AAOP reached out to Minnesota House of Representatives and Senate candidates on the state level and sent them a series of questions that are relevant to our Asian community. We compiled the answers into PDF documents to be shared widely.
View their answers:
Minnesota State House of Representatives
District 59B (Esther Agbaje vs Lisa Neal-Delgado vs Alan Shilepsky)
District 60A (Sydney Jordan* vs Calvin Lee Carpenter vs John Holmberg)
District 63B (Emma Greenman vs Dennis Schuller vs Frank Pafko)
District 64B (Dave Pinto* vs Georgia Dietz)
District 67A (John Thompson vs Ryan Martin vs John Stromenger)
District 67B (Jay Xiong* vs Fred Turk)
Minnesota State Senate
District 61 (D. Scott Dibble vs Jennifer Zielinski)
District 64 (Erin Murphy vs Patricia Jirovec McArdell vs Sharon Anderson)
District 66 (John Marty* vs Greg Copeland)
District 67 (Foung Hawj* vs Alexander Deputie)
The questions asked are:
- Our Asian community have experienced a rise in xenophobic attacks because of their race and because of the increased fear around COVID-19. What policies would you put in place to address the rise in microaggressions and hate crimes against our Asian community?
- Many of our youth and young people have been left out of national conversations and financial help, even while continuing to work in essential jobs and balancing that work with their schooling and families. What are your plans to ensure that our youth and young people’s voices are also incorporated within legislative decisions?
- How will you address concerns raised by our youth and young people in regards to Governor Walz’s fall semester school plans?
- How will you ensure that our youth and young people also receive financial support during this time?
- There are many small business owners, many of which are Asian-owned and have seen a decrease in business since COVID-19 due to xenophobia. What are your plans to ensure that our small businesses owners, especially our Asian-owned ones, continue to be safe during a pandemic while ensuring the longevity of their business?
- George Floyd’s murder has pushed the world into more deep conversations around race and policing. One of the components of anti-racist work is in education, and in specifically ethnic studies. Ethnic studies provides students the opportunity to learn and reflect on their racial identity through a historical lens. Do you support mandated ethnic studies as a high school graduation requirement?
- COVID-19 has shifted many polling places for this past Primary Election. Many organizations and individuals are advocating for absentee voting by mail as well. Absentee voting by mail can be confusing to many and even more so when you can’t read or write English well. Many of our Asian community members may not have assistance or language skills to complete an absentee ballot by mail. How do you hope to shift access to the polls for all?
If a voter guide does not exist for a candidate, the candidates did not respond to our questions.