Dear Neighbors, The 2026 legislative session is finished. Facing the challenge of an evenly divided House, my DFL colleagues and I worked every day to make life better for Minnesotans. We fought to make life more affordable by bringing down the cost of health care, housing, child care, energy, college tuition, and groceries. We passed bills to actually prevent fraud and hold fraudsters accountable, protecting services for Minnesotans who need them and keeping public dollars out of the hands of criminals. We rescued the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), the state’s top level one trauma center. We delivered $40 million in rental assistance for community members impacted by the federal occupation of ICE. And we passed my bills to deliver funding for food shelves and regional food banks and modernize child care licensing. We also passed an Infrastructure and Jobs bill that invests $1.2 billion dollars in vital local projects. I’m proud to say that my bill to deliver $4 million for the Bloomington North Central Sanitary Sewer was included in the bill! Every day, we stood with our communities in pushing for relief following the carnage that Operation Metro Surge brought to our state. Minnesotans are demanding action to prevent gun violence, and we fought to get weapons of war, including military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, off our streets. Unfortunately, instead of putting Minnesotans first, Republicans chose the gun lobby, big corporations, and Donald Trump. DFLers are fighting to make life easier and more affordable for regular people. Unfortunately, Republicans blocked proposals to lower costs and prioritized more tax cuts for the wealthiest and big corporations instead. Looking ahead, there’s plenty we have to do more to help middle- and working-class families succeed, and we will get more done next year.  In Minnesota, you should be able to afford your life on an regular salary. While Republicans stand in the way of making things better, I will continue standing up for our neighbors in Bloomington. I’m committed to building a future where families have a real chance to get ahead and communities can thrive. Even though the legislative session is over, I’m continuing working for you. I’ll be kicking off the interim season with a Community Conversation on June 23rd, 6:30-8pm. You can RSVP for the event here.The location will be sent out to registrants on the morning of the event.  Whether or not you can join me next month, please do not hesitate to reach out anytime with questions or concerns. I’m excited to be back in our district more this summer. If you see me out and about here in Bloomington, please say hello! Fighting for Action on Gun Violence Prevention The biggest disappointment of the session was the House Republicans blocking a floor vote on a comprehensive gun violence prevention package that had already passed the Senate. If taken up on the House floor, this bill would need just one House Republican vote to head to the Governor’s desk and become law. Rather than risk that happening in a simple up or down vote, Speaker Lisa Demuth and Republican leaders have gone from pretending the bill doesn’t even exist to outright refusing to do their job. I spoke on the Floor about the impact gun violence has had on our community – particularly our kids. We’re in the middle of graduation season, and the young adults walking across stages to accept diplomas have never known a world where a school shooting was not a persistent reality. After hours of sharing heart-wrenching stories underlining the urgency of taking action, Republicans still kept it from coming up for a vote. When the Floor Session ended Thursday night, my DFL colleagues and I held a sit-in on the House Floor that continued until the House gaveled in on Saturday. Despite Republicans continuing to ignore what Minnesotans have been demanding, the pressure on them to grow a spine and hold a vote was palpable.  DFLers will never stop fighting to put an end to senseless, preventable gun violence. |