Ward 10 Candidate Answers

The following candidates running in Ward 10 filled out our survey. Click a name to see all that candidate’s answers. The score next to a candidate’s name represents their rating, on a scale of 1 to 5. One is “does not align with any values,” and five is “aligns with all values.” Ratings are not endorsements.

• Aisha Chughtai

• Alicia Gibson

If elected, how do you plan on being accountable to your constituents? Please emphasize ways in which marginalized and oppressed people who have been neglected in the past will be a part of your accountability plan.

I will always be present, accessible, and working to build authentic relationships across communities. I’m running for this office to advance our shared visions and values, and if I’m not meeting that commitment, I want my community to hold me accountable to our shared priorities. Accountability processes must be co-created, and I’m committed to doing so with both residents and broader movements for justice. Ultimately, if I’m not doing what the residents want, my accountability to them means they can vote me out. When I respond to constituent service requests I will ensure I’m accessible to folks who are underrepresented and disenfranchised. From the movements that I have always organized within, I welcome tactics that I have employed myself in the past. Organize me, agitate me, organize my constituents, run direct actions—Even (and especially) when the relationship feels antagonistic, I am committed to continuing to show up authentically and transparently.

How are young people included in your campaign, and how will they be included in your decisions if elected?

Young people are hungry for transformational change, and for leaders who will fight to make it happen. As the youngest candidate running in Minneapolis this year, I can be a standard-bearer for that change. It is incredibly important to me that the young people of this city see a space for themselves in my campaign and in the governing of this city. I’m running to create that space. My campaign is led and staffed by young people, and we are building a campaign around innovative strategies to allow young people to participate and to meet them where they’re at by engaging with renters in apartment buildings and students through a relational organizing program. If elected, I have committed to creating a Ward 10 Youth Council, giving young people in the ward a direct say in how I govern and an opportunity to take on their own projects in the community.

How would you describe your relationship with mass movement work and non-violent direct action? If you are elected, what will you do to try to protect people who organize and participate in this work?

I am deeply involved in mass movement work, from regularly marshalling protests to occupying the capitol during the Driver’s License fight. I have a history of working with transformational movements that are fighting for a better world for people who are too often left behind—movements like the fight for immigrant rights, like the labor movement, like antidisplacement and housing justice work. I believe change comes from movements. If elected, I will ensure that my relationship to movement work remains strong by continuing to be involved. I will also go out of my way to protect people who organize and participate in this work. For example, I was on I-94 during November’s mass arrest, and that night I called every powerful person I knew to attempt to stop the unnecessary arrests. As an elected official I will always utilize my position to protect and uplift those fighting for a better world.

Last summer in Minneapolis, Uprisings occurred in response to the murder of George Floyd and against state-sanctioned violence and militarized, white supremacist police. How have the events of last summer impacted your leadership and relationship to your community? If you were involved in any way, we would love to hear about it.

Through the uprising, our movement and community have learned a lot about what it means to move together through challenging moments that are traumatizing in different and varying ways to everyone. I learned a great deal about both myself and how I show up in community while I spent the summer helping establish one of the largest mutual aid sites in the city, and building a network of neighbors who created a system of safety outside of MPD without replicating policing. Our people aren’t disposable, and this work takes a lot out of us. We need to watch out for and take care of one another, and give folks (and ourselves!) permission to take breaks. Minnesota is also very white, even in movement spaces, and we need to work through some of the ways in which broader systems of oppression are reflected in our relationships and our work.

When you began considering running for office, who did you speak with who helped inform your decision to run? What motivated you most in deciding to run for office?

My decision to run was grounded in my experience during the uprising last summer. As government failed to provide structures of care, community filled the gaps, but it didn’t have to be that way. I am excited to be part of building structures that uplift and affirm our most marginalized neighbors, and I take that responsibility seriously. As someone that got my start in labor and electoral organizing, I have been fortunate enough to be part of transformative movement spaces. My lived experiences, the critical moment our community is in, and my deep community, political, and personal relationships, informed my decision to run.

Why is your campaign more capable of reaching and connecting with voters, and why are you more able to represent your ward than other candidates in the race?

My story is the story of so many people in our community. I know what it’s like to struggle to find affordable housing, to be a child helping your immigrant parents navigate the world, to choose between buying groceries and making a student loan payment. I first moved to this ward because it was affordable, but I’ve stayed because I was welcomed with open arms. We need a leader who will fight for policies that leave no one behind, because they understand what it is like to be left behind. My campaign team has always pioneered innovative tactics to reach people who’ve historically been left behind: Black, Brown, and Indigenous folks, renters, working class people, immigrants, queer and trans folks, and people with disabilities. Our organizing is relational and our vision is bold, because too often people like us are asked for votes and forgotten for the next four years.

