This is the seat currently held by Betty McCollum. On the DFL side of the ballot:

Betty McCollum
Aswar Rahman

On the Republican side:

Gene Rechtzigel
Paul Wikstrom
Paul Xiong

(Minnesota doesn’t require you to register as a party member to vote in primaries, but in any given primary, you have to pick one party and stick with it throughout. My friends who work as election judges have people who want to litigate this every single time. If you vote in more than one party’s races, you have spoiled your ballot.)

I live in St. Paul, so Betty McCollum is my US House Rep. She’s in the progressive wing of the Democratic party but is not as fighty as some of the other people in that part of the party (like Ilhan) if that makes sense. For example, she’s a long-standing critic of Israel (she’s literally one of the longest-standing supporters of Palestinian human rights in Congress) but sticks with moderate language while talking about Israel’s war crimes (she prefers the term “human rights abuses”).

My personal recent frustrations with Betty: she voted last week for the KIDS Act, which is an Internet censorship / age-verification bill. (There are a lot of problems with age-verification bills; one is that they’re basically data-exposure bills.) She voted last month for the “Combating Organized Retail Crime Act” bill, which expands the criteria where shoplifting can be federally prosecuted. (This bill is 100% a response to the claim that we’re in an “organized retail theft epidemic” which is just horseshit. Or possibly it’s 50% that, 50% an opportunity for the Feds to increase surveillance. Both are bad!) She’s a Democrat in a safe seat and did not have to vote for these.

Anyway, if you’re here because you are mad about these votes (or other things she’s done) and you want to cast a protest vote, and you just want to know if Aswar Rahman is evil: no, he’s not evil, you can totally vote for him if you want. ETA: HEY FRIENDS I’M BACK THREE DAYS AFTER I POSTED WITH SOME EXCITING NEW INFORMATION.

So there’s a lot I am going to need to add, but I’m just going to drop in a screen shot of the flyer his campaign apparently sent out last year.

Needless to say, nothing like this is on his website now. (He now has the following, under Gaza: “I strongly support halting arms supplies to Israel, mandating war crimes investigations for the Netanyahu regime, and replacing the corrupt ‘Board of Peace’ with a UN-led coalition to path the way for democratic elections and Palestinian statehood.”

Anyway I’m putting that up top because honestly, that’s all a lot of people will need to know. You can stop reading and go vote for Betty (or, if you’re Team Israel, for Aswar.) I’ll be back with more edits in a bit, I’m now returning you to the original post and also nesting it under a cut for the convenience of people scrolling my site; this got long.

Aswar came to speak at my caucus, which I was chairing and that was very distracting so I don’t actually remember what he said, just that he was a very dynamic speaker. He has run for office before: he ran for Mayor of Minneapolis in 2017 on a “we’re going to save money by cutting stuff based on vibes” platform; he dropped out to do a reality TV series and endorsed Frey. In 2019 he was starting a jeans company and in 2020 he ran for office again, this time in the 60A Special Election. If you read his bio (which is still up but doesn’t appear to be linked from his front page anymore) you’ll see that prior to all this he had “a passion for filmmaking” and made some movies. After the reality TV show (I think after? I may have the sequence wrong) he worked for Dean Phillips and Amy Klobuchar doing digital content. He moved to Los Angeles in 2021 (to try to make it in movies, I think?) but then “Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shook Aswar to his core” and he dropped everything and flew to Poland.

He started a nonprofit to bring refugees to Minnesota (the Star Trib wrote about it in 2022) and then used this organization to help US citizens get out of Israel immediately after the October 7th attacks. This organization seems to have run for about a year and a half before overextending itself and going bankrupt. In July 2024, there was a student-led mass uprising in Bangladesh, where Aswar is originally from, which led to him getting interested in the inefficiencies in the textile trade, so his next project was a company called AmeriBangla to sell American cotton to Bangladesh. (That still seems to be a going concern.)

