Kati Medford for Ward 13

I'll write more later, once I've rested a little, but I just wanna say that I am so grateful for every moment of the last several months.

Also? Like 3000 people ranked me in some way. That's amazing to me. It sure feels like a win.✨

This'll never not feel weird.

(Ballot pics for transparency. I had planned on ranking Kate second but I'm increasingly wary of her.)

Not all of our supporters are comfortable putting their information out there, and that’s okay. We know you, and we see you, and we appreciate your support!

“It’s time for Ward 13 to show the rest of the city that we’re ready to work towards progress, that we’re willing to be trailblazers in pursuit of justice, that we can work together to build a future for all. Abolition is the future; abolition is a practice, and it’s time for Kati to bring Ward 13 on board with the mission.” - Ward 13 Resident, East Harriet Neighborhood

There are more candidates running for Ward 13 this year than have in quite some time. I think this reflects the growing dissatisfaction with our current representation. Change is happening in Minneapolis, and I don’t want to sit on the sidelines. It’s time for us to take an active role in making things right. There’s one other candidate who feels like I do, and that’s Mike Norton for Minneapolis City Council - Ward 13. We don’t share the same views on everything, but we do agree that progress is needed now rather than the status quo. Rank me Number 1 and Mike Number 2 when you go vote today, and let’s start moving forward!

Here’s a good list to take with you when you go vote on Tuesday!

Our Revolution Twin Cities Endorsements & Anti-Endorsements – Our Revolution Twin Cities Donate to all our endorsed candidates at once. Money is split evenly between all. If you want to give more to particular candidates, click their site links below.

So many of us have not been truly represented by our city leadership these last few years. I hope to change that. It’s time for the status quo to step aside and allow true progress to step forward.

“Kati will stand for ALL people in Ward 13. Visionary, yet down to earth, I’m confident that she will work collaboratively with her Minneapolis constituents to effect real growth where it is so desperately needed regarding equality, justice, and taking care of our planet. Her broad-reaching and bold approach is a welcome change! “ - Anz Johansen, Fulton Neighborhood Resident

Remember, remember the second of November! 😏

I’m honored to have this one at my table.

“I’ve known Kati for almost 13 years. I’ve seen her grow from a community-centered mom to a community-building mom, business-owner, people-connector, and now, candidate. She represents what’s needed in Minneapolis: someone willing to have the conversations with neighbors, old friends, and new constituents about how to love the city forward, they agree with her platform or not. She is a soothing breath in our overflowing political landscape and I enthusiastically endorse her for city council member for Ward 13.” -Anwulika Okafor, Organizer with Reclaim the Block

Thanks to MoveOn Twin Cities for your tweet. Yes, we need to get new leadership in City Council for Ward 13; leadership that welcomes progress rather than hindering it.

Rank me No. 1 this Tuesday!

Cyn met up with us at one of our first-ever campaign events and said, “I’m so excited! I FINALLY have someone I can vote for in this ward!” We’re so grateful for her enthusiasm and support.

If you’d like to personally endorse me, please send me a message through the link socials, or visit our website to send one through our contact form.

Link in bio!

Tonight Samantha Pree-Stinson for Minneapolis BET joined us for a 2-hour meet and greet that turned into a 5-hour bonfire with new friends. Can't this just be what politics is about - seeing each other's humanity?

Thank you for the kind endorsement, Ani!

If you’d like to personally endorse me, please send me a message through the link socials, or visit our website to send one through our contact form.

Link in bio!

One week left until Election Day!! But there’s still time to volunteer with the campaign, and we sure would welcome the help! Here are some ways you can join me in the work I’m doing.

Eeek! Just TEN DAYS until election day!

2 weeks til Election Day! Kati is endorsed by the 5CD/Minneapolis Green Party, Our Revolution Twin Cities, and a growing number of Ward 13 community leaders and residents as well as Minneapolis candidates for other offices and other political leaders. I have come to know Kati over the last several months. She is a very down....

Cam Gordon, the lone Green currently on city council, has been very gracious and helpful to me as I’ve started on this new journey into politics. He cares about our city and I would love the opportunity to work with him towards a cleaner, safer, more equitable Minneapolis.

