Hamline Democrats is a political organization for students who want to spread political and social change. They welcomed seven Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) legislators to their event including: Kristin Bahner (District 37B); Dave Pinto (64B); Samantha Sencer-Mura (63A); Andy Smith (25B); Samantha Vang (38B); Kaohly Her (64A); Liz Lee (67A).
The conversation between legislators and students was an open space for everyone to express their thoughts and concerns, while covering topics including abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, the process of writing bills and forming language, gratitude for the work legislators have already completed, the school board races and encouraging young people to become involved with legislation.
The legislators discussed their progress in legislation and how they recently achieved what is known as a “trifecta” where one party, in this case the DFL, holds the governorship, the majority in the state senate and the majority in the state house.
“With the trifecta, we were able to pass all the things that we really wanted to,” Her said during the event. The trifecta provided the DFL with sufficient power to accomplish their goals, which included the “Protect Reproductive Options Act” passed earlier this year.
“I think this has been an historic moment after spending the past four years in a divided legislature and not getting a lot of our top priorities passed,” Vang said. “Now, with the trifecta, we’re able to pass really strong protections: especially for women’s rights and reproductive rights. It’s definitely been a very fruitful and very satisfying session for all of us who have seen the worst and who have seen the partisanship, especially with the overturn of the Roe v. Wade decisions and how that has really mobilized a lot of communities together to make sure that we get really good things done.”
Another DFL accomplishment over the past year was blocking new restrictions on abortion access.
“There were just a lot of intrusive things that were not medically necessary that they were forcing people making these decisions to go through before they could make that decision [on having the procedure done],” Her said during the discussion.
The progress of the DFL legislators has not gone unnoticed to one student at Hamline.
“We [young voters] asked for more abortion rights, we received that. We asked for more trans health care to make Minnesota a safe state, I believe that you definitely did that. And I feel that you communicated and you always asked for opinions and I know that as young people, sometimes our opinions are definitely overlooked in some way, shape or form. Thank you for all of the work that you have done, we really do appreciate it. It’s really just inspiring to see all the work that you have done, so thank you so so much,” the student, who chose to remain anonymous, said.
As a call to action, a few of the legislators discussed the importance of running for a position in office, and why the students present should consider a future in politics.
“One of the best ways to talk about making sure that more people who are closer to your generation are in office, is to run yourself … Seats open up all the time, and every time they open up, that’s an opportunity,” Bahner said to the students at the DFL meeting.
There are committees or boards or things like that that you can start on that don’t take a lot of time but they are a great way to get your toe in the water.”