Minnesota DFL bars candidate from seeking party endorsement

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: The Minnesota DFL party has voted to ban a Minneapolis City Council candidate from ever seeking the party endorsement. Nasri Warsame supporters stormed the stage of the 10th Ward nominating convention earlier this month as the event devolved and police were called. Video of the chaos garnered national attention. Last night, after a lengthy virtual meeting, members of the state's Central Committee voted for disciplinary measures. Joining us right now is DFL party chair, Ken Martin, with more. Thanks for your time, Mr. Chairman.

KEN MARTIN: Thank you for having me, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: A ban on ever seeking the party endorsement's one thing, but members last night also approved a change to party rules that could banish Mr. Warsame from the party. And there are many in the DFL, especially Somali delegates, who feel that's too extreme. Why make that move?

KEN MARTIN: Well, look. I mean, we send a clear message that violence is never acceptable in our party. Regardless of whether or not you don't understand the rules, you are frustrated with the likely outcome, it's never appropriate to engage in political violence at all.

And we saw that, unfortunately, unfold at the convention, and as a responsibility not only to people who are participating but to future convention-goers, we want to make sure that these are safe spaces for people to be heard. Sometimes these things get really tense. There's a lot of emotions flying around, for sure. But none of that should devolve into violence, where people are being physically assaulted and injured, as was the case.

Look, the reality is for us, there are thousands and thousands of Somali-Americans who participate in this process every year. We are very grateful for the partnership that we have with the Somali-American community. A small group of bad actors certainly did not reflect the thousands of Somali-Americans who do participate in this process, and I want to be very clear about that. But under no circumstance are we going to tolerate violence from any community that participates in our process. We need to make sure that these spaces remain safe for all involved.

CATHY WURZER: Again, a lifetime ban does seem to many to be pretty extreme. How do you balance proper discipline without damaging relationships with the Somali community, which is a loyal party constituency?

KEN MARTIN: Yeah, and let me just zoom out, because this isn't about the Somali-American community, right? This is, and I think-- I just want to reject that narrative, Cathy, because it's unfair to all the thousands of Somali-Americans who actually participate in this process and don't engage in that behavior. And you know, again, it would be as if someone from a Caucasian community did this and then we castigated the whole Caucasian community. It's not fair to say that or suggest that.

So let me just be very clear. We value the partnership with the Somali-American community. And I will just say that I heard from a number of Somali-American elected officials, imams, faith leaders, community leaders, and others, who were very vociferous, even more so than the DFL, on the need to take swift action. Because not only does this stigmatize the community-- i.e., this conversation, right-- it really, unfortunately, takes away from all the positive contributions Somali-Americans are making to this state, to our community at large, to our country, and that's unfair.

And so I want to be very careful here. This is not about the Somali-American community. This is about some bad actors on a campaign who are deciding to use a tactic, which was to engage in violence to disrupt a convention to get the outcome they wanted, which was no endorsement. And so I just reject this notion that this is somehow about the Somali-American community. It's not.

CATHY WURZER: There appears to have been some misunderstanding over party process and rules among some of the delegates. Should the party work to educate delegates, or is that the purview of candidates?

KEN MARTIN: Well, it's both, and the party does do a lot of work to educate folks who are new to the process, whether they're first-time attendees or they're folks who have language barriers or other barriers that prevent them from fully participating.

The party has a lot of outreach to those communities, does translation into-- documents into different languages. We also have higher translators. And in most cases, the campaigns themselves are also engaged in certainly a round of education to their delegates as well. And I think that's really important-- is that it's both/and. It's not just on the party, but it's on the campaigns themselves.

CATHY WURZER: OK, final question, with about 30 seconds. 10th Ward councilmember Chughtai's bid for the endorsement has been delayed because of the chaos. What happens next?

KEN MARTIN: Well, that's a decision that will be made by local volunteers. The state DFL cannot call a convention to order or adjourn a convention. That's not our prerogative. We have a process for that. At this point, it will be up to the residents of Ward 10 to decide whether or not they want to reconvene the convention for the purpose of an endorsement. Of course, after a lot of thought and consideration, the party has put new rules in place to make sure that violence won't occur again. But it is up to Ward 10 to decide whether or not they want to bestow an endorsement at this point.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Party chair Ken Martin, thank you so much.

KEN MARTIN: Thank you, Cathy. Have a great day.

CATHY WURZER: By the way, Nasri Warsame has not commented yet on the DFL Central Committee's action, but has said he plans to go ahead with his campaign. The DFL has endorsed candidates for all but three of the city's wards. After disagreement over delegates, both candidates who are running in Ward 5-- incumbent Jeremiah Ellison and Victor Martinez-- asked the party to call off their convention, and the Ward 6 convention is in recess, according to the DFL's website.