If elected, how do you plan on being accountable to your constituents? Please emphasize ways in which marginalized and oppressed people who have been neglected in the past will be a part of your accountability plan.

The most powerful form of accountability comes from building personal relationships. This is the foundation of restorative justice principles, and the heart of my campaign. Building relationships is particularly important for a city council member who is the first--and most grassroots--level of democracy, and it is vitally important in an era of alienation and disenfranchisement. I will hold weekly in-community office hours and have a concrete plan for empowering historically marginalized people with neighborhood funding tied to equity (using our well-established neighborhoods system and the financial mechanisms that already exist there): 1) reparations for housing discimination, 2) Civilian Climate Corp with stipends for young and low income neighbors to go door-to-door with resources for immigrant and low-income neighbors to equalize access to green transition subsidies that already exist, 3) affordable housing landbanking, and 4) restorative justice training for all community members to create widespread cultural transformation.

How are young people included in your campaign, and how will they be included in your decisions if elected?

Young people have always been a part of how I build community -- whether it was empowering young people as learners in the university classroom when I taught there, or when I recruited young people to serve on the board of my neighborhood association. On the campaign trail, my only paid staff is a college student, and I have several close advisors who are also young voters. In fact, my idea for a Citizen Climate Corp was heavily influenced by two young supporters who work in energy and environmental education policy. The passion, knowledge, and enthusiasm of young people is a guiding force for me and vitally important to creating and implementing ideas.

How would you describe your relationship with mass movement work and non-violent direct action? If you are elected, what will you do to try to protect people who organize and participate in this work?

I have been studying and teaching the work of mass movements and non-violent direct action since 1995. This work started when I was a peace and conflict resolution scholar, and lived in South Africa to better understand how the apartheid state was brought down by non-violence--and crucially-how a multi-racial democracy was able to take its place to rebuild society. This approach and passion has guided my work since then. I support the NAACP’s most recent efforts to have the MN POST board create standardized training and protections for non-violent protestors so that no matter where our non-violent resistors are working across the state they will have protections and court-supported accountability for violations of their rights. And as a city council member I will push for law enforcement training and policies that supports these rights.

Last summer in Minneapolis, Uprisings occurred in response to the murder of George Floyd and against state-sanctioned violence and militarized, white supremacist police. How have the events of last summer impacted your leadership and relationship to your community? If you were involved in any way, we would love to hear about it.

I have been studying state-sanctioned violence and militarized white supremacy since 1995 so there was no moment of awakening for me in the social unrest that occurred last summer after George Floyd was murdered. I did participate in protests, and combined with my earlier involvement in affordable housing advocacy have since been invited to participate as a guest speaker in three area protest marches: the first was on the issue of affordable housing (available for viewing on my website homepage), the second inspired the launch of an Asian-American / Black solidarity project called the Kokoro Project, and the third was at George Floyd Square at the launch of that project alongside current Minneapolis NAACP President Angela Rose Myers and former NAACP President Nekima Levy Armstrong (also available for viewing on my website).

When you began considering running for office, who did you speak with who helped inform your decision to run? What motivated you most in deciding to run for office?

I have been serving as president of my neighborhood association board and working with my neighborhood association for several years, and beyond that I have worked hard to know my neighbors and create community-driven solutions. Even before I started talking about it I had neighbors from all walks of life emailing me and stopping me on the street asking me to run. That grassroots support is the foundation of this campaign.

Why is your campaign more capable of reaching and connecting with voters, and why are you more able to represent your ward than other candidates in the race?

I have lived in 4 of the 5 neighborhoods in this ward and have a wide network of relationships in Ward 10. I understand what makes each neighborhood unique as well as what unites us all. I am the bridge candidate between the visionary and the pragmatic, and have the trust and respect of a diverse group of community members from across all divides. I listen deeply and broadly and my campaign ideas reflect the thoughts and concerns of a wide group of community members.

Please feel free to tell us anything else you would like us to know here.

First I'd like to clarify my answers on Slide 8 -- there is not a rent control ban in MN (there is a ban on city councils passing rent control), and as a city council member I cannot undo that statute. The same is true for voter registration laws mentioned in 19 (voting is a county and state issue and transportation is Met Council and county). Second, I am running because I see a tremendous opportunity to make transformational progressive change that is community-led by focusing on ideas that unite us. Moreover, because of the events of the past year we have an opportunity to be a progressive leader for this country, and that happens by staying committed to progressivism and pragmatism, and understanding that our rhetoric and actions have significant consequences for better and for worse across the US.