Why we need a different approach?

Who is elected to office does matter. The electoral infrastructure that progressives have built in recent years now raises more money, efficiently mobilizes more voters, articulates a more compelling message, and is winning more elections. Yet the passage of federal health care reform notwithstanding, bold policy change is still elusive. This is because for all of our electoral success, we as progressives have failed to expand the definition of what is politically possible.

Permanently shifting the political landscape so that progressive ideas become real policy solutions requires an integrated approach to issue advocacy and electoral politics. We need to think beyond which candidate wins or what bill passes, and begin to cultivate a broader base of leadership that understands the connection between policy and politics and that acts powerfully in both arenas.TakeAction Minnesota's reNEW Minnesota Campaign is an inovative example of how by developing new leadership the political calculus can be changed.

It has been 24 years since Minnesota elected a progressive ally as its chief executive. In this time Minnesota has dropped in several quality of life rankings. Today, Minnesota faces a historic budget deficit and some of the worst racial disparities in the country in terms of educational outcomes, health and criminal justice. Once known as a national leader for innovative state policy, today Minnesota's human and physical infrastructure is crumbling.

Rather than approach Minnesota's race for governor with the same strategies and expect different results (the very definition of insanity), TakeAction Minnesota decided to take a completely different line of attack. In January 2009, TakeAction Minnesota launched the reNEW Minnesota Campaign with the intent of building governing power by applying the principles of community organizing in an electoral context. We seek to build a broader, more deeply engaged network of community leaders that can:

1. Elect and hold accountable a progressive governor in 2010, and;
2. Advance a progressive policy agenda by pivoting from electoral organizing to issue organizing in the 2011 legislative session.

We do not know the outcome of the race for governor, but we already see the success of the reNEW Minnesota Campaign as it engages a diverse array of people, develops new leaders and shifts the public debate. We believe this integrated approach that uses both 501 c3 and c4 resources and capacities holds many lessons for those who are grappling with how to build lasting power that wins elections and produces meaningful change.

reNEW Minnesota Accomplishments to Date

• 159 reNEW Minnesota campaign delegates and 121 alternates were elected to the DFL state convention. Together, these delegates will provide an organized progressive voice unprecedented in its scale and organization on the floor of the state convention at the end of April.
• Over 2,000 people participated in the process to develop the reNEW Minnesota campaign vision.
• Over 2,100 people participated in reNEW Minnesota candidate engagement events and these people are ready to go to work for our endorsed candidate as soon as the convention ends!
• 643 people voted to narrow the field of candidates down to the three preferred reNEW Minnesota candidates: Margaret Anderson Kelliher, RT Rybak, and Paul Thissen.
• The media and bloggers are tracking the reNEW Minnesota campaign closely. The Star Tribune has called reNEW delegates a "surging influence."  MinnPost wrote that the reNEW Minnesota campaign is the "not-so-secret weapon that may decide the DFL endorsement for governor." And the Minnesota Progressive Project cites reNEW as a potential path to victory in the DFL gubernatorial endorsement process.
• A diverse list of organizations have joined the reNEW Minnesota campaign: Saint Paul Federation of Teachers, Sierra Club, UFCW Local 789, Native Vote Alliance of Minnesota and OutFront Minnesota.
• Over 1,600 people have committed in writing to support a candidate who shares our vision for Minnesota, rather than splintering off to support candidates individually.
• There are active reNEW Minnesota leadership teams in 63 of 67 state senate districts.
• Teams of African American, Hmong, Latino and Somali leaders formed in the early stages of the campaign, and who helped to shape the reNEW vision, are now actively organizing and recruiting new leaders from these communities.

The Story of the reNEW Minnesota Campaign

The reNEW Minnesota Campaign started with 50 house meetings and forums and hundreds of one-on-one conversations that engaged over 2,000 people. In these conversations, leaders asked two questions: What of your core beliefs are violated by how the State of Minnesota is currently run? How would Minnesota look if your beliefs governed the state These responses became the basis for a vision of a reNEWed Minnesota which describes the dominant ideology we reject and the values that unite us. The vision statement has broad resonance, and has proven to be an important tool for engaging those new to the political process or who have otherwise grown skeptical that politics can lead to meaningful change.

