A New Campaign To Support The Courageous People Of Minnesota“Our job is to do what we can to safeguard democracy" - Richard Carlbom, Minnesota Democratic Party Chair
Afternoon everyone. Many of you have asked what more can we do to help the people of Minnesota? Whose bravery, and courage, inspires us every day? Well, today we are launching a new campaign to raise $50,000 for the Minnesota Democratic Party (DFL) by February 15th. To kick it off I am sharing an interview I just completed with Richard Carlbom, the Chair of the DFL. A recording is above, and a transcript is below. Here’s how Chair Carlbom began our conversation:
“Our job is to do what we can to safeguard democracy.” I just donated $500 to kick off this new campaign Will you join me? We are launching this campaign for a few, critical reasons:
As I’ve been writing to you all week we are in a new day, and for us to prevail, we need to shed old understandings, and innovate, build new capacities, and keep getting stronger. We are launching this fund to help the DFL of Minnesota meet the moment, and start to re-imagine what a state Democratic Party can be in this new age of Trump. For yes we must win elections but it is my firm belief that the Party must also must take on one more big assignment, the assignment the Chair describes as: “Our job is to do what we can to safeguard democracy.” I hope you will watch our conversation, learn more about what the DFL is already doing, and support this vital effort to build something new, and important, for the pro-democracy movement.
And let’s close by once again thanking the courageous people of Minnesota. Your bravery has become an inspiration to us all. You’ve been there for us these last few weeks. Now we need to be there for you - Simon
Chair Richard Carlbom BioCarlbom got his start in politics as a College Democrat in 2002. He was elected as Mayor of Saint Joseph in 2004 just months after graduating from St. John’s University. Soon after, he became a field organizer with the Minnesota DFL during the 2006 election cycle. He went on to work as campaign manager for then-Congressman Tim Walz in 2010, when Walz overcame a national Republican wave and won reelection. In 2012, Carlbom was the campaign manager for Minnesotans United for All Families — the Vote No ballot campaign that made Minnesota the first state in the nation to defeat a harmful constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage. Carlbom later served as Walz’s Deputy Chief of Staff. As someone who counted on free lunch at school when he was a kid, one of Carlbom’s proudest moments was standing alongside Governor Walz when the universal school meals legislation was signed into law.
Transcript - Simon Rosenberg and DFL Chair Richard Carlbom (January 16, 2026)Simon Rosenberg: Chair Richard Carlbom: Simon Rosenberg: Richard Carlbom: It's very scary. It's scarier than probably folks realize. It's not like what you see on TV. It's everywhere. It's not just in the Twin Cities metro area, but it's happening in small towns. In a small town yesterday, ICE agents ate lunch at a restaurant and then came back three hours later and arrested and took away three people who served them lunch. And there's heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story happening everywhere in Minnesota right now. So it's scary. It's meant to inflict fear and terror on a population. And our job is to do what we can to safeguard democracy. Simon Rosenberg: Richard Carlbom: And what I say, Simon, is people need to believe their own eyes. Donald Trump and Kristi Noem and Republicans from Minnesota are all saying to us… oh, ICE is just doing their job and arresting violent criminals. That's not true. They are acting with lawless abandon. They're arresting US citizens, detaining US citizens overnight in their facilities…they're able to produce IDs. They've just started randomly going door to door to any house that has a black or brown person living at it. It's really terrifying how Republicans have turned a blind eye to the lawlessness and the unconstitutional acts of ICE. I was asked yesterday, what do I want Republicans to say? I'm not even asking Republicans to tell ICE to leave Minnesota. I want Republicans to ask ICE to act within the law and to not violate constitutional rights… that’s bare minimum.
