Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Rolling toward the election, thoughts from Minnesota October 30, 2026

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 5:53 PM
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I stand beside the DFL Get Out the Vote bus touring Minnesota days before the election. I’m holding a campaign sign for Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a DFLer on the ballot. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo by Randy Helbling)

ONLY DAYS BEFORE the mid-term elections, the big blue bus rolled into Faribault in a DFL-led Get Out the Vote effort. I was among those who gathered to listen to candidates talk not only about their goals, but also about the importance of this election. There’s no denying this election is especially important given the current federal leadership in this country and the very real threats to our democracy.

This shows DFL candidates running for top state offices in Minnesota, left to right: Senator Amy Klobuchar with Fergus Falls Mayor Ben Schierer for governor and lieutenant governor respectively; Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan for U.S. Senate; Attorney General Keith Ellison up for re-election; incumbent Secretary of State Steve Simon; and Zack Filipovich, former Duluth councilman and accountant for state auditor. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)

As I listened to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon share that his office is preparing for possible election interference by the federal government, reality hit. Hard. Yes, I’ve heard this, read this, intellectually understood this. But still, to hear this spoken aloud by the man in charge of elections in Minnesota took me back to the January 6 insurrection and the current threats by a President hell-bent on suppressing/manipulating voting, even bribing Americans with the promise of $5,000 payments if Republicans retain control of Congress. Really? Buying votes? Not mine.

The DFL Get Out the Vote Bus pulled into Faribault late Thursday afternoon for an hour-long stop to fire up voters. Minnesota consistently has the highest voter turn-out in the country. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)

I struggle to understand how anyone can support any candidate aligned with the President. So, yes, I am voting blue. Right down the ballot.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison addresses the crowd in Faribault. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)

I am concerned about the rising costs of everything from fuel to healthcare to groceries. I am concerned about tariffs. I am concerned about the unnecessary war in Iran. I am concerned about the United States’ damaged relationships on a global scale. I am concerned about an immigration enforcement program that has targeted not the worst of the worse, but also those who are here legally. I am concerned about Americans shot to death on the streets of Minneapolis by agents of their own government. I am concerned about the blatant racism and hatred spewed by our President and echoed by too many of his own party. I am concerned about the name-calling, the lies, the deception, the calls for violence. I am concerned about efforts to suppress free speech and freedom of the press. I am concerned about those who are losing their healthcare or unable to afford health insurance. I am concerned about those who live on the margins, who need our help, our compassion, our support. I am concerned about…the list is seemingly endless.

Parked along busy Minnesota State Highway 60/Fourth Street in Faribault, the DFL bus was highly-visible during its Thursday stop. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)

Perhaps I care too much. But I’ve always been someone to stand up for what is right and good and decent. I champion for those who are bullied, probably because I was bullied as a middle school student and even as an adult.

Lieutenant Governor candidate Ben Schierer speaks for his ticket. He’s running with Senator Amy Klobuchar in the gubernatorial race. In the foreground, supporters of Minnesota House District 19A candidate Martha Brown listen. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo October 2026)

I refuse to remain silent, becoming somewhat of a political activist in the past year, if you call protesting weekly and planting my corner yard with DFL campaign signs political activism. My vote is also my voice.

A message posted on a house in Dundas, Minnesota, in August 2020. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo August 2020)

Here are some motivating quotes on voting that resonate with me:

Voting is the foundation stone of political action.—Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.—U.S. Representative John Lewis.

We cannot be silent when our rights and our democracy are under attack. The way we win is by standing together—and by making our voices heard in every election.—Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey

Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.—President Abraham Lincoln.

Your vote matters. Even if you disagree with me. Vote.

© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Politics, passionate voices & peach pie at a potluck September 9, 2025

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 2:10 PM
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A protester at the NO KINGS day rally in Northfield. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo June 2025)

MONDAY EVENING I GATHERED in rural Rice County with a crowd concerned about issues ranging from healthcare to immigration, agriculture, education, the environment, diversity, gun violence, the SNAP program, tariffs, voting rights, veterans’ benefits, the economy and much more. All current-day topics worrying many of us, including me.

I’ve never been politically active. Until this year. To stay silent now feels complicit. I care enough about this country, about freedom, about democracy, to let my voice be heard. I’ve participated in three pro-democracy rallies, including the NO KINGS Day Rally in Northfield and two on Labor Day in Owatonna. I’ve volunteered at a DFL Sweetcorn Feed in Faribault. I’ve donated to the DFL, called and emailed my legislators in Washington, DC. And Monday evening I attended a potluck, billed as a DFL Working Families Garden Party. This all from someone who previously voted primarily Republican. But no more, not in the past four Presidential elections or in some other past elections. I’ve always looked at candidates, their character and their stances on issues before voting. I still do, but party affiliation now matters to me, too.

Minnesota potlucks always include bars, like these at a previous event I attended. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo)

DEEP CONCERN

At all of these recent events, I’ve heard—whether from politicians, candidates for office or ordinary people like me—a deep concern for our country under the current administration and those who go along with whatever our President says and does. This concern comes from good, decent people. Farmers, teachers, business owners, lawyers, blue collar workers, college students. People who carry crockpots of pulled pork and baked beans, bowls of creamy garden-fresh cucumber salad, peach pie and bars to a political party on a rural acreage.

