Minnesota’s only new U.S. representative, Kelly Morrison, prepares to swear in

NINA MOINI: There was one election we definitely want to highlight. That was the race to replace Congressman Dean Phillips. Phillips represented Minnesota's third congressional district, the West Metro, and him leaving office came after he launched a presidential campaign against Joe Biden early on, pretty early on, compared to others, saying he was too old to run again. So, let's listen quick to Phillips' goodbye speech to Congress earlier this month.

DEAN PHILLIPS: So, as I bid farewell, I humbly ask all the members of the next Congress on both sides of the aisle to call on your better angels and act with courage, not cowardice, the courage to compete with our ideas, rather than defeat one another with our ideologies, the courage to fix our problems, rather than fixate on our politics, the courage to replace condemnation with invitation, and the courage to replace confrontation with common sense. In closing, I believe that we all have a choice to make, all of us. Do we wish to be a nation that metaphorically goes to the moon together, or one that goes to war against one another?

BRIAN BAKST: And, Nina, I want to say that Dean Phillips, he seemed to earn a lot of respect in that political middle, those independents I talked about. So, some people have been talking him up as a possible Senate or governor candidate down the line. He says. 2026, he won't be either of those. He says he's gonna stay involved. We just don't know in what way yet.

NINA MOINI: Thanks, Brian. And of course, Kelly Morrison won the election for his seat. She's the only newcomer in Minnesota's congressional delegation in Washington. Morrison will be sworn in in just three days, and Representative-elect Morrison joins us now on the line. Thank you for being here.

KELLY MORRISON: Thanks so much for having me.

NINA MOINI: I do want to start by just asking you if you had anything you wanted to share about the passing of your former colleague, Senator Dziedzic. I know you spent a lot of time here in the state. You'll be in Washington more. But you all did work together.

KELLY MORRISON: I did. We lost just a uniquely talented and kind person. You know, Kari Dziedzic was a great legislator. She was an incredible public servant. She was just a real champion of Minnesota and all its people, and just a really special human being. It's a big loss, certainly, for everyone in the legislature who knew her well and worked with her, but I see it as a loss for our state. She will be greatly missed.

NINA MOINI: And we heard Susan Kent saying earlier that she hopes people will use the legacy to think about how they show up in the world and how they show up to work. And so your term begins in Congress at the end of this week. Have you started to get yourself acquainted with Washington, and how all of that works, and how your life will work, and, you know, the split household there?

KELLY MORRISON: I have, of course. You know, soon after the election, I went to DC for "freshman orientation," as they call it, and all of the newly elected Republicans and Democrats stayed in a hotel together, and we attended seminars, and panels, and different learning sessions, kind of from dawn to dusk, for almost two weeks. So, it was a great opportunity to learn about how it all works, but also to get to know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. And, honestly, it left me feeling more optimistic than when I arrived. It was just another reminder that we have more in common than we don't, and that, you know, like life, politics is about relationships, and when you know someone, and you're looking them in the eye and having a conversation, it tends to diffuse some tensions that may have previously been there.

And so I will work hard, as I did in the legislature, to reach across the aisle, to focus on solving problems together. You know, our congressional delegation has four Republicans and four Democrats, and I hope that we can all come together to represent our state in a dignified and effective way.

NINA MOINI: How have the other members who are returning helped you, maybe, get situated, or what have your interactions with them been like? Have there been casseroles?

[LAUGHTER]

Hot dishes?

KELLY MORRISON: I have not received a casserole yet. Thank you for publicly making that suggestion.

[LAUGHTER]

But I will say that the senior members of our delegation, certainly, Senator Klobuchar, and Representative McCollum, and Representative Craig have been very solicitous, and helpful, and making suggestions, and pointing me in the direction of how to get things done at the Capitol in Washington, and they've been really fantastic.

NINA MOINI: Sure. You know, and more seriously, you're one of the first, if not the first OB/GYN who supports abortion rights serving in Congress. Protecting reproductive rights was really central to your campaign and your messaging, and you've said that you believe it did play a role in your victory. So, how do you plan to work across the aisle, when the session gets back going, and work with a Republican majority in the House and the Senate to make sure you're passing some of your priorities?

KELLY MORRISON: You know, I do think that my background as a physician has informed my work in the state legislature, and I hope that it will continue to inform my work in Congress. You know, there are ways in which being a physician, in some ways, surprisingly, I think, trains you for this kind of work. I spend most of my day as a doctor listening to my patients, and then coming up with a care plan together. And I think we could probably use more of that in our political arena, of legislators listening to their constituents, gathering information, doing more listening than talking, and then solving problems together.

So, you're correct that protecting access to comprehensive reproductive health care, I think, is important to women's and children's health, and that has been something that I have advocated, and I think that being the first and only pro-choice OB/GYN in Congress will give me a unique voice to stand against any potential attempts to further restrict women's access to health care.

But I also think it affords me an opportunity to reach across the aisle. You know, one of my proudest accomplishments in the state legislature was passing bipartisan legislation to extend health insurance for new moms and their babies from just 60 days to 12 months. And I got that done with a very conservative Republican legislator. And we disagreed pretty strongly on abortion, but we did agree that new moms and their babies deserve access to health care. So, we set aside the areas where we didn't agree, and we focused on the places that we did, and we got legislation done that's already making a difference in people's lives.

So, I know that it's possible. I've done it before, and I will work really hard to do it again. You know, as a doctor, my job is to listen to my patients, and I think, in a lot of ways, my job as a legislator is to listen to my constituents.

NINA MOINI: Thank you so much. That seems like a lesson that you're going to take from the Minnesota legislature with you to Congress. And before I let you go, I do want to talk about, we were talking earlier, Brian and I, about the red wave, and how different districts are changing, and Republicans represented the third congressional district for many decades, until Dean Phillips flipped the seat in 2018. And you beat your Republican challenger by double-digits this year. So, what shifts do you believe that you're seeing in your district?

KELLY MORRISON: Well, you know, I will say, Nina, that there is a really proud tradition in Minnesota's third of having representation, regardless of which side of the aisle you come from, that respects all constituents and that works hard to represent everyone, whether they voted for you or not. Beginning with Bill Frenzel, Jim Ramstad, Erik Paulsen, and, certainly, Dean Phillips all followed that ethic, and I hope to continue to follow that ethic too.

The third is a really interesting and diverse district in a lot of different ways, and that's a particular challenge that I look forward to taking on, and I look forward to helping living up to the excellent legislators who came before me and working to make the people that I represent proud that I'm there representing them in Washington.

NINA MOINI: Representative-elect Morrison, thank you for your time today. Appreciate it.

KELLY MORRISON: Thanks so much for having me. Take care.

NINA MOINI: That was US Representative-elect Kelly Morrison.