“I am proud to support my fellow Green Party endorsed candidate, Kati Medford, for City Council. Kati and I share the values of social justice, grassroots democracy, nonviolence, and ecological wisdom and I am excited about her strong commitment to economic, racial, and environmental justice and true transformation of our public safety system. I believe that the people of Ward 13 are lucky to have such a progressive leader stepping forward to represent them and encourage them to make Kati their first choice on November 2nd.” - Cam Gordon, Ward 2 City Council Member

We’ve just added a whole bunch of updates to our website (katiforward13.com), including endorsements, videos, and a deeper dive into the topics that I’m focusing on. We’ll be updating as new stuff becomes available!

While you are there please donate. We are nearing the final week and could really use your financial support as we gear up for the home stretch. Any contribution of $10, $25, $50, or more (up to $600) is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I hope you can join us to learn about reparations tonight - and bring your questions!

If you can't make it, it'll be recorded so you don't have to miss this important discussion. Head over to our Facebook event (in comments) to watch!

Trahern Crews is a prolific organizer and activist, and is part of the team that successfully pushed the St. Paul City Council to explore reparations as a city policy. To have his endorsement is such an honor.

“Kati Medford is a strong advocate for our values of social justice, grassroots democracy, non-violence, and ecological wisdom. She is an emerging leader on the issues of racial justice and reparations at the local level. Once elected, I look forward to further partnership with Kati in this important work.” -Trahern Crews, Chair of the Green Party of Minnesota

I’m honored to have Sam’s endorsement! She’s such a solid leader and a committed advocate for progress, and will be incredible on the Board of Estimate & Taxation. Delighted to have her as a fellow Green!

“I am supporting Kati because of her authenticity, dedication to community, compassion, ability to listen and apply what she hears in tangible ways, and for her consistency. Kati is qualified, viable, and ready to lead for the collective good. She understands that you cannot reform the system that created every gap and divide the most marginalized face. I trust in her ability and would love to see her intersectional voice represent the 13th ward.”
-Samantha Pree Stinson, Candidate for Board of Estimate & Taxation

Solidarity Not Charity

Ultimately, what this campaign is about - for me - is to Go Get My People. Does this city need yet another white person to lead - especially in racial and economic justice issues? Nope - but we do need someone new to represent the people of Ward 13.

I didn't decide to run because "if I don't, who will?" or because I think I have all the answers (I definitely don't), but because Ward 13 should have the option to choose a different posture. I often say "a posture of generosity", but I want to be clear: I don't mean CHARITY-generosity; I mean the "I have a beautiful life and I want everyone to have a beautiful life"-generosity. The kind that says "I have Enough, and because you're a fellow human being, I want you to have Enough, too."

We cannot continue to try to address inequalities and racism without addressing the system on which they're based. Many of us in SW Mpls disproportionately benefit from capitalism, and if we truly want to see our neighbors thrive, we will need to actively give up our privilege.

Thank you Kristina for the kind endorsement!

“As a former Green Party endorsed candidate for the Minneapolis city council I know how hard it is to put yourself out there in public and stand up for far reaching, radical change. I am endorsing Kati because she has the ability and courage to speak truth to power on the pressing issues our city faces today.” - Kristina M. Gronquist, 2013 Candidate for Ward 3

If you’d like to personally endorse me, please send me a message through the socials, or visit our website to send one through our contact form.

Link in bio!

Welp. I just finished listening to the Public Safety Forum: A Black-Led Discussion on Ballot Question #2 hosted by Racial Justice Network. I highly encourage you to watch it yourself. Yes, it's three hours, but yes, you can and should listen to Black leaders talking about their own liberation.

Just in case you don't though - here's my take. As a white woman from SW Mpls, I'm well aware that I don't know what I don't know and that my experience is vastly different from that of the residents of North. I'm not here to tell anyone what they need or don't need; I'm here to listen. Do you want to know what I heard from every single person as I listened to this discussion? Resources, resources, resources. Everyone knows exactly what's needed for community safety, and that's community investments. For nearly three hours, every person said that the police department needs to change and that community investments are what keep us safe. Every one of them!

The only difference I heard between the two sides is that one side said they're afraid of what they call "an experiment". I can appreciate that uncertainty to an extent, but is having more resources and fewer police an experiment? Do we really have no example of safe, well-resourced neighborhoods that have fewer police? Of course we do.