The reNEW Minnesota Campaign and vision was publicly launched in St. Paul on September 26, 2009 at an event unprecedented in its scale and diversity in Minnesota. 822 people from across the state came together along with 11 candidates for governor. 140 leaders played roles in the event, with more than 100 leader-facilitated small group table discussions. The candidates were part of these small group discussions and addressed the gathering from the floor. The meeting was simultaneously translated in three languages to accommodate our growing base of Hmong, Somali and Latino leaders.

Following the public launch we held a series of 8 candidate engagement events that had three purposes. First, to challenge candidates to frame their issue positions in terms of their beliefs not dry policy statements. Second, to show candidates the breadth, depth, diversity and power of reNEW Minnesota's leadership. Third, to allow reNEW participants to decide for themselves which candidates are strongest. In total over 2,000 people participated in our candidate engagement events. 7-10 candidates for governor attended each event. Highlights include: 180 Native Americans turned out to the first-ever cross-tribal candidate forum in far northwest Minnesota; over 100 Latino leaders and allies attended a candidate forum on immigration policy; over 150 African American leaders and criminal justice reform advocates attended our Second Chance candidate forum; 200 people turned out for a health equity candidates forum that also advocated for health care reform. Each of these events was created and led by a team of member-leaders. Video clips are posted on www.reNEW.mn.

In January 2010 at TakeAction Minnesota's annual membership meeting, 643 members voted online, by mail and in person to endorse three preferred candidates for governor. Members' decisions were guided by the following criteria:

1. Does the candidate share our vision and can s/he articulate the vision in a powerful way?
2. Can the candidate win the election? Are they executing their plan to win?
3. Does the candidate inspire you to give your time and money?

With our 3 preferred candidates, we went to work organizing at the caucuses. Of the thousands of people we organized at the precinct caucuses, we elected 159 delegates and 121 alternates to the DFL state convention 12% of the total delegation. 20% of these delegates are of color a significant increase from usual participation. 33% are from greater Minnesota.

Our goal is to act as a unified block of support on the floor of the DFL state convention. At that time leaders will select one candidate who we will support through the primary and general election.

Because of our reach into geographic communities and communities of interest, and the fact that most of TakeAction Minnesota's membership is now in suburban and greater Minnesota, we figure to be a political force in the governor's race that four years ago was decided by just 20,000 votes.

Beyond Election Day

We draw an important lesson from the 2008 federal elections and the lengthy effort to pass health care reform. While progressives succeeded in electing a president and large majorities to Congress, energy quickly dissipated after Election Day. As a result, when the health care debate began, there was not a network of grassroots leaders at a sufficient scale to drive reform forward. The anger felt by progressives was drowned out by the anger of tea party patriots who came to dominate the public conversation. While health care reform was ultimately successful, the final bill is of a smaller scale than many felt was achievable at the outset.

With this lesson in mind we are already preparing reNEW Minnesota leaders to govern the state. As leaders are trained to educate voters and organize activists, they are also being educated about Minnesota's multi-billion dollar deficit and competing priorities and issues. At our summer retreat leaders will participate in scenario planning exercises where we will imagine different outcomes to the governor's race and how the landscape might change. Ultimately our goal is not just to elect Minnesota's next governor, but to partner in governing the state and changing it for the better.

Lessons Already Learned

• New leadership exponentially expands electoral capacity. Grassroots leaders are co-creators of reNEW Minnesota and responsible for its most important decisions. They have a deep stake in reNEW's success and are the backbone of our future electoral and advocacy work.
• Start early with beliefs, not issues or candidates. Starting a conversation with the beliefs that unite us allows us to get past the issues that divide us. The same is true for candidates.
• People are hungry for a different conversation. While political operatives care about who will win the horse race, regular people do not. Defining the roles we the people can play in creating a more hopeful future is energizing.
• If you build it, candidates will come. Candidates consistently attended reNEW Minnesota events because they were full of unusual suspects who asked different questions and were organizing for the state convention as well as primary and general elections. A transparent process and crowded field of candidates helped too.
• Social media is essential. A dynamic website, Twitter and Facebook are essential communications tools for a large, diverse and geographically disparate network of leaders.