votes.
