Weekend Reformer: Bernie comes back

Good morning, Reformers. 

President Trump became the first person to win both the Citizens of Iowa Man of the Century Award and FIFA Peace Prize. Some people are calling these awards made-up. Show me an award that isn’t! 

First lady Melania Trump also had a good week. I was surprised to see a release from her office announcing she brokered temporary ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine limited to Oleshky. The pause will allow humanitarian aid into the city, whose population has dwindled to about 2,000 from 24,000 since the war began. Melania Trump said in a release an “impartial American organization” will document it. Newsmax says it got the exclusive. 

Ten days until the election, though of course you can vote early. 

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will be in Duluth this evening for a rally supporting Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan’s Senate campaign and Attorney General Keith Ellison’s bid for a third term. It’s the third time Sanders has come to Minnesota this cycle. 

I don’t see any events for Republican Senate candidate Michele Tafoya. The press has only been alerted to a couple since the primary. She appears to be focused on making her pitch to the public through interviews with friendly conservative media. The race is tight, according to polls. There’s no official plan for a visit from Trump yet.  

Michelle Griffith published an exceptional profile of Sen. Amy Klobuchar and how she would lead if elected governor. It’s based on interviews with Klobuchar, her memoirs (plural) and media coverage across her decades of public service. The headline is “Amy Klobuchar has already told us who she is.” And, read her profile of Republican challenger Lisa Demuth and her faith. 

Demuth and Klobuchar debated twice this week. Michelle summarized them here and here. 

How much PFAS is in Minnesota fish? We often have no idea. A Twin Cities resident analyzed state and federal data and found hundreds of Minnesota bodies of water lie downstream from industrial sites, but in most of them the fish have not been sampled, Brian Martucci reported.   

A conservative legal organization filed another legal challenge to the 1,400-page mega-bill passed by the then-DFL-controlled Legislature in 2024, this time on behalf of homebuilders, Madison McVan reported. The Upper Midwest Law Center has already successfully overturned the bill’s ban on binary triggers, which increase the rate of fire of semiautomatic firearms, by arguing the mega-bill violates the constitutional requirement that bills address only a single subject.  

Alyssa Chen went deep on the 2nd Congressional District race between former state Sen. Matt Little and state Sen. Eric Pratt. She notes that the seat is being vacated by Rep. Angie Craig, who was an immigration hawk, while Little filmed himself confronting ICE. 

The Minnesota Hospital Association released a report painting a bleak picture of Minnesota healthcare, Alyssa reported. The hospitals are gearing up for what could be a bruising budget year at the Legislature in 2027, as efforts to counteract federal Medicaid cuts will run into the state’s own long-term fiscal challenges. 

The U.S. Supreme Court denied the Trump administration’s emergency request to implement a rule that would terminate gender-affirming care for transgender people incarcerated in federal prisons, Ariana Figueroa reported. 

Democrats have used President Donald Trump’s unpopularity to expand the midterm map, and analysts project the party carries momentum heading into the final two weeks of the election cycle, Jacob Fischler reported. 

Editor Patrick Coolican made the case for more longshot candidates like Doug Chapin, who’s challenging U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer. Competition is a vital part of democracy, yet too many legislative and congressional districts are in the bag for one party. 

Andy Craig, a senior editor at The UnPopulist, published a searing critique of the Trump administration’s efforts to denaturalize Rep. Ilhan Omar, calling it an attack on Congress and indeed Article I of the Constitution. As Craig notes, the executive branch trying to choose who sits in the legislature is a common tactic of authoritarians. 

Retired ad man Sheldon Clay argued Democrats have a great issue to run on: the credibility gap. The message that Democrats are more trustworthy than Republicans would be especially salient here following the Trump administration’s lies during Operation Metro Surge. 

Foster Advocates executive director Osahon Akpata-Tanious wrote that addressing homelessness among young people in the foster system must begin before they become adults. She pointed to a new Wilder Research report that found about 4 in 10 homeless young people in Minnesota had lived in foster or group homes. 

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