Category: Constituent Rally

Constituents Come Together to Share Stories on Healthcare

9/26/2019

Fantastic turn out at the Hear Our Voices Constituent Rally today in front of Rep. Hagedorn’s office! 20 constituents came to listen to speakers share their information and stories about how Rep. Hagedorn’s positions on healthcare would impact them.

To read the full story and watch constituent remarks, click here.

Protesting to End Family Septerations & Defund ICE

9/12/2019

Eleven people showed up our Hear Our Voices Constituent Rally to call on Rep. Hagedorn to Defund ICE and CBP - to stop throwing money at agencies that torture and traumatize children, criminalize people asking for help, and dehumanize refugees and immigrants.

Congress needs to pass another spending bill by Sept. 30. It must contain cuts to ICE and CBP, and there must be strict guardrails to ensure that money isn’t misused. By Defunding Hate, we can finally begin to undo the damage that has come as a result of decades of treating immigration like a security problem. Treating asylum-seekers and immigrants in this manner distracts from real threats to our security.

Rep. Hagedorn needs to listen to his constituents and, if he is the Christian he says he is, remember that, according to his own Christian beliefs, we are all God’s children and we are all responsible for the well-being of those less fortunate.

Dear Hagedorn, Please Help End The Trade War

8/22/2019

Another great turnout for today’s Hear Our Voices Constituent Rally! This time was about Rep. Hagedorn’s support for Pres. Trump’s disastrous trade war, which hurts farmers, small business owners, consumers, workers, and families across Minnesota. About 15 people (some not pictured) showed up to demonstrate in Jackson Park because he has banned concerned constituents from visiting his office.

Rep. Hagedorn has repeatedly told everyone to just “wait it out.” However, with Pres. Trump’s continued threats and mocking of Asian accents at a recent event, tensions are rising and the possibility of resolution keeps getting pushed further and further away.

Who knows when it will end? All the while, farmers are suffering from massive debt, closing farms, and a sky-high suicide rate; Small businesses and manufacturing are having a harder time keeping afloat as prices rise on the goods and materials they need; Families and communities are being torn apart due to business/farm/job losses and higher costs for food and necessary items.

As a Representative of Southern Minnesota and as a member of the Agriculture Committee, Jim Hagedorn is supposed to be looking out for the interests of all of us here in CD-1: farmers, business owners, workers, and all of his constituents.

Rep. Hagedorn, your constituents are asking you to Hear Our Voices. Will you listen?

We Deserve to Live without Fear of Being Murdered

8/8/2019

Another good gathering for our Hear Our Voices Constituent Rally this afternoon - this time about the epidemic of gun violence in our country. We gathered in front of Rep. Jim Hagedorn’s building (because he won’t let us in his office) to share our pain and frustration at his prioritizing of the interests of the NRA over his constituents’ right to live without fear of being murdered.

We reminded him of the fact that 9 out of 10 Minnesotans, including gun owners, support common sense gun laws that have a proven track record in drastically reducing mass shootings, suicides, and domestic violence.

We expressed frustration with his scapegoating of people with mental illness, who are far likelier to suffer violence than commit it. It is white supremacy and a history of violence and violent attitudes against women that lie at the root of the vast majority of mass shooting events, and those are not mental illnesses.

We expressed concern about Rep. Hagedorn’s misunderstanding of what the 2nd Amendment actually says - it does not guarantee every American the right to bear all manner of arms but rather a “well-regulated militia” which founding father Alexander Hamilton clearly delineated in the Federalist papers as something more akin to the National Guard.

And we expressed confusion at Rep. Hagedorn’s moral inconsistency in claiming that he is pro-life and yet doing nothing to preserve the lives of men, women, and children in his district.

As we demonstrated, we got lots of appreciative honks (one rude yelled comment), one passerby with whom we engaged in a lengthy but respectful discussion, and a veteran who had served 10 years in the military stopped by to say that he absolutely agreed that things have gotten too out of hand and expressed his gratitude for what we were doing.

We do not expect Rep. Hagedorn to agree with us all the time or to take positions drastically inconsistent with the priorities and values he has put forth. However, we do expect our lawmaker to value human life, to value his constituents’ opinions, to actually understand constitutional freedoms as well as responsibilities, and to work hard toward proven solutions that would impact everyone in his district. The vast majority of both Republicans and Democrats are in favor of these measures.

In essence, we expect Rep. Hagedorn to value *all* of our lives and *all* of our freedoms, chief among them, the ability to live, learn, play, work, and worship free from the threat of murder by men with guns in their hands and hate in their hearts.

Proposed Changes to SNAP Threatens the Wellbeing of Millions

8/1/2019

Over 20 constituents gathered outside of Rep. Hagedorn’s office to express concern about proposed changes to SNAP/food stamp eligibility guidelines that would threaten the lives and wellbeing of 3 million people across the country. This new proposal says that, if you have more than $2,250 in assets (e.g. a house or car or even a couple of laptops), you will no longer be able to receive benefits.

According to the Star Tribune (Jul. 29, 2019), Rep. Jim Hagedorn supports the new rules saying that, “Food stamp benefits must be directed to people truly in need.”

But families in crisis - through sudden job loss or medical bills - who may have some assets (keeping in mind, $2,250 is not a lot), *are* truly in need and shouldn’t have to lose every shred of their stability and dignity in order to get help putting food on the table for their kids.

Farmers, for example, who have substantial assets and very little income, would need to lose their farm, their home, and what little savings they may have *before* qualifying for help feeding their families. Over a million veterans qualify for SNAP assistance. And SNAP eligibility is used to determine whether kids get access to reduced/free lunches and discounts for after school programs that enrich their lives and expand their minds.

We call on Rep. Hagedorn to make a statement acknowledging the problem of poverty and hunger in our district and pledge to advocate against any proposal that would deny constituents access to life-, family-, and community-supporting programs like SNAP.

<<Previous

Constituents Come Together to Share Stories on Healthcare

Protesting to End Family Septerations & Defund ICE

Dear Hagedorn, Please Help End The Trade War

We Deserve to Live without Fear of Being Murdered

Proposed Changes to SNAP Threatens the Wellbeing of Millions

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