Anyway, my point here is this: Aswar has a ton of energy and a ton of charisma. He also lacks focus and has a tendency to get in over his head.

His website back in February also had a detailed immigration plan (not linked from the home page now but still up). He presented it as a plan that would “FIX IMMIGRATION” (that’s the title of the page). It would, in fact, probably mitigate a number of problems in the tiny corner of immigration that is refugee resettlement specifically (which, as you recall, he worked in with a nonprofit) but it’s absolutely not an Immigration Plan in the sense of dealing with all the other fairly complex pieces, including the key one of “getting the plan you want (whatever it is) through the US Senate.”

His website now is heavily focused on attacking Betty McCollum’s support for the DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act, which he describes as a “Betty McCollum’s inhumane attack on my refugees.” His website centers on that as a reason for running against Betty (although that’s definitely not why he got into the race, since she didn’t sign on to the bill until February 11th, a week after the caucuses.)

So let’s talk about the DIGNIDAD Act of 2025. It’s not, in fact, a great bill. The National Immigration Law Center describes it as “an outdated and harmful approach to immigration reform.” It does provide a path to citizenship for some DACA recipients and it provides a type of renewable legal status (but not a path to permanent residency or citizenship) for some undocumented immigrants; it also has a big pile of money for new detention centers for asylum seekers, more walls, more enforcement, etc., because the tactic for years now from Democrats has been to offer more money for border enforcement in an attempt to get Republicans to sign on to literally any sort of immigration reform. This is a bipartisan bill; it was introduced by Maria Salazar, a shitty Florida Republican, but with 16 immediate cosponsors, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. It looks to me like as they’ve had cosponsors sign on, they’ve tried to make sure the numbers stayed close to equal.

I’m going to say that under a Trump presidency, this has zero chance of passage because it has any amnesty provisions. But it is in fact a good example of the problem with the Democratic party’s approach to immigration: in an attempt to act reasonable and bipartisan, they offer up increasingly draconian enforcement mechanisms in exchange for literally any movement on immigration reform, and we wind up getting the increasingly draconian enforcement and zero actual progress on immigration reform.

Anyway, I wrote to Betty to ask why she signed on to this bill, if her staff can unpack that for me? What was it about this bill she thought was worth supporting? She doesn’t have a news release about it and doesn’t seem to have spoken about it publicly (that I could turn up). (I wrote to her campaign site. If I hear back I will update.) ETA: I heard back! It’s a long response so I’ll put that in in a minute.

But a lot of Aswar’s framing of the bill and Betty’s sponsorship of it just feels like… I don’t know, like someone who literally does not know how this sort of thing works. From his website: “Before Betty signed on, less than 10% of Congress sponsored this bill. They crucially lacked a prominent Democratic supporter. […] When Betty signed on to sponsor this MAGA-written immigration bill, it was the victory that Rep. Maria Salazar was praying for. Betty became the most powerful member of Congress — Democrat or Republican — to sign on for this law. She legitimized a fringe effort into a serious law that can realistically pass.” Nineteen Democrats had signed on before Betty and zero have signed on after her (she signed on in February). Betty is, I think, the most senior Democrat to sign on but one of the original cosponsors, Adriano Espaillat, is also on the Appropriations Committee and is the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Also the Democrats aren’t in power and also there’s no companion Senate bill.

Anyway, this was a whole lot of rabbit-hole-diving to say, if you are mad at Betty for whatever reason, you can go ahead and vote for Aswar, he doesn’t seem to be evil. He is absolutely not going to win the primary: someone online was complaining that they’d like to door-knock for him but he has no way to sign up to volunteer, which is not the mark of a serious candidate. I’m probably going to vote for Betty because my bar for casting a protest vote is actually pretty high (Amy Klobuchar has really pissed me off) and while I think he’s non-evil I am not at all convinced that he’d be competent in Congress.

ETA: OKAY. Now for Betty’s response on the issue of the DIGNIDAD act.

