Here is some data you can use to influence the legislative debate at the Minnesota Legislature. It shows the percentage of ALANA population in every legislative district and the margin of victory in the last election in that district. I hope you also join us in ensuring long term investment funds are established to build wealth in the ALANA (African Latino Asian and Native American) communities in Minnesota. You can use the data here with data from an earlier report on the ethnic economy for each legislative district to get a comprehensive picture for each district.
The district data is from the Census and was used by the judges in drawing the legislative districts in Minnesota. The election data is from the Secretary of State website.
An interesting portrait emerges: In 44 percent of House districts and 48 percent of the Senate districts, the margin of victory in the recent election was less than the percentage of ALANA constituents in that district. In other words, it is likely that ALANA constituents played a decisive role in electing legislators in those districts. If we add to this number, the races that are very close and the districts where ALANA legislators were elected by a greater share than the ALANA percent in their districts, we find a significant ALANA presence in majority of House (54 percent) and Senate districts (63 percent).
Note – the data is total population and not voting age population. This allows a glimpse on what happens in a district in the next few years as the ALANA population grows in that district.
I also rank House and Senate District by the percentage of ALANA constituents. In majority of the House and Senate Legislative districts there are at least 20 percent of the population ALANA. Another case for the need for adequate representation of ALANA economic interests.
This data will allow the community to monitor votes and assess via scorecards and other tools whether the $1.4 trillion ALANA economy in Minnesota is adequately represented at the Capitol.