The Democratic Party is expected to officially nominate Gov. Tim Waltz at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week. 

As Minnesota’s governor, he’s passed a multitude of progressive legislation to help improve the lives of Minnesotans. In his first term, Gov. Waltz has made historic investments in education, expanded worker’s rights, provided tax cuts for working families and the middle class, expanded voting rights–and more.

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Gov. Waltz’s progressive policies have made Minnesota perform much better with its economy, social safety support, and quality of life than other states in the Midwest.

To discuss what Minnesota is doing to unite liberals and conservatives on voting for these policies, Prof. David Schultz from Hamline University and Prof. Louis Johnston from Saint John’s University join the show.

Guests

Prof. David Schultz is a distinguished Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies at Hamline University. He says the voting patterns in the St. Paul metropolitan area has driven the liberal policies within the last decade.

“There’s been this kind of political coalition and consensus — I’m going to say in the last 20 years, and especially in the last few years — what’s really happened to allow for the enactment of a lot of these progressive policies,” Schultz said. “Minnesota is dominated by Minneapolis, St. Paul, much in the same way that Detroit dominates, population wise, Michigan — but even more so. The metropolitan area is about 55% of the population in the vote, and it votes very liberally. And what’s happening, is that the liberal voting patterns of Minneapolis, St. Paul has really come to drive Minnesota politics in the last 10 to 15 years.”

Prof. Louis Johnson is a professor of economics in the College of Saint Benedict at Saint John’s University. He claims the recent progressive legislation is due to a second “Minnesota Miracle.”

“The Minnesota Miracle of 1971 came about because of Minnesota’s tremendous growth between the end of the Second World War and the late 1960s. This second one, if we’re going to call it that, is the same kind of phenomena,” Johnson explained. “Minnesota, especially starting in the mid-1990s, benefited tremendously from the end of the Cold War and the high tech boom. And so by 2022, we had very large budget surpluses, and the question was: ‘What are we going to do with them?’ With the Democratic control of both branches of Legislature and the control of the governor’s office, they doubled down on the idea of investing in people rather than cutting taxes and hoping that things would happen.”

It’s been 10 months since the war in Gaza started.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces after Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking 251 hostage.

With the ongoing violence, President Joe Biden faced backlash for his Middle East policy. Michigan voters started the “uncommitted” movement during the February primary to protest the U.S. government supplying arms to Israel.

Read: Dearborn Mayor Hammoud: ‘There must be a timeline of how we achieve a just Palestinian state’

Now that Biden stepped aside, Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination presents an opportunity for change in policies surrounding the war. Her views appear to be in line with Biden’s in regards to Israel’s “right to defend itself”. Yet, she has also urged Israeli forces to allow humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip through a temporary ceasefire. 

Today on Created Equal, host Stephen Henderson talks to former Democratic Congressman Andy Levin and Abbas Alweih, an uncommitted delegate to the Democratic Party convention, about politics inside the Democratic Party, and how the war in Gaza — and the United States’ support for Israel — is affecting those politics.

Guests

Andy Levin is a Senior Fellow for the Center for American Progress and former U.S. Representative of Michigan’s 9th Congressional District. He’s concerned VP Harris won’t be able to win in Michigan in November’s election because of its large Arab American population.

“I don’t see how [Democrats] could win Michigan without changing policy on Gaza, because we’re the most densely Arab American state [and] we have many other Muslim Americans who are so upset about this,” Levin said. “Remember the AME bishops writing about this: thousands of Black pastors and many people in the African American community, progressives, Jewish progressives, students on our campuses [are upset]. Even though Biden beat Trump 14 times [more] in 2020 [than] Trump beat Hillary in 2016 in Michigan, he still only won by 154,000 votes.”

Abbas Alaweih is the spokesperson for the Listen to Michigan Campaign, and an uncommitted delegate. Though he feels he has a place in the Democratic party, its Middle East foreign policy is difficult to handle as someone with family members in Lebanon.

