Longtime St. Paul Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum is seeking another term in Minnesota’s Fourth Congressional District and again faces May Lor Xiong, who in 2022 was the first Hmong-American Republican nominee for Congress.

McCollum is Minnesota’s longest-serving representative and has safely won the seat twelve times before. The district is a historic Democratic stronghold held by the party since 1949 and includes Ramsey and Washington counties.

Still, McCollum, first elected in 2000, says she doesn’t take any election for granted despite her strong advantage. She said she has been out in the community hearing from voters about what they’d like to see from their representative, calling the election season her “report card time.”

McCollum says Democrats need to take control of the House to end years of Republican “chaos,” take bolder action on climate change, and protect abortion rights on the national level following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Nonpartisan national election analysis from the Cook Political Report rates the Fourth District as solidly Democratic. And despite losing by around 36 percentage points in 2022, Xiong says she hopes to shrink that gap by building on her past campaign.

“This time I hope, with a name recognition locally and nationally, that I will be able to get my message across the district more,” the former St. Paul English language teacher said in an interview.

GOP challenger

Xiong, a graduate of Concordia College, is a mother of four and immigrated to the U.S. from Laos as an 8-year-old refugee. She said she chose to run for office after the 2020 riots following the murder of George Floyd destroyed small businesses in St, Paul.

Xiong said she thought Democrats were weak on crime and that they went too far in shutting down businesses and schools during the coronavirus pandemic.

Public safety remains a theme in her 2024 campaign, but like many Republicans, she’s also campaigning on the rising prices of groceries, housing and utilities. GOP candidates have attempted to blame inflation on Democrats’ major spending bills.

Xiong’s campaign says to stop inflation the government needs to stop “excessive money printing and reckless spending in Washington, D.C.,” and bring back fiscal responsibility.

Progressive priorities

McCollum described the economy as “picking up” after the difficult pandemic years and if reelected said she will continue pursuing progressive priorities. McCollum sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee where she chairs the Defense Subcommittee and sits on the Interior-Environment Subcommittee.

“I’ve been very focused on making sure that the next generation — whether it’s climate, whether it’s education, whether it’s health care — all those things that impact our daily lives, that when the federal government has a role in it, it steps up,” said McCollum.

McCollum said the House under Republican leadership has stopped Congress from getting its work done on time, and that school districts and local governments who depend on federal help need to have more reliable national leadership.

As was the case in 2022, Xiong has painted a picture of life in the district as one where constituents have a tough time getting ahead — something she says calls for new leadership.

“We’ve been electing a Democrat to represent for so long, for 60 to 70 years, and I think that we haven’t seen any change,” she said, pointing to the emergence of a “Hmong homeless encampment” in St. Paul as an example of the district’s struggles.

“That’s not what I find when I go door-knocking. People are looking at putting time and energy into their communities and their schools and their churches and synagogues and mosques, and they want to build a stronger community,” she said.

McCollum is a graduate of St. Catherine University who grew up in South St. Paul. Before she was elected to Congress in 2000, she served on the North St. Paul City Council and in the Minnesota House.

Xiong faces a steep climb against McCollum, who generally defeats her Republican challengers by more than 30 percentage points. And as of mid-October, McCollum had spent about $1.3 million dollars on her race, about 15 times more than Xiong’s $85,000.

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