The people didn’t want this. But the corporate donors did. Guess who got their way?
03.01.2026 21:31
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The people didn’t want this. But the corporate donors did. Guess who got their way?
To put a Republican +8 hold in TN in perspective: using the Cook PVI model there are roughly 99 GOP held seats in Congress that are closer to midpoint than this (2025 PVI R+10) district.
In MN that includes MN-06 (Emmer, PVI R+10), MN-08 (Stauber, R+7), MN-01 (Finstad R+6).
Huh.
AI for social good
I was a SNAP kid. Now I'm running for Congress against the guy who gutted SNAP.
I’ve been a public school teacher for 20 years. My wife is a paraprofessional who works with deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
So let me tell you why these cuts to special education will be absolutely devastating 🧵
www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...
I'm running the Madison Marathon this fall to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention @afspnational.bsky.social
Here's the link if you'd like to donate!
www.gofundme.com/f/support-am...
We raised more money than Congressman Brad Finstad last quarter, and we did it without any corporate PAC donations.
No one has ever beat him like this in a fundraising quarter, and we’re just getting started. #MN01
We had an incredible time at the Rochesterfest parade yesterday! Over 50 volunteers turned out and marched with us.
So come join us and help us get this campaign off the ground.
We're not only going to oust one of Elon Musk's biggest cheerleaders in Washington, but we're also going to elect an exceptional public servant to Congress:
secure.actblue.com/donate/jake-...
And Jake is a strong candidate to get the job done.
He raised over $100K on his first day.
And he actually LISTENS to voters — which is great for the people of southern MN, and less fun for his CM who has to pry him from crowds when we're running late
www.jakejohnsonforcongress.com/raised-100k-...
Not to mention just how badly southern MN is being hit by federal policy right now.
Our district's family farms and small businesses are being hammered by the tariffs, and our largest employer (the Mayo Clinic) is being threatened by DOGE and NIH cuts.
This is an R+6 seat.
Four of the last six races for this seat in #MN01 came within 4 points, and this race came within 0.5 points in the last Trump midterms.
Walz carried the district 7 times in the past 2 decades, and Klobuchar carried the district in 2024.
Now this is the part where people usually tell me "that's all fine and good, but MN-01 is a safe R seat"
Look, I learned math from the best. And I'm damn sure this is a winnable race.
You all need to go run your silly little election models again.
Meanwhile, our congressman Brad Finstad is nowhere to be found in our district — while he's in Washington working to gut the social safety net, support the tariffs, and ban nearly all abortions nationwide.
Also, he doesn't do his job? Like he just sucks at constituent services??
As a leader in his union, he's played a key role in negotiating contracts to improve working conditions for 1,000+ employees of Rochester Public Schools.
As a local advocate, he's helped improve school funding, environmental protections, and financial literacy in southern MN.
I saw him truly break new ground to help his students.
For example, he started a remedial math class for students at risk of dropping out. Not only did it help keep them in school, but dozens of these students went on to take accelerated math courses.
Jake is a lifelong resident of the district, the son of a garbage collector and a meter reader.
Programs like Medicaid and SNAP kept him on his feet, and Pell Grants gave him the chance to go to college.
He's been paying it forward as a public school teacher the past 19 years.
I'm fired up to start a new job as the campaign manager for @jakejohnsonmn.bsky.social, my high school math teacher who is running for Congress in MN-01!
This used to be Tim Walz's district. Today, it's repped by a founding member of the DOGE caucus.
He's going to flip this seat again.
I’m a teacher, union leader, and father, and I'm running for Congress in southern Minnesota.
I grew up poor here, so I know what high prices and gutted public programs mean to working families.
Meanwhile, Brad Finstad is jacking up prices and won't listen to us.
I was pleased to join others in the research community in signing this scientific consensus statement on bias and discrimination in AI.
www.aibiasconsensus.org
The full statement and list of signatories is here: aibiasconsensus.org
If you're affiliated with an academic institution and/or have a PhD, you can sign on to the letter here: aibiasconsensus.org/contact-us
Over 100 researchers are issuing a statement today that reiterates the scientific consensus that AI can exacerbate bias and discrimination.
The last three U.S. Administrations — including the first Trump Administration — and 192 other nations have recognized this basic fact.
We released a letter with 16 of our closest friends telling the Trump Administration: Transparency is essential for public trust. It is imperative you maintain the federal agency AI use cases inventories at the current level of detail.
Read more ➡️ fas.org/publication/omb-ai-use-case-inventories/
Turns out if you keep "harnessing the benefits and mitigating the risks" of tech on the margin, you won't do enough to prevent the owners of that tech from amassing this much power
"guardrails so basic that any engineer should be ashamed to release a product without them"
This is exactly what OMB's guidance on AI (m-24-10 & 18) put in place for fed gov use of AI. But it's now being revised.
Glad consumer and tech groups are speaking up!
www.cnbc.com/2025/01/30/t...
We have built a state that relies on nonprofits and industry to do its basic tasks.
Pausing funding breaks in this framework breaks the current us social safety net.
Though the legality of this directive is quite suspect, it goes WAY beyond research.
The new order says that AI systems should be "free from ideological bias or engineered social agendas."
While an AI-focused order from Trump 1.0 pointed to civil rights/liberties protections, the latest order makes no such reference
www.nextgov.com/artificial-i...
President Trump’s Executive Order re: DOGE is not the most important nor most inhumane EO from yesterday, but here’s a thread about it.
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
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The scope of the birthright citizenship executive order is broader than some rumors had it. The denial of birthright citizenship would apply not just to U.S. born children of *undocumented immigrants* but to anyone who did not have a parent who was at least a permanent resident.
