In Minnesota, GOP operatives read in Clinton’s slim victory an opportunity to gain ground with their racially coded, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic appeals. Yet in 2018, progressives in the state not only stalled these efforts, they won across races, defining what it means to be “Minnesotan” through an aspirational narrative of multi-racial populism.

As a markedly white state with a growing, politically-engaged Somali-American population, Minnesota seemed ripe for the race baiting and anti-immigrant appeals core to right-wing politics, now turned feral under Trump. Progressive leaders in the state confronted a familiar dilemma: pursue white working-class defectors by focusing on economic issues or mobilize a disenchanted base by putting racial justice front and center.

But they chose not to choose.

We discover how, through rounds of research and strategic implementation of findings, a coalition of grassroots and labor groups found a narrative that speaks to both race and class concerns. From a 43,000 person celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Adha, to carefully considered door-knocking operations, to interactive social media memes, the Greater Than Fear campaign showed that we can simultaneously drive turnout from our base and persuade the middle.

Read the Minnesota Race Class Narrative research