Robin Wonsley
BY ROBIN WONSLEY
Minneapolis must become a beacon for the country by providing refuge from the federal government’s terrifying attacks on vulnerable community members and, increasingly, on the rights of all Americans. Now more than ever, it falls to city leadership to protect us. We need brave leaders in office who will fight alongside us against the Trump administration and not back down. Moderate and conservative DFL city leaders have not demonstrated they are up to this task, and cannot be trusted to lessen harm to our city’s most vulnerable residents. What we need instead is bold, courageous and visionary progressive leadership.
For the last six months under the Trump administration, the progressive majority on the Minneapolis City Council has modeled how to lead under attack and targeted divestment. We have expanded support for immigrant entrepreneur street vendors, protected and expanded civil rights, held MPD accountable for the impacts of their cooperation with ICE, and implemented new ways we can combat climate change.
While my progressive colleagues and I have garnered strong support from working-class residents and achieved real victories, my critics continue to offer no solutions. Labeling me a radical socialist is easier than confronting my actual record in office. The truth is that I’ve worked effectively with a broad and diverse coalition of legislators and community leaders to win policies and public investments that challenge the status quo and shift power away from the few who benefit from the status quo and back to the majority. My progressive colleagues and I have succeeded for years despite the current mayor’s aggressively obstructionist, veto-heavy agenda, and despite criticism calling our practical solutions “extremist.” As Trump tries to dismantle public services, I’m ready to double down on the progressive agenda.
Are my policy priorities radical, or do they meet the needs of this current moment?
Prioritizing pedestrian safety is only labeled radical because it challenges our car-dominated, fossil fuel-based infrastructure. I led the Council to unanimously recommend adding five sidewalk plowing pilot programs to the 2024 budget to improve year-round accessibility for people traveling those sidewalks, especially elders and people with mobility issues. Is it radical to design city programs that give pedestrians the same ease and convenience we give cars?
Compelling the exploitative gig economy to pay minimum wage equivalents and fairly treat workers is radical because it breaks the chokehold that venture capital-backed corporations have on our lives. I supported the rideshare drivers’ organizing efforts and led the City Council in passing the Fair Drives, Safe Rides ordinance that paved the way for the State of Minnesota to pass one of the country’s strongest rideshare regulation policies. This effort led to an estimated 20% increase in wages for drivers and robust worker protections: radical? or right?
We live in a country that neglects early childhood infrastructure and sectors of the economy that predominantly employ women and people of color. Funding childcare and early childhood education, and advocating for childcare workers is considered radical because it makes childcare more accessible for working people. This radical belief led me to author a budget amendment to invest $500,000 in workforce development for early childhood education and childcare, so we can start addressing one of the largest needs and barriers for so many people in our city.
You can call these policies radical, extremist, socialist, call them whatever you like. My community calls them life-changing victories.
In my third term as Minneapolis’ first Black Democratic Socialist City Council Member, I will continue to ally with other city leaders willing to meet the moment with bold leadership. Together, we can continue building the city we want to live in despite the federal administration’s attacks. Whatever the federal context, my commitment remains to the people of Minneapolis and making sure our city government works for all people. The 2025 election is an opportunity to expand our Council’s progressive majority, elect a new mayor who better represents working people, and show that local elections and policies still matter.
I won’t distance myself from terms like radical and socialist. I wear them proudly because they are bedrock values that inform everything I do, especially my service to the people of Minneapolis. I am proud my office put those values into action by authoring 40% of all legislative actions taken by the Minneapolis City Council in 2024, often with unanimous support. The radical socialist agenda is popular, it improves community members’ lives, and it brings us closer to a livable and thriving Minneapolis for everyone.