It's time for the rest of Minneapolis to get their fair share of the resources so that the entire city can thrive. Changing the charter will allow us to redirect some of the ridiculous police budget to things that we all want and deserve to keep us safe. If we don't change the charter, activists will continue to rely on donations and volunteers to do the work while also fighting state sanctioned murder by the police.

It's been an intense few weeks with no real days off and no matter how good it is, it's still a lot. So, while I do my best to turn off my brain and just BE, I'll be soaking in the sunlight and the music of Cloud Cult. If you haven't heard of them yet, please give yourself this gift and listen. I can never pick a favorite, but this one is always good:

Complicated Creation

I called up the moon for a little consultation
Yes, you know that I'm a happy man
But something in me is burning
I gotta push it out
So much frustration

The moon called me back
And said "I'll give you some advice
You gotta live a little lighter
You gotta breathe a little deeper
You gotta suck it in
There's your medication

If you pray to God for rain
Don't you complain about the lightning
If you're asking for directions
Don't you moan about the distance
Must you lose it all
To find your appreciation

If you rid of all your baggage you will likely float away
But you can't know beauty if you don't know pain
Gotta feel it all
There's your medication

You know you are as small as the things you let annoy you
And you know you are gigantic as the things that you adore
Some days you give thanks
Some days you give the finger
It's a complicated creation

Well, this'll be a fun way to wrap up the week!

If you can't join us live tonight around 8, the interview will be forever memorialized on the interwebs here:

Interview with Minneapolis City Council Candidate Kati Medford On this edition of the Trahern Crews Show, we will talk with Kati Medford who is running for city council in Minneapolis Minnesota.

Today we'll be at Lyndale Open Streets from 11-5! Stop by our table at 42nd and Lyndale! ✨

Come get a button or a yard sign when you visit!

Thank you to The Collective Social Network for having me on today!

Jose Requena talks with Kati Medford for Minneapolis City Council - Ward 13

Join us tonight!

Looking forward to hanging out with Mike Norton for Minneapolis City Council - Ward 13 and talking about anti-racism work! ✨

Did you know that Saint Paul is on a path to reparations NOW?

From SaintPaulRecoveryAct.com: "On Jan 13, 2021, City Council passed Res 21-77 in which Council apologized on behalf of the City of Saint Paul for the City's role in the institutional and structural racism that has denied Saint Paul’s African American community access to housing, jobs, education and health care.

The Council resolution also calls for the creation of a limited-term Legislative Advisory Committee which will work with the City's Administration to create a framework in the City's Codes for a permanent commission, to be known as the Saint Paul Recovery Act Community Reparations Commission. The commission will be empowered to make short, medium and long-term recommendations to specifically address the creation of generational wealth for the American Descendants of Chattel Slavery and to boost economic mobility and opportunity in the Black community."

Beautiful.

Dr. Pastor Toya Woodland, Trahern Crews, and Jeremie English have been working on the Saint Paul Recovery Act. They recently reached out and offered to do a discussion panel so we can learn more about it and talk about how Minneapolis can create a path to reparations, too. I'm so honored to host this event, and I hope you can join us!

Event link in bio!

Look what showed up today! Let us know if you want a yard sign and we’ll deliver this week!

We'll be on the patio at Terzo on 50th and Penn until 5 for aperitivo (basically Italian happy hour) and conversation! If you can't make it today, you can find us here every Wednesday through October (weather permitting)!

Every Sunday (weather permitting) through the end of October I'll be outside Sparrow Cafe from noon-1. I'd love to buy you a coffee and hear your thoughts. If this time doesn't work for you, you can always set up a time with me through our website.✨

We're so honored and delighted to be endorsed by Our Revolution Twin Cities! Thank you for all the great work you do!

We've moved the party inside, friends! Don't forget your mask!

This is yet another HUGE example of why MPD cannot be reformed. It needs to be replaced by a model that better serves our diverse communities.

The change won't happen overnight, and it would be incredibly harmful if it did. But we need to start laying the groundwork NOW, because this is absolutely unacceptable.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-policing-minneapolis/

Hands-Off Patrol After Floyd's killing, Minneapolis police retreated, data shows

I have no idea what inspired that face at that moment, but yes, the Fulton Fall Festival was that fun ALL DAY. My favorite part about campaigning is connecting with neighbors and hearing that Ward 13 residents are ready for change. I'm so hopeful that we'll come to the table as enthusiastic participants in making Minneapolis a better place for everyone!