Huldah Momanyi Hiltsley defeated Wynfred Russell in a hotly contested primary election that pitted two African immigrants fighting for the right be the Democratic candidate for District 38A of the Minnesota House of Representatives.
“I don’t even know where to begin,” Hiltsley said after a narrow win of 60 votes, amid cheers from her supporters, who had gathered for a victory party at MC’s Tap House in Brooklyn Park.
Hiltsley, who was born in Kenya, and Liberian-born Russell had each hoped to become the first immigrant from their respective countries to be elected to the Minnesota state House of Representatives. But first, the two had to fight it out for the right to bear the flag for Democratic Farmer-Labor (DFL), as the Democratic Party is known in the state, in the general elections in November.
In April, DFL delegates at the party convention could not come to a consensus on who to endorse. After two rounds of voting, neither Hiltsley nor Russell reached the 60% threshold required for a party endorsement. The candidates agreed to let voters decide in the primaries on Aug. 13. When all the votes were counted on Tuesday, it was Hiltsley who finished at the top with 51.28 percent of the vote by garnering 1,005 votes to Russell’s 955.
“Somebody today asked me, ‘Have you gotten your two [victory and concession] speeches ready?’ I told him, no,” Hiltsley said.
Hiltsley said she didn’t write the speeches because she was busy knocking doors, working the phone bank, replying to text messages, and coordinating with her team to get the vote out.
“I told myself that regardless of what was going to happen tonight, it was going to be the same speech of gratitude, of being thankful, of, ‘Hey, we still have work to do,’” she said.
Winning the DFL primary moves Hiltsley a step closer to becoming the first Kenyan-born immigrant to be elected to any state legislature in the United States. That is because the nature of her district makes her the favorite to win in November against Brad Olson, who won the Republican nomination on Tuesday. District 38A, which includes the northern Minneapolis suburb of Osseo and part of Brooklyn Park, is a heavily Democratic constituency. Brooklyn Park is a minority-majority city, with people of color accounting for at least 55% of the population. People who identify as Black or African American account for more than 29% of the population, making them the single largest minority group, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. African immigrants fondly refer to the city and neighboring Brooklyn Center as “Little Africa.” However, community leaders say the governance of the area doesn’t reflect the diversity of the population, prompting leaders like Hiltsley and Russell to enter politics.
Hiltsley is a first-generation Kenyan immigrant, who has lived in Minnesota since she was 9 years old. She is an alumna of Robbinsdale Cooper School, and holds an impressive academic background, including three bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree, all from Bethel University, with one of her degrees specializing in International Business. Her professional journey led her into the fields of data privacy and data protection, but she said her true calling was community advocacy to address the needs of all residents. She is the immediate former president of Mwanyagetinge, a community organization of Kenyans living in Minnesota.
Hiltsley’s win ends a heated contest that began as soon as both candidates entered the race. The tensions heightened on the day of the primary election. Hiltsley ran around her house hours before polls closed, making phone calls to campaign staff and voters while her campaign manager worked the phones, attempting to reach loyal supporters and people who have voted in the last five primaries. Later, utilizing data from the Secretary of State’s voter registration system, Hiltsley herself went door knocking.
“The goal for our team was to make sure that our strategy was comprehensive of the diversity that really is reflected in this district, which is the most diverse district in the whole entire state of Minnesota,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that we reach each community and really address some of the challenges that we’ve seen in terms of voter turnout.”
Clearly her efforts paid off, as more people turned out to vote for her. One voter, Kelly Richards, said she voted for Hiltsley because of what the candidate’s slogan of “Stronger Together”represents.
“Diversity is what makes America unique,” Richards said. “This is what makes us strong, and this is what will move us forward. Huldah has a great spirit and she’ll do great things in representing Brooklyn Park at the state level.”
Before deciding to enter the race for the House seat, Hiltsley ran for nomination as the DFL’s candidate for District 38 of the state Senate seat but lost to Susan Pha, a Brooklyn Park City councilwoman, who went on to win against Republicans. This year, she found herself yet again running against another savvy candidate, who like Pha had immense experience running a successful election campaign.
Born in Liberia, Russell came to the United States in 2005 as a refugee student on a scholarship. He received a master’s degree in international and global studies from Northern Michigan University upon which the University of Minnesota recruited him to work as a public health researcher at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). Upon arriving in Minnesota, he settled in New Brighton and started his life in academia.
In 2018 Mr. Russell became the first Liberian American elected to the Brooklyn Park City Council, where he served one term. Instead of going seeking re-election in 2022, he opted to run for Mayor of Brooklyn Park but lost to current Mayor Hollies Winston.
The atmosphere at Russell’s watch party on Tuesday night appeared tense and restless. Longtime friends and supporters of Russell’s greeted each other and caught up in the Organization of Liberians in Minnesota’s community room as they kept refreshing the Secretary of State’s website for election results. They included former Brooklyn Park Mayor Lisa Jacobson and Osseo School Board candidate Tekoa Cochran. When Russell finally entered, the mood lightened.
“It’s a nail biter,” Russell said, and his supporters laughed. “I’ve been down this road before. I ran for city council, and I lost by five votes one time. The key to this race was voter turnout, coming out and turning out every vote and ensuring that everyone shows up and participates in the process.”
But as more results continued to come in, the space fell quieter and quieter. Russell supporter and campaign volunteer, Michael Blidi, told Mshale that given the large number of Liberians in the district, it didn’t make sense that Russell would be trailing by 47 votes.
“Something did not go right, so maybe next time, we [should] do a better job reaching out to Liberians, door-to-door, grassroot,” Blidi said. “There are people in this community that got connections with other people, and I don’t think those people were used to reach out to other people.”
With only a 2.4% difference separating the candidates, Russell’s campaign said it was within its rights to hold a publicly funded recount. But when the final tally was made official, the gap had grown to 2.56%, meaning that Russell’s campaign will have to pay for a recount, if he asks for one.
“I don’t feel that good, but I would say it’s not bad,” said Russell campaign supporter and volunteer, Vicky Sendolo. “I don’t know why it must always be this close… that’s one reason I believe in [him] so much, because he did it the last time. He came close, he tried again, so it’s always good to try again. All these things is a part of [his] success story. If you don’t have this moment, then you have nothing to talk about.”
As the results suggest, the hotly contested effort to determine who will be District 38A’s DFL candidate for the House seat has divided Democrats in the district down the middle. Having emerged as the winner, Hiltsley now faces a huge task of uniting the party and the African community to ensure victory in November.
Jasmine Webber contributed to this story.
Author
About Kwot Anwey
Kwot Anwey is a reporting intern with Mshale and majors in journalism at Boston University.
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