Meet the members of the Minneapolis City Council

Let’s meet the members of the Minneapolis city council who think that doing away with the police force would be just swell. Here is the story of three, more later.

The Minneapolis City Council is the legislative branch of the City of Minneapolis. It consists of 13 members, elected from separate wards to four-year terms. The Council is dominated by members of the DFL (the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party), with a total of 12 members. The Green Party of Minnesota has one member, Cam Gordon.

So 9 of the 13 members of the Minneapolis City Council are white. The mayor is white. They plan to defund police, which will leave the poorest minorities in the city vulnerable to crime with no protection. How is that not racist? pic.twitter.com/X9SvQ5f1HL

— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) June 8, 2020

Let’s first start with our two transgendered.

Phillipe Cunningham (born July 7, 1987) is the city councilperson for Minneapolis Ward 4 and one of the first openly transgender men to be elected to public office in the United States.^[2][3][4] In the Minneapolis City Council election, 2017, Cunningham won over 20-year incumbent Barb Johnson by 157 votes.^[5][6] Cunningham identifies as black, queer, and transgender.^[7]

Early life and education

Cunningham was born in Streator, Illinois, where he lived until he was 18.^[8] His father worked as a unionized tractor mechanic/builder for more than forty years, while his mother was a dry cleaner employee; he is their only child.^[9] He studied at Mills College and Southern Illinois University Carbondale before transferring to DePaul University,^[8] where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese studies.^[10] He transitioned during his junior year at DePaul,^[8] inspired by the life and work of Lou Sullivan.^[11]

Career

Prior to his election to public office, Cunningham worked as a special education teacher in the South Side of Chicago^[5] and for the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. He also worked as Senior Policy Aide and Advisor for Education, Youth Success, Racial Equity, and LGBTQ Rights for the Office of the Mayor of Minneapolis.^[10]

On July 10, 2015, when same-sex marriage was legalized, Cunningham married Lane Cunningham, who is an IT professional at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities .^[12] They met at the Victory 44, a popular restaurant until its closing in 2017.^[13]

Here he is out campainging on the “stump.”

Here he is.

Next

Andrea Jenkins (born 1961) is an American policy aide, politician, writer, performance artist, poet, and transgender activist. She is known for being the first black openly transgender woman elected to public office in the United States,^[1] serving since January 2018 on the Minneapolis City Council.

Personal life

Jenkins is a performance artist, poet, and writer who identifies as bisexual and queer.^[18][19] She is a grandmother. Her own mother now lives in Ward 8. She has a partner of eight years. Jenkins was diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis in 2018.^[20]

She has participated in the Trans Lives Matter movement and chaired the board of Intermedia Arts.^[3] In 2015, Jenkins was grand marshal of the Twin Cities Pride Parade.^[18] Jenkins has cited Barack Obama, Harold Washington, the Black Panther Party, Jeremiah Wright, and Jesse Jackson as having influenced her to be involved with politics.^[21]

Jenkins moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota in 1979 and was hired by the Hennepin County government, where she worked for a decade. Jenkins worked as a staff member on the Minneapolis City Council for 12 years before beginning work as curator of the Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota‘s Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.

Born in 1961, Andrea Jenkins was raised in North Lawndale, Chicago.^[2][3] She has said she grew up in “a low-income, working-class community” and “lived in some pretty rough places.” She was raised by a single mother, Shirley Green, who was “very loving and very much concerned that we get a good education.”^[4]

When she was young and still presenting as male, she participated in the Cub Scouts and played football at Robert Lindblom Math & Science Academy before moving to Minneapolis in 1979 to attend the University of Minnesota.^[2][3][5]

In her 20s, Jenkins came out as gay, married a woman, became a parent, and divorced.^[5] At 30, she began to outwardly present as female and returned to college to finish her bachelor’s degree from Metropolitan State University, which she followed by earning two master’s degrees–an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University and an MS in community economic development from Southern New Hampshire University.^[2][5][6] During which, Jenkins worked as a vocational counselor for the Hennepin County government.^[5]

Career

Jenkins worked for a decade as a vocational counselor with Hennepin County.^[2][5] In 2001, Robert Lilligren, who was running for a seat on the Minneapolis City Council, asked Jenkins to be a part of his campaign.^[5] After his election, Jenkins joined Lilligren’s staff where she worked as an aide for four years.^[7]

Abdi Warsame

Abdi Warsame (Somali: Cabdi Warsame, Arabic: عبدي وارسام‎) (born 1978) is a Somali-American politician in Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. After moving to London as an asylum-seeker, he immigrated to Minnesota in 2006. In November 2013, he was elected to the Minneapolis City Council, becoming the first Somali official to be elected to the position.^[1] Warsame was reelected for a second term in 2017. Some information indicates he resigned in March of 2020 to take a position in Housing however he is listed as voting later in the year,

Early life and education

Warsame was born on March 5, 1978 in Mogadishu, Somalia.^[1][2] In the late-1980s, and his family sought asylum in London.^[1] Warsame earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from the Middlesex University. He also holds a master’s degree in International Business from the University of Greenwich.^[3] In 2006, Warsame immigrated to Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[3]

Warsame first entered politics in 2011, while working on Mohamud Noor‘s campaign for a state Senate seat on a DFL ticket.^[1]

Warsame was the founder and spokesperson for the Citizen’s Committee for Fair Redistricting, which took part in the Minneapolis redistricting process. The group lobbied the Minneapolis Charter Commission to redraw the municipality’s political districts so as to maximize the East African community’s vote.^[1] The commission concurred and established a number of new precincts in Ward 6.^[4][5]

2013 Election

Warsame ran in the 2013 Minneapolis municipal elections to represent Ward 6 on the Minneapolis City Council.^[1]

Somali-American professionals contributed significantly to Warsame’s election campaign. 

Personal life

Warsame is married and has four children.^[3] He is a resident of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, which is home to the largest concentration of Somalis outside of East Africa.^[1]

Move the clip to 2:15 to miss the Somali talk.

Brought to you by Somali TV

Thats about all for today. More of the interesting members of the council later.

This is the best of the swamp for today.