Minnesota 2020 Primary - US Senate
Tuesday, August 12th, will be Minnesota’s Primary Election Day. A primary election determines which candidates will be on the ballot in the November general election [8], the winner representing their political party. There are 12 candidates across five parties running this year - Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) [Note 1], Republican, Legal Marijuana Now, and Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis. I haven’t yet decided for whom I am going to vote, and so I will share my decision with you as I finish making it.
I need to narrow down the parties before I further research the candidates. First, I’m not voting republican. Two main reasons for that, really:
They keep voting as if I shouldn’t exist as a person.
They keep backing 45 [Note 2], no matter what terrible things he has done, is doing, or will do.
I don’t need any of that representing me. Second, I can’t risk voting 3rd party. As long as we live in a system that lacks ranked choice voting and mixed member proportional representation [Note 3], I have to use my vote tactically - meaning I have to vote for the party that both has a chance of winning in the general election and isn’t actively trying to harm me and my friends and loved ones. So that leaves us with the 5 candidates of the DFL. In alphabetical order, they are:
Dr. Ahmad R. Hassan
Senator Tina Smith (incumbent)
Steve Carlson
First thing that stood out to me about this candidate is that he is openly homophobic. Well, I don’t need to know anything else at this point. Pass.
Dr. Ahmad R. Hassan
Dr. Hassan lives in Katy, Texas. How is he even running here? Pass.
Paula Overby
I am liking what I am reading about Paula Overby. Her policies align with my goals and ethics, ranging from affordable health care and smaller classroom sizes to access to birth control and the “war on drugs”. She was the Independence Party of America candidate in both 2014 and 2016, running for the US House in Minnesota District 2 [4][7], as well as the Green Party candidate for US Senate in 2018 [4]. Her platform issues seem to be consistent with what she was running on then, according to Ballotpedia, and they do look good.
Overby is author of the Transgender Myth: Through the Gender Looking Glass [9] (which I have not read, but it is going on my reading list). She has also filled out the political courage test by Vote Smart. I’m not seeing anything negative so far.
Christopher Lovell Seymore, Sr
Christopher Lovell Seymore, Sr, has platform points that I agree with - especially working in partnership with Native American reservations and communities. He ran for State House in 2016 and Governor of Minnesota in 2018 [1], with similar campaign promises.
Seymore is the founder of the non-profit LCORPS (Life-Changing Out Reach Programs & Services) [1], but I cannot find anything about this non-profit organization. He also hasn’t filled out the political courage test by Vote Smart. I don’t believe that I’ll be voting for him - I cannot find much else about him, and something seems off.
Senator Tina Smith
Senator Tina Smith is the incumbent junior senator, having served since 2018. Before that, she was the 48th lieutenant governor of Minnesota. Her vision lines up with mine nicely, though not completely - as I’ve mentioned before, we must defund/dismantle the police - but she has said that we need to “re-imagine” the police [3][10]. As a plus she has talked openly about her struggles with depression and is working to destigmatize mental illness [5], and she has been championing better health care for all.
Who Will I Vote For?
This really leaves me with two options on who I am voting for: Paula Overby and Senator Tina Smith. Overby seems to be more Progressive than Smith, and Smith is solid and reliable. I’d vote for them both if I could, but since we don’t have ranked choice voting, I’m going to vote for Overby. Not that I’m dissatisfied with Senator Smith - it’s that we need more leftists.
Granted, if this were the general election, I’d probably be voting for Senator Smith. I’d have to weigh the possibility of the GOP getting more votes for a candidate than seeing if Overby or Smith will win. But that’s just me.
I hope you all are doing your research as well. Also check out Naomi Kritzer’s blog post about this - she has other viewpoints on some of these candidates, and she also goes into detail about the candidates I skipped.
Notes
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, while affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party, was created from a merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party in 1944 [6].
I refer to the current president as 45 instead of by name - initially, it was because it was a form of shade. During the lead up to becoming president, he was the public face of hatred and bigotry, and therefore was beneath being named in public discourse. Now, as president, his intense narcissism and his continuing attempts at hiding the fact that he is poorly informed and brash makes it unpalatable to put any power to his name directly, or to link his name to the office that he holds. However, to not specify that one is talking about him is also dangerous, because he is dense enough to not understand that he is the one being talked about, and his adherents can, and have, chalked up criticism that didn’t have his name attached to it as being general political rancor. Hence, to be direct, I call him 45, or the 45th President of the United States. Let’s just hope that he’s not also the final president of the United States.
Read more: https://www.vogue.com/article/trump-critics-avoiding-name
CGP Grey has a wonderful series called “Politics in the Animal Kingdom” that explains our electoral system using animals so that it is easier to understand. It really is a great series, and I suggest that everyone watches it.
If you enjoy reading my analyses and reviews of various subject matters and want to help me afford to have the time and resources to dig into the subjects, it would mean so much to me if you supported me with a monthly donation on Patreon, or by the links to PayPal, CashApp, or Vemno for one-time donations. It is amazing how much difference just one contribution can make. And also, please share these posts far and wide! I would love to reach a wide audience and touch many lives.
WORKS CITED:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HF4cYQHeSzwiXuxNbczTogbfct4B8bRa8b3wMscY59c/edit?usp=sharing