Since January 21, 2025, federal immigration policy has been defined by an abuse of law enforcement power against undocumented immigrants, documented legal immigrants, and U.S. citizens, particularly naturalized American citizens of color. The Trump administration, with the support of the MAGA majorities in Congress, is violating civil rights, human rights, and a myriad of Constitutional rights, especially due process.

Rep. McCollum’s record in Congress has been one of tireless advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform to create a legal pathway to citizenship for millions of people who call America home. During that same time, Rep. McCollum’s remarkable staff in her Saint Paul district office has assisted thousands of refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers, and American citizens with immigration and visa related casework in support of neighbors, families, and students.

Now, DACA recipients and people with Temporary Protected Status are all being indiscriminately attacked in the courts, on the streets, and in detention centers by Trump’s ICE/CBP. Minnesota knows this too well as we were victimized by Metro Surge and our neighbors were assaulted, arrested, and in too many cases, detained, mistreated, as well as deported.

Rep. McCollum is a legislator. She believes in the rule of law. The status quo will not change without legislative reforms signed into law that will hold ICE and other rogue federal agencies accountable. Those reforms require majorities in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate willing to vote for meaningful legislation to hold ICE accountable. It also requires a president in the White House willing to sign those legislative reforms into law. “Abolish ICE” is a slogan that motivates action and inspires, but it is not a legislative strategy or a realistic public policy, especially with Donald Trump in the White House and MAGA Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress.

The first step in affecting change is Democrats winning control of Congress in the 2026 mid-term election and prioritizing immigration reform. The second step is for Democrats, when in the majority, to find rational Republican allies willing to build a veto-proof majority for meaningful immigration reforms and protections.

To protect immigrants and U.S. citizens born to immigrants, serious legislators must find solutions, even incremental solutions. We must find a legal pathway forward to protect immigrants across the U.S. There is a harsh reality we are living with right now. From today until January 21, 2029, when we will hopefully have a Democratic president inaugurated who will end this nightmare, ICE and CBP are funded and empowered by this White House to continue the harshest of immigration attacks across our nation.

In Congress, there is presently one partisan solution, and it is the Trump anti-immigrant agenda – regardless how many times Rep. McCollum votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans have passed ICE and CBP funding without a single Democratic vote – this is why elections matter. We need to find a bipartisan, common-sense path forward that protects families and communities and starts to find common ground. There will need to be compromises that are not perfect. The alternative is the status quo which is ripping apart families, communities, and our country.

H.R. 4393, the DIGNIDAD (Dignity) Act of 2025, is a bipartisan immigration reform bill that includes the DREAM Act and the American Families United Act, a bill to keep families together in immigration court. It’s supported by American Families United, Improve the Dream, the National Hispanic Health Foundation, the National Immigration Forum, and the United States Immigrant Center. Among the most vocal voices opposing it are Charlie Kirk (prior to his death), Matt Gaetz, Laura Loomer, and Rep. Brandon Gill, who called for deporting Rep. Ilhan Omar.

Rep. Veronica Escobar is the lead Democrat on this bill. Rep. Escobar represents El Paso, TX, a border city. She is a member of the Progressive Caucus and has worked tirelessly to get messages and medicine to her constituents detained by ICE and CBP. She personally asked Rep. McCollum to join this bill as a co-sponsor.

Rep. McCollum’s efforts to achieve comprehensive immigration reform date back to 2006. This includes her strong support for pathways to citizenship, protecting DACA and TPS recipients, increased refugee admissions, speeding up asylum processing, and more. During Operation Metro Surge, Rep. McCollum personally conducted an oversight visit at the Whipple Building in February to ensure they maintained humane conditions and her congressional office has staff working tirelessly to prevent deportations and reunite families.

All six times that funding for ICE and CBP has come up for a vote since the beginning of Operation Metro Surge, Rep. McCollum has voted against funding for these agencies. She also took to the House floor to voice her opposition and that of the people of Minnesota to this funding. Despite Rep. McCollum’s fierce opposition, Republicans passed $70 billion to fund ICE and CBP for the rest of President Trump’s term without a single Democratic vote by using the reconciliation process (to avoid the U.S. Senate’s filibuster).

