A move to create an all-women city council in Minnesota has triggered a backlash from conservatives.
St. Paul became the first U.S. city of its size to have a city council made up of all women on Tuesday, according to CBS News citing the Center for Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
The seven-member body has a majority of women of color, all under age 40. The inauguration ceremony was held at the Ordway Theater on Tuesday.
“This new class of leader sends a clear message from St. Paul voters, I believe, to the whole world,” Council President-Designate Mitra Jalali said. “We trust the leadership of these women. We believe in their personal and professional experiences and vision—philanthropic and policy leaders, executive directors of nonprofits, an engineer. Wow.”
KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images)
“While this is historic, it should also simply be the way it is,” Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan added.
But posting on X, formerly Twitter, conservatives slammed the council and claimed the officials had only been appointed to reflect diversity.
Newsweek reached out to the St. Paul City Council via social media for comment.
Valentina Gomez, a Republican running to be Missouri’s secretary of state wrote: “All diversity elected officials who will likely turn the city to the ground.”
All diversity elected officials who will likely tun the city to the ground
— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) January 10, 2024
X account RedWave Press wrote: “It’s always white people’s fault, it never fails.”
TheRightGuy said: “They will free all the criminals and blame the unsafe streets on conservatives.”
A fourth wrote: “They look like they’re auditioning for a Disney movie. Does anyone actually take these people seriously?”
However, the news was also met with support. Heidi Heitkamp, a former U.S. senator from North Dakota and current director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, told MPR News the council was “dynamic.”
“What’s so dynamic about what’s happening in Minnesota and in St. Paul is…that it’s not just women, it’s the diversity of the women and the age of the women,” she said.
X user Ashley Fairbanks wrote: “Can we just take a second to be in awe that this is a whole body of government, that are young, progressive, women of colour, and they ATE? Way to go, St. Paul.”
As well as St. Paul, the city of Asheville, North Carolina, had an all-female city council in 2020.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.