Well-funded primary challenger says Rep. Betty McCollum isn’t progressive enough

Bill Salisbury, Pioneer Press
·7 min read
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During her 22 years in Congress, Betty McCollum has compiled the record of a political progressive.

The St. Paul Democrat has championed women’s rights, combated climate change and supported universal health care and environmental protection, along with other actions that promote the interests of modest-income people who rely on government programs.

She received a 91 percent “progressive” rating from Progressive Punch, a nonpartisan group that evaluates congressional voting records.

But McCollum isn’t progressive enough for Amane Badhasso. The 32-year-old community organizer and Ethiopian immigrant is running against the congresswoman in the Aug. 9 DFL primary election for the 4th Congressional District seat. She had raised more than $600,000 for her campaign as of April 1 and hoped to top $800,000 by the end of June.

McCollum had raised $1.3 million through March 31.

Badhasso’s prolific fundraising has made her McCollum’s best-funded challenger yet. A large chunk of her campaign cash has been contributed, often in donations of $1,000 or more, by Oromo immigrants across the nation.

“I am running for Congress because I believe we deserve a representative who will fight for working people, not special interests,” Badhasso said in a recent interview. “I’m ready to bring progressive values and shake up the status quo in Washington.”

McCollum is an influential member of the House Democratic majority. A close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, she chairs the largest and most powerful appropriations subcommittee in Congress, the defense panel that recently assembled a $762 billion funding package for the Pentagon.

“I didn’t get everything I wanted, but at least I’m a voice at the table,” McCollum said, noting she successfully resisted the defense establishment’s calls for more spending while she fought to preserve President Joe Biden’s budget guidelines.

Badhasso doesn’t deny that McCollum is effective at what she does, but the challenger said the incumbent spends too much time and energy on Washington insider dealings and too little improving the lives of her working-class constituents.

FOCUSED ON THE NEEDY

Born in a rural village in Ethiopia, Badhasso and family members fled civil war for a refugee camp in Kenya when she was 4. At 13, she followed a brother to the United States and landed in Blaine living with an uncle and her grandmother, who became her guardian.

Members of the Oromo ethnic group, Ethiopia’s largest, she and her family spent much of their time at the group’s community center in St. Paul. “When we first went there, I had to stay in the car because I was freaking out,” she recalled. “I expected the military to come, people to be shot.

“But it’s not like that here. That opened my eyes to: I can think here, I can march, I can protest, and I’m not going to be gunned down.”

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That experience prompted her to start organizing youth leadership programs and other immigrant services and led to her life’s work as a community organizer advocating for change on educational, economic, environmental, racial and social justice matters.

While earning a bachelor’s degree in political science at Hamline University, Badhasso also volunteered for local, state and national Democratic candidates, including the 2020 DFL-coordinated campaign for Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and the rest of the party’s state ticket.

Those political skills plus her personal experiences of living paycheck to paycheck and occasionally going hungry prepared her, she said, to represent the neediest residents of the 4th District, which includes most of Ramsey and part of Washington counties.

PROGRESSIVE RECORD

By contrast, McCollum, 67, is one of the longest-serving political fixtures in the St. Paul area. She’s an 11-term incumbent who typically wins her elections by 2-1 margins in a district that hasn’t elected a Republican in 74 years.

She grew up in South St. Paul, raised her two children in North St. Paul and now lives in St. Paul. A St. Catherine University graduate, she was a high school teacher and retail sales manager before she ran for office. First elected to the North St. Paul City Council in 1987, she served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1993 to 2000, when she first was elected to Congress.

Just the second Minnesota woman elected to serve in Congress, she now is the dean of the state’s congressional delegation. In addition to her work on behalf of progressive causes, she has been a leading advocate for education, supported a strong national defense and backed international engagement in development and human rights.

Badhasso and McCollum aren’t ideological opposites. They both wear the progressive badge proudly.

(Most progressives were liberal Democrats until the 1980s and 1990s when the tag “liberal” became widely viewed as a dirty word.)

NATION MOVING FROM CENTER

Hamline University political scientist David Schultz, who personally knows both candidates, said perhaps the two are separated by a generational divide rather than their views on the issues.

“McCollum is more of a classic DFL liberal connected to unions and economic social justice issues,” he said. “Badhasso supports many of the same issues but in part is frustrated that the pace of change is slow on issues such as civil rights, the environment, health care and (other) issues.”

With perhaps fewer than 30 of the 435 congressional seats being competitive, Schultz said, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats are pushing their parties further right and left.

“We are also seeing a generational shift occurring in American politics,” he continued. “The year 2020 was the first where Baby Boomers were no longer the largest generational voting bloc, and it has shifted to the Millennials and Gen Z. The latter two are more progressive on a range of issues. … This is driving a divide in the Democratic Party. Over time, we will see more successful challengers.”

CONTESTED CLAIMS

McCollum said what distinguishes this year’s race from her previous campaigns is “I’ve never had so many outlandish personal attacks made against me. … Most of them are baseless and senseless.”

For instance, Badhasso in May posted a video on social media accusing McCollum of remaining “silent on racial justice” after George Floyd’s murder. The congresswoman’s staff responded with a list of 28 press releases, social media pronouncements and a House floor statement that McCollum made decrying Floyd’s death.

“I have never been silent on racial justice or the murder of George Floyd!” she insisted.

After two other members of Congress announced a plan this spring to stop defense contractor price gouging, Badhasso posted a tweet asking why McCollum hadn’t agreed to sponsor the legislation. In fact, she did co-sponsor that bill.

When McCollum secured $2 million in federal funds this spring to upgrade the St. Paul Police Department’s radio system, Badhasso said that money could have been better spent on schools, climate-friendly infrastructure, racial justice and tackling police brutality. McCollum’s staff responded that her opponent’s message was aligned with her efforts as a community organizer to defund the Minneapolis police.

The congresswoman said her challenger also has misrepresented her positions on two other key issues in the campaign.

Badhasso charged that McCollum would not sign a “Medicare for All” resolution that progressives are pushing in Congress. McCollum said she initially declined to sign on because the original proposal called for unacceptable changes in health programs for veterans and American Indians. Once the sponsors revised those two provisions, McCollum said, she enthusiastically endorsed the universal health care legislation and made it the top issue on a campaign leaflet.

The two candidates also disagree about how to promote a “Green New Deal.” McCollum said she supports “confronting the climate crisis by investing billions in clean energy … to create new high-tech, green jobs.” Badhasso said she not only would support such changes but also would lead the fight to pass it, which she contends McCollum has failed to do.

Badhasso’s campaign suffered a setback in May when the 4th District DFL convention endorsed McCollum for re-election by a 2-1 margin. The endorsement means the incumbent will benefit from the party’s phone banks, digital messaging, sample ballots and coordinated campaigning with the party’s other candidates, said state DFL Chairman Ken Martin.

Badhasso said she hopes to offset the loss of the DFL’s operations with a grassroots campaign staffed by more than 200 volunteers.

Also on the DFL primary ballot next month is Fasil Moghul.

On the Republican side, the party-endorsed May Lor Xiong, a Hmong-American refugee and teacher, is competing with Jerry Silver and Gene Rechtzigel.

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