Each time immigration reform has been within reach over the past two decades, it has been killed by Republicans. The unfortunate reality of a Republican trifecta and a Trump presidency is that any solutions to alleviate the suffering of undocumented immigrants and people of color affected by the Trump administration’s brutality require Republican votes. The alternative is to continue with an unacceptable and deadly status quo.

We understand that Rep. McCollum’s opponent has offered his own distorted summary of H.R. 4394 on his website. His passion is to be applauded but he offers no reality based solutions.

Rep. McCollum’s opponent offers voters a pattern of distortions. He has not been honest about his strong support for Israel and attacked Rep. McCollum’s decades of work for Palestinian human rights, calling her the “most anti-Israel Democrat in Congress” (attached). Furthermore, he is running a dishonest, non-transparency campaign. He has not filed campaign finance reports with the FEC to disclose his donors, the source of his campaign funds, or how he is spending those funds. Additionally, he is the CEO of an import-export business based out of the Trump Building on Wall Street in New York City.

The DFL primary voters in the 4th Congressional District know Representative McCollum, her voting record and policy positions are available to the public, and she is open and transparent – following the letter and spirit of campaign finance laws. It is very clear that her opponent can attack, hurl unsubstantiated claims, and ignore all campaign finance laws. There is a remarkably clear contrast. In fact, no one knows who this person really is other than a website.

So! OK. I included all of it because I thought she laid out her principles, motivations, and the realities of the politics really well, and I also appreciated the petty little ding on him putting his business in the Trump building at the end. I’m definitely going to vote for Betty.

And on to a quick tour of the Republicans:

Gene Rechtzigel

Gene is a perennial candidate who’s been running for stuff long enough to have been made fun of by the City Pages (that’s a link to my blog post from 2020, because the City Pages is not online) which said “In the age of widespread disinformation campaigns like QAnon, it’s almost refreshing to hear from a good old-fashioned solitary crank like Gene.” That blog post gives you a pretty good overview of his views, which don’t seem to have changed much. He won the Republican primary a few years ago but needless to say did not win the general election.

Paul Wikstrom

Paul Wikstrom is the GOP-endorsed candidate in the primary. He’s a software engineering manager at Raytheon (per his LinkedIn), where he has worked for eight years. (Before that he worked for 17 years at Medtronic, so he’s someone who left the medical device industry to build weapons systems.) His website is top to bottom about fraud and how bad it is, so I sent him an e-mail to ask if he would support HR 7852 (the “No Getting Rich in Congress Act”) and HR 8309 (a law that would prevent Presidents from enriching themselves with public funds)? That was a week ago and you’ll be shocked to hear he has not responded.

Paul Xiong

Paul Xiong’s website says he’s a former law enforcement officer and was the chair of the Hmong 18 Council. I think I found his LinkedIn and like the other Paul, his actual job is in IT. Unlike the other Paul, he still works in health care rather than in weapons systems, so, point to Paul Xiong there. His social media is full of posts that make me think there’s some drama happening I can’t find. He’s apparently supported Democrats in the past and also got some pushback on his Easter post because he’s not a Christian.

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This seems like a good year to fundraise for a trans nonprofit, so I’m fundraising this year for TIGERRS. I don’t have a Patreon, and a fundraiser lets me see in a tangible way that people value my work, which is really helpful as a motivator. (This project is a lot of work.)

I also have a new book! Obstetrix is about an obstetrician who gets kidnapped by a cult because they want someone on hand to deliver their babies; it’s a story about enduring, surviving, and not giving up. You can buy it anywhere fine books are sold, and Uncle Hugo’s, Moon Palace, and Dreamhaven all (probably) have signed copies. (I also signed copies at Next Chapter, and will be making my way to other bookstores as time allows!)