“[The] experience of going to work on Capitol Hill, even during Democratic leadership, oftentimes, was an experience of going to work in institutions that were actively funding the harming and killing [of] people like me,” Alaweih said. “For whatever reason, in our politics, there is just this sort of assumed idea that Palestinian lives, Arab lives, Muslim lives — matter just a little bit less.”

Martin Luther King Jr. is a towering figure in America’s history of civil rights and social justice. Despite this, there aren’t many comprehensive biographies on the activist. As more research and public records become available, King can be fully rendered as a person.

Two Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers attempted to dig into King as an individual.

In 1986, David Garrow wrote Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The work is compiled of more than seven hundred interviews, King’s personal papers, and thousands of FBI documents to trace his life from a young pastor to one of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement.

Jonathan Eig wrote King: A Life in 2023. It discusses the dark and complex emotions King faced in his personal and professional life as he grew into a civil rights icon.

Today on Created Equal, both Eig and Garrow joined host Stephen Henderson to discuss how America’s understanding of King has developed since his assassination on April 4, 1968.

Guests

David Garrow won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his book, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The author and historian says King was uncomfortable with being placed in a celebrity role when being credited for the Civil Rights movement. 

“King was not someone who sought out a public leadership role, and indeed, as he became more and more famous through the years, he became more and more uncomfortable about this degree of celebrity and praise that was focused on him,” Garrow said. “He quite rightly felt, [it] was excessive, [and] that the credit for the movement should be understood as being shared far, far more broadly.”

Jonathan Eig wrote King: A Life, which won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. The biographer and journalist said being able to read previous biographies of King allowed him to adopt a more intimate lens when creating his work. 

“I felt like it was time for a book that reminded us of his humanity, that he was flawed, that he doesn’t have to be perfect to be a hero and to be as courageous as he was, and that it would be a book that would exist in a different space than than some of those that had come before.”

Legislative Republicans’ actions to halt the implementation of minimum wage increases and paid sick leave in 2018 was ruled unconstitutional by the Michigan Supreme Court. On July 31, Mothering Justice v. Attorney General ruled the actions of the Republican party “violated the people’s constitutionally guaranteed right to propose and enact laws.”

This ruling ensures the original language of the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act (IWOWA) and the Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) are implemented over the current versions — which were modified in the November 2018 general election.

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By implementing the original language of the IWOWA, Michigan’s $10.33 minimum wage will climb above $12 by February 2025 — and it will be at $15 an hour by 2029. To account for inflation, it will ensure hourly wages are proportionately adjusted as they are implemented. Further, the minimum wage for tipped workers, which is $3.93 an hour, will be phased out by February 2029.

Additionally, the original language of the ESTA ensures up to 72 hours of paid sick leave per year for Michigan workers. All Michigan employers must provide this leave, meaning all employees are eligible.

Today on Created Equal, host Stephen Henderson talked to Danielle Atkinson, an advocate whose work focuses on promoting economic fairness in Michigan, and Brian Calley, the head of Small Business Association of Michigan, which has said the new rules could cost them money — and cost Michiganders jobs.

Guests

Danielle Atkinson is the founder and national director of Mothering Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for policy to support mothers of color. She says this law is beneficial because most Michiganders don’t have access to paid time off for caregiving or for themselves — and deciding between health and paying their bills isn’t fair.

“Seventy percent of voters say that they are in favor of this [legislation]. The reason why they say they’re in favor is because they need it — they don’t have access to a single paid sick day,” Atkinson said. “[This] means they’re making the choice between going to work sick or paying their bills, putting public health in jeopardy, [and] not being there for themselves or their loved ones.”

Brian Calley is the CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan. He is concerned for Michigan workers, because those who already get a lot of time off may get less with the new ruling. 

“It imposes a one size fits all, which might help some people who had less than this or didn’t have anything at all. But it has also the potential to remove flexibility and to to also…remove the amount of time that [employees] have off today — especially if they don’t normally have sick days,” Calley said.

The Democratic Party has officially selected Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s presidential nominee on Monday afternoon — marking the first time a woman of color has won a major party’s nomination, and only the second time a woman has been selected.

