Several Minneapolis police squads responded to a Minneapolis DFL endorsement convention Saturday afternoon after a fight broke out, leading to the event being dispersed with no candidate endorsement.
Video posted to Twitter by John Edwards, who blogs about Minneapolis politics as Wedge Live, shows the melee erupted at the Ward 10 endorsing convention after supporters of Minneapolis City Council Member Aisha Chughtai took the stage at Ella Baker Global Studies & Humanities Magnet School. Supporters for Chughtai’s challenger, Nasri Warsame, shouted and jeered in the gymnasium, and a man waving a Warsame sign jumped on the stage. More people in Warsame shirts followed and continued to shout, slam on tables and wave signs, disrupting the convention proceedings.
“This is embarrassing!” convention chair Sam Doten shouted, finally adjourning after pleading futilely for order. “We are shutting this down!” he said. “This is no longer safe!”
In a Facebook post afterward, Warsame said his campaign manager “has been assaulted by one of the other campaign staff member, and he’s now being transported to hospital by an ambulance.”
“The convention was shut down due to turmoil, and all the people were instructed to exit the building,” Warsame wrote. “No endorsement at this point, but more questions to ask regarding the process.”
Minneapolis DFL Chair Briana Rose Lee said on Twitter that “several DFL volunteers were assaulted” at the convention, including members of the state executive committee.
“The behavior displayed today was despicable and unacceptable,” Lee wrote. “I don’t know the next steps yet. But there will be repercussions.”
The video does not show clearly what preceded the fight. “I don’t know what triggered it,” Edwards said in an interview. “People just kind of spontaneously came forward to the stage.”
Edwards said there had been votes on rules and disagreements on procedure, and that issues with translating appeared to be causing some confusion earlier in the day. Chughtai was about to give the first speech of the convention, and Warsame would have been next, followed by a question-and-answer segment and then votes.
A Minneapolis police spokesman confirmed officers were on the scene Saturday but could not provide details as to what happened, including whether there were arrests made or injuries sustained.
Saturday evening, Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin apologized to the attendees of the convention. “While we are still gathering all of the details of what transpired today, I am extremely disheartened by reports that a fight broke out,” Martin said. “Violence has no place in our politics, and it goes against our party’s most cherished values of democracy, inclusivity, and empathy. I sincerely hope that the perpetrators will be held accountable by law enforcement, and I will work to ensure they are held accountable within our party as well.”
He said the state DFL party is working with Minneapolis DFL to “determine what the next steps in the endorsing process will be given today’s events.”