Jeanne Hendricks is the DFL candidate for the Sixth Congressional House District running to oppose Tom Emmer.  

On Sat., Oct. 5, she held a town hall gathering at the Becker Community Center to hear local concerns and to explain her positions.  According to Hendricks, the town hall was the sixth such event that she has participated in this election cycle.  She hopes to visit 30 cities throughout the sixth district before election day.  Her campaign calls these events, “Hendricks’ Small Town Tour”. 

Immigration and Disinformation

One of the first concerns that was brought up by the people who were in attendance was immigration, in particular the false information about Haitian refuges in Springfield, OH.  Hendricks admitted that there are challenges that communities face when they welcome legal immigrants and refugees, but people who come to this country legally should not be vilified.  She mentioned that Republicans have spread misinformation, not just about their dietary intake, but about crime. 

“They vilify the immigrants, saying that they’re the ones committing all the violent, terrible crimes,” she said. “Well, the statistics do not bear that out.They like to take one case and blow it out of proportion.” 

Among those in attendance was Kathy Geary, self-proclaimed childless cat lady and DFL candidate for MN House district 27A.  She defended immigrants. 

“All of the talk of immigrants is fear based,” she said. “I am of the belief that immigrants are the heart of America and have made America the great country that it is.”

Hendricks mentioned that there was a bill in Congress that could have solved some of our immigration problems but Donald Trump did not want it passed and Tom Emmer voted against it choosing to back his preferred presidential candidate. 

Citizens United

Hendricks was concerned with disinformation and how out of control big money campaign contributions exacerbate the problem.   She is in favor of passing legislation that would overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision. 

Todd Prieb, Campaign Manager, spoke about conversations he has had with Republicans in the sixth district. 

“The one thing that we could agree on is to get the money out of politics,” he said. “When you talk to Republicans, I think it’s important to remember sometime that these Republican neighbors and the people that you know, oftentimes, they’re not bad people.  They’re not our enemies and we need to stop looking at them like that because the real people who are bad people are the ones who are lying to them.” 

Prieb hinted that Emmer was one of those people who has been lying to them because of his ties to big money interests.  

“His top 10 donors were all banks and crypto-currency groups,” Prieb said. “That’s not who you’re supposed to be representing.  He raises millions and millions of dollars, most of which comes from corporate PACs and banking.”

Assault Weapons Ban

Adam Seitz, 24, was the youngest person attending Saturday’s Town Hall.  He was once a Trump supporter but became disillusioned with some of his policies, particularly those policies designed to stem the ever-increasing frequency of school shootings.  Seitz recalled his time at Becker High School.  He mentioned that school shootings were a concern for students who grappled with that new reality and often had to participate in active shooter drills.  He felt that the proposal to arm teachers did not address the real problems facing students. 

Hendricks repeated the statement given by Tim Walz during the recent Vice-Presidential Debate to explain what the real problem was. 

“Sometimes it’s just the guns,” she said. “I am for an assault weapons ban.  We did it in ’94 until 2004 and mass shootings went down, but it had a sunset clause.  They didn’t renew it.  We need to do that, like yesterday.” 

Hendricks was also careful to note that she does not want to take away everyone’s guns.  

“We’re not about taking hunter’s guns away.  We’re not about taking a gun you have in your home to protect yourself away at all.  My dad and brothers had guns.  We’re not doing what they say we’re going to do.”

“We need to get this done because kids shouldn’t have to be afraid of gun violence in school,” she said.

Women’s Reproductive Rights

Hendricks did take a moment to address her top concern – Women’s reproductive freedoms.  

“We need to have a federal law legalizing abortion, not the states creating laws piecemeal,”  she said.

Her concerns were that women are dying and physicians are afraid of being sued because of the laws that have been passed in other states where abortion has become illegal, but her concerns do not end with abortion.  

“Contraception, IVF, we need to have all of that available to women.” 

A Choice to make

At the end of the almost two hours she spent with supporters, many topics were discussed - tariffs, protecting Social Security and Medicaid, Trump’s proposed mass deportation policy and climate change.  Hendricks ended the meeting by citing the differences between herself and Tom Emmer.  

“Emmer is a carbon copy of Donald Trump,” she said. “He espouses 90 plus percent of what Donald Trump does.  This is a federal position that I’m running for.   I do focus on the national issues which affect District 6 – women’s reproductive freedoms, climate change, the border, and gun safety.”  

On November 5, 2024, people will have to make a choice for who will represent them in the US Congress representing Minnesota’s Sixth District.