Of the 4,567 Democratic delegates who cast ballots, Harris — who just held a rally at Detroit Metro Airport on Wednesday — won the support of 99% of the voters. Though Harris appears to be succeeding in her rushed bid for the presidency, it’s important to note that there are significant barriers women face when running for an election. 

Today on Created Equal, NBC News Correspondent Ali Vitali; political science professor Dr. Cathy Wineinger; and Kimberly Peeler-Allen, visiting practitioner at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, joined the show to discuss Harris’ nomination and the state of women in politics.

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Guests

Ali Vitali is a Capitol Hill correspondent for NBC News and the author of the book “Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House…Yet.” She says that Michigan’s women-dominated leadership will assist Harris’ campaign because Michiganders are used to voting for, and seeing, women win top government offices. 

“Politically, Michigan is a battleground state. But from the perspective of gender and politics, you [have to] look up and down the upper echelons of leadership in Michigan,” Vitali said. “You have, of course, Gretchen Whitmer at the top of that, but then you have Jocelyn Benson and Dana Nessel. It’s important to look at the fact that Michigan voters are habituated to seeing women run for executive and top leadership roles, and they’re used to seeing them win.” 

Dr. Cathy Wineinger is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. She says the biggest barrier to office is firstly getting women to run, and then making sure they run as themselves. 

“I think getting women to decide to run in the first place is the biggest challenge to overcome. But I think we’re seeing that, and this change in the political landscape does send a signal to women [and] to women of color, that: ‘Hey, I can run and I can run as myself. I don’t need to fit into this [white man] stereotype,’’ Wineinger said. “And that’s especially true on the Democratic side of the aisle – I think it’s maybe not as true on the Republican side.”

Kimberly Peeler-Allen is a visiting practitioner at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and was formerly the Senior Advisor to New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ reelection. She says the reason women of color experience harassment when seeking government positions is because of America’s history as a white, patriarchal society. 

“The vice president and [her] campaign aren’t leaning into the diversity of her experience and her identity, but the Republicans are,” Peeler-Allen said. “We’re seeing the increase of violence, threats and harassment against women and people of color in elected office across the board. A lot of that is sparked because of, for lack of a better phrase, their ‘difference’ from what the norm has been.”

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The Michigan Supreme Court ruled this week that its 2020 decision — which held that former property owners were entitled to the profits of tax foreclosure sales — can apply retroactively.

That means the “windfall profits” generated by the foreclosing county treasurer would be returned to the previous landowners.

Since Detroit has a complicated history with homeownership, this ruling strikes at the heart of poverty and inequality in the city. Yet, it may not provide the intended restorative justice for Detroit residents. For example, landlords who bought a property through tax foreclosure but then lost it to the same process, could argue they are owed the windfall profits rather than the original owner. 

Alex Alsup, vice president of research and development for Regrid — a property data and location intelligence company — Detroit Free Press and BridgeDetroit reporter Nushrat Rahman, and United Community Housing Coalition Director Ted Phillips joined Created Equal on Wednesday to discuss what this new ruling means for homeowners, the government, and how it’ll affect issues like land speculation. 

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Guests

Alex Alsup is vice president of Research and Development for Regrid, an intelligence company that specializes in gathering information about land parcels across the United States. He shares concerns about who this court decision actually benefits. 

“I think that the ruling in Rafaeli and the [one the] other day are cast as some sort of ‘justice’ for homeowners who lost their homes to tax foreclosure. [Though] there are enormous amounts of restorative justice that’s due to them, but I do not think these rulings amount to anything like that for Detroit homeowners,” he said.

Nushrat Rahman is an economic mobility reporter for the Detroit Free Press and BridgeDetroit. She says this ruling will also impact county coffers — where the excess profit is held after a house sells in auction. 

“I talked to the Michigan Association of Counties, and they said that they don’t know the fiscal impact at this point. They’ve advised their counties to prepare for this because [they] don’t know where the money’s coming from,” she said.

Ted Phillips is the director of the United Community Housing Coalition. He says the people who are going to most benefit from this ruling are investors.

