The Type of Governor We Need

My name is Evelyn Pechous. I’m an organizer with TakeAction Minnesota building community and electoral power in the South Metro.

I want to share a story with you.

I was a first-time state delegate at the DFL convention in Rochester this weekend. It was joyful.  

I have never been so excited to organize for such brilliant, passionate, and grounded candidates.

On Friday night, I thanked Erin Murphy for her commitment to health care. I shared with her what it would mean for me, as someone with lupus, if we lived in a state that centered healing.

This was the night before we would be endorsing a candidate for governor, so naturally I expected her to talk about the policies she would want to implement.

Instead, she asked me how my health is doing, if I’m getting the care I need, and if I’m taking care of myself. This is the type of governor we need. Someone who is clear that their own self-interest is dependent on the healing of their community.

I also want to be very clear about the impact Arique Aguilar and the Women of Color table have had on centering political healing, and on leading our elected officials and candidates towards this path.

Erin Murphy, a nurse and former majority leader in the Minnesota House, participated in a powerful rally on sexual assault and harassment at the Capitol a few months ago led by many of those same women and femmes.

It’s also incredibly exciting to be help elect Erin Maye Quade, a state Representative, and a badass queer, black woman, as lieutenant governor.

I have so much joy, thinking of what is possible with these two women not simply being a voice for us, but including us in conversations so that we can be a voice for ourselves.

Now this is the time to get to work. Erin Murphy won the DFL endorsement for Governor with joyful support from women like me and from people from all walks of life, across the state —now they have to win again in a DFL primary fight on August 14, 2018. I mean, we have to win because. This election is about all of us.

This election is about the vision we have for our state, one that’s grounded in our own wisdom and lived experience.

Sign up now to stay connected and help Erin Murphy to be our next Governor of Minnesota.

This is our year.