To the editor,

Whomever you voted for in 2020, you and I almost certainly agree on one thing: we’re tired of angry, broken politics.

Our politics have gotten divisive and extreme, and it shows. It seems like every day we’re hearing about another crisis: the border crisis, the healthcare crisis, the student loan crisis. Most of us are ready for commonsense solutions, but our elected leaders only want to be re-elected – and they’ve discovered that, to be re-elected, they don’t have to solve crises. They just have to make people angry.

My sense is that we’re all exhausted of this. We want leaders who deliver for voters instead of exploiting their anger. Unfortunately, in our process, the winner is usually whoever made enough people mad. If a politician manufactures rage, if he divides us, the system rewards him with public office.

That needs to change. Ranked-choice voting is a simple reform that changes what our system rewards. RCV requires politicians to win a majority of votes, which means the power is taken from the angry few and given back to the reasonable many. Therefore, we need to elect politicians who support implementing RCV statewide – in this case, Kelly Morrison and Lauren Bresnahan.

However, I’m a conservative. Why would I vote for DFL candidates when we disagree on several issues? It’s simple: I want a fair shake for conservatives running for office. Ranked-choice voting means serious policy discussions, and most voters won’t stand for pie-in-the-sky promises. We want serious, rational leaders who understand that the government can’t and shouldn’t fix everyone’s problems, and through RCV, we can have those leaders.

Morrison and Bresnahan have committed to implementing RCV, and I’m willing to put aside partisan politics in the short term if it means a return to accountable, efficient government in the long term. A vote for Morrison and Bresnahan is a vote for better governance down the line.

So if you’re tired of the angry, broken politics, vote for Kelly Morrison and Lauren Bresnahan. Vote for ranked-choice voting, and vote for better government in Minnesota.

Bryan Samuelsen, Mound