“It seems ironic that if some of these investors did make a bad play on certain properties and lose them for more than what the taxes were, that they would now be able to recoup that money while skirting taxes for all these other years,” he said.

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Local clerks play a critical roll in ensuring free and fair elections.

City and township clerks hold three major responsibilities – keeping track of records like birth, death and marriage certificates, and overseeing financial operations and local elections.

According to Canton Township Clerk Michael Siegrist, of the 1,240 Michigan township clerks up for election in November — accounting for roughly 82% of the state’s 1,516 local election officials — 118 have no clerk candidates on the ballot.

“We’ve never seen anything like this in history, 9.5% of all clerk races this year will have NOBODY elected.” he wrote on X earlier this month. “Why doesn’t anyone want to do this job? How does a state deal with such a massive labor shortage? Who will run elections in these communities?”

Today on Created Equal host Stephen Henderson was joined by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck and Michigan Advance reporter Jon King to discuss how to protect election integrity in cities or townships without clerk candidates.

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Guests 

Jocelyn Benson is the secretary of state for Michigan. She says the state is prepared with a back-up plan when there aren’t clerks to fill positions.

“When there is a vacancy at any point — or if a clerk fails to do their duty, their legal duty, under the law — we at the state level have supervisory authority where we can appoint someone or come in,” she said. “Oftentimes that’ll involve working with folks in the community to identify someone [like] local officials, mayors, township supervisors, and county clerks. [They] also have different elements of supervisory power over local jurisdictions to make sure the job gets done. So even if there’s a vacancy, we still have ways of making sure the work happens, [so] that democracy continues to go smoothly.”

Jon King is a reporter for Michigan Advance and the author of a recent article about the state’s local clerk candidate shortage. He says the additional duties given to clerks means there’s a larger personal cost. 

“The people that are administering these elections are, I think, getting somewhat swamped. I mean, we talked about early voting starting this weekend…I saw several online posts from clerks who were at their early voting areas, and they have their kids in the other room, coloring,” he said. “And, [on] one hand, you go, ‘Oh, that’s cute.’ On the other hand, you realize that there is a cost, a personal cost to be paid.”

Justin Roebuck is the clerk for Ottawa County, Michigan. He says clerks work with a system of municipal checks and balances, meaning that those who run elections know their community very deeply. 

“I’ve been a county clerk for a decade, and the people that I work with as my township’s clerk, are experts in their field, but they’re also experts in their communities,” he said. “You know, they know their communities.”

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.

Since Vice President Kamala Harris’ endorsement from President Joe Biden last Sunday, an overwhelming majority of congressional Democrats, governors and delegates have pledged their support for her as the Democratic Party nominee.

While this support is non-binding, it is significant for the start of her campaign for the official nomination. 

But Harris’ vice presidency has not been without it’s criticism, as many question her efforts to secure the border — one of her frontline tasks during her time in office — at a time when immigration has become a central issue in Republican messaging.

Elaina Plott Calabro, a staff writer for The Atlantic who has written extensively about Harris’ vice presidency, joined Created Equal on Thursday to discuss her recent article about how the former prosecutor and presumptive Democratic nominee can embrace her law-enforcement record to compete against Trump this November. 

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Guest:

Elaina Plott Calabro is a staff writer for The Atlantic. She has been reporting on Harris’s career both before and during her time as vice president of the United States. She says that Harris took a backseat as vice president because she was more comfortable in a supportive role after America’s response to her attempted immigration reform in Central America. 

“I remember [Joe Biden’s former Chief of Staff Ron Klain] said to me in our interview that her response was: ‘I’m just terrified of doing something that sets back the administration, or distracts from the mission.’ She really took it seriously. Her mandate as vice president was to sort of support the president and make sure that people saw him as a really accomplished individual, [which was] an agenda that was working for them,” she said. “She was comfortable in that role, sort of working more behind the scenes – which is why I think I levy a lot of responsibility on Joe Biden for kind of freeing her from those inherent [or] structural inhibitions of the vice presidency, to let her be more of a star in her own right [with the endorsement].”

Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.