Simon Rosenberg: Part of the premise of this interview is that this could be the first of many. They could be practicing here and bring these tactics to other states. And it's important for Democrats around the country to learn from how you're responding, and how you're thinking about this at the party level, about what you can do and what your role is in all of this. So, can you walk us through about what's coming up with the caucuses? In addition to the trainings you've been doing, which have been enormous… huge numbers of people participating in them. What else are you doing? Richard Carlbom: We are very concerned about the impact the current ICE operation in Minnesota could have on precinct caucuses. We don't have the ability to move those, for example, virtual. We just don't have that ability. There are over 4,000 caucus locations around the state of Minnesota. So our team has been working since mid December on a plan to make sure that we make caucuses as safe as possible for people who are attending. That includes providing caucus convener trainings to folks so that they understand both how to convene a caucus but also what happens if ICE shows up at your caucus. We've been working extensively with our lawyers and our network of lawyers so that we can deploy lawyers to specific caucus locations on February 3rd. We are working with our partners and subject matter experts to make sure people have trainings on how to be a constitutional observer. And nonviolent engagement training as well. These trainings are incredibly important in this moment because people need to know their rights and need to know how they should respond should ICE approach them both in community, and frankly, at the caucuses. So we have been spending a lot of time and energy making sure that people have trainings, that we're over-communicating. We've been preparing for precinct caucuses for months. And as of December, we had to throw out a lot of what we were doing because we have to think about it from a different angle. We've worked with lawyers to understand our rights having rented these facilities where these precinct caucuses will take place, and our ability to keep ICE out of those spaces so that people don't get terrified in that moment. And so we're in overdrive right now with less than 18 days to go until precinct caucuses. So, trying to make sure that we are covering as many bases as possible. And, you know, this the situation is costing us in different ways. We’ve had to add additional security at the party office and we've had to add barricades in our parking lot. We are constantly trying to both be mindful of what we can do in community, but also mindful of how we need to protect our own team here. And you're right. Donald Trump said two days ago, first Minnesota, then the rest of the country. He named what this is in a social media post when he called it a retribution campaign on Minnesota. And he's mad at Minnesota because we didn't vote for him in 2016, 2020, or 2024. And there are other states that he's going to come after next. And it's so important for states to be ready for that, to be ready to train their folks on how to be safe in their communities, collaborate with immigrant community organizations who have been preparing for this for a long time, and just get to know those people, be in coalition, be in solidarity, and be ready to support one another. Simon Rosenberg: Richard Carlbom: Here's what I want folks to know. Donald Trump, and Kristi Noem, and our members of Congress in Minnesota and our Republican elected officials are lying. They're actually telling you not to believe your own two eyes. We in Minnesota… and you can see it in videos across the country of what's happening here in Minnesota… we see ICE agents, again, acting with lawless abandon, walking up to US citizens, tackling them, putting them in cars, taking them away, and only hours later dumping them at a random place somewhere else. This is going to happen in other states. And it's so important for us to tell the truth. So we work with our content creators to make sure that they have accurate, truthful information because right now Republicans want you to believe that it's a bunch of paid agitators who are confronting ICE. It's not. It's people like myself. This afternoon, I'm going to be in my own neighborhood watching out for people who are fearful to even leave their house. Simon Rosenberg: They are just punching and shoving to the ground human beings standing on a street corner, not doing anything provocative, not protesting. And so, if that's the permission structure that they have… and obviously, you know, shooting a mom in a Honda Pilot at point blank range, and then having the administration come out and praise them repeatedly… you know, we're in a place where it's not just lawless, but also just basic decency and humanity has completely broken down. And it's why, Mr. Chair, I know you've got to go. I just want to make my pitch here, is that we're setting up a fund today to raise $50,000 for the DFL by February 15th. They have expended enormous amounts of money and time creating a response to this extraordinary event. We need to help them get through these February 3rd caucuses with as little trouble as possible because we don't know how long ICE is going to be there. And also, we need to give them money in order to help them teach other state parties and local parties around the country how they've responded to this. And to be teachers… to help raise the capacity for every state party in the country… to help them become prepared for when this comes. We already have gotten word in the last few days that the next likely state is Maine. There's a Somali community in a small town in Maine. The administration is making noises that they are going into Maine there. We need to be able to provide the training, once they get to the other side of this in Minnesota, to have them become the trainers for all the other state parties to make them effective if and when this comes. And also to anticipate that this is a practice session for things that could happen during the election itself. So thus beginning this process now of not abstractly talking about how we're going to make sure we have free and fair elections, we're going to have a live fire test on February 3rd in Minnesota that we need to succeed and get through. People have asked me, Simon, how can I help the people of Minnesota? This is one way. We need to help them succeed in this effort, create a model for other state parties, become teachers, innovators to help create more resilience across the country, and also because… you heard the chair today, you know, our hearts are there. But now we need to show that we're with them at every step of the way. And I just want to say thank you for your leadership. Thank you for going through this extraordinary event with such grit and courage and bravery. And you know, from the bottom of my heart, you know, thank you. Richard Carlbom: Simon Rosenberg: You're currently a free subscriber to Hopium Chronicles By Simon Rosenberg. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Friday, January 16, 2026
A New Campaign To Support The Courageous People Of Minnesota
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