As I sat in this bucolic setting Monday evening listening to short speeches from candidates like Martha Brown of Faribault, running for Minnesota House District 19A on the slogan of “Common-Sense Leadership for Working People,” or fiery Matt Little from Elko New Market who embraces the label of “radical” and who is running for Congress in the Second Congressional District or Ben Schierer of Fergus Falls, campaigning for state auditor and vowing to represent both urban and rural communities, I felt hope.

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon speaks at the DFL Garden Party hosted by Ted Suss, right, near Nerstrand. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

COMPASSION & HOPE

I felt hope, too, when I heard Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon talk about protecting voter information, voting rights and more. I felt hope when I heard Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy speak. As a nurse, her care and compassion for others threads through her speeches, shines in her political life.

A memorial banner honors the Hortmans, shot to death in June, and their dog, who had to be euthanized due to his injuries. Below the Minnesota flag hangs a campaign sign for Jake Johnson, who is running for office in Minnesota’s First Congressional District. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted photo September 2025)

Most notable in Murphy’s talk, at least for me, is the deep grief she feels over the politically-motivated assassination of her friend and colleague, Minnesota Speaker of the House Emerita Melissa Hortman and Hortman’s husband, Mark. The Hortmans were shot to death on June 14, the day I protested in Northfield, despite warnings not to do so. I refuse to be silenced.

Murphy spoke on Monday evening against a backdrop of American and Minnesota state flags and a banner of the Hortmans and their dog with this message: STAND UP FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE. She talked, too, about attending the funeral on Sunday of Fletcher Merkel, 8, among two students killed in a mass shooting that injured 21 others at Annunciation Catholic Church in south Minneapolis on August 27. Justice. Peace. No more gun violence.

This sign from the NO KINGS rally in Northfield really resonated with me. (Minnesota Prairie Roots copyrighted file photo June 2025)

UNPRECEDENTED

I’ve lived enough years to observe that what’s happening in this country right now is unprecedented. I’ve never felt more fearful of losing our freedoms under authoritarian rule. It’s happening already with snatching people off the streets, imprisonment and deportations without due process. It’s happening in intimidation and retribution; mass firings; suppression of free speech; funding cuts that are undermining research, healthcare, education and more; gathering of private information by the government; sending armed military into cities; and in countless other ways that affect all of us no matter our political affiliations.

This isn’t about rural vs urban. This isn’t about us vs them. This is, rather, about preserving and protecting our very freedoms as Americans. This is about caring and feeling hopeful. This is about speaking up. About doing something. And sometimes this is also about eating pulled pork, baked beans, cucumber salad and homemade peach pie at a potluck on a beautiful September evening in southern Minnesota.

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© Copyright 2025 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

The Kletscher family legacy of public service February 4, 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:54 AM
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WE’RE NOT EXACTLY the Kennedys. But the Kletscher family, my family, has a long history of political, church and community involvement.

My uncle, Merlin Kletscher, writes in the family history booklet he compiled:

“Many of us (in this older generation) have, like our forefathers, been active in our community. We have served our country in the military, on church councils, city councils, township boards, ambulance squads, fire departments, and school boards. We’ve served on Legion auxiliaries, vocational school cooperatives, electric power cooperatives and grain elevator board cooperatives. Fire chiefs, mayors and county commissioners are among our family—and it makes me proud. The list for our family could go on and on. The point here is that our families have seen the need, as our forefathers did, to serve others to make someone else’s life a better life.”

For the Kletschers, that service to others traces back to my great grandfather, Rudolph Kletscher, a German immigrant. In 1890, he started a mission church at his home near Vesta in southwestern Minnesota. The families who met in his farmhouse would eventually organize St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, where I worshipped as a child and which my mother and many other relatives still attend today.

I never knew my great grandfather, who died three decades before I was born. But his legacy of community involvement continued when his son Henry, my grandfather, served for many years on the Vesta School Board. When I was attending Vesta Elementary School, I would walk by a plaque just inside the front door engraved with my grandpa’s name. I suppose, subconsciously, that made an impression upon me.

My Uncle Merlin, the family historian, like his father before him, became involved in education by serving on two school boards. His community involvement is too long to list. But suffice to say that Rudolph Kletscher would be impressed with his grandson.

He would also be proud of my Uncle Harold, who held public office for more than 30 years in Vesta. Two of Harold’s sons likewise were elected to office.

In my immediate family, my dad, Elvern, fought on the front lines in the Korean Conflict and was active locally in church and Legion organizations and probably other groups of which I am unaware. He once unsuccessfully ran for Redwood County commissioner.

One of my brothers served several terms as a county commissioner. My older brother was the Westbrook fire chief for many years and his son is currently a volunteer fireman.

My eldest daughter holds a political science degree and today works in the State Capitol complex.

Like my Uncle Merlin, I am proud to be part of a family that gives back via public service.

MY COUSIN JEFF KLETSCHER, who is current president of the Minnesota Association of Small Cities and who served on the Floodwood City Council for 10 years before being elected mayor in 2003—he’s in his fifth mayoral term—was a DFL candidate for the House District 5B seat in northeastern Minnesota.

Jeff finished fourth among five DFLers in Tuesday’s special primary election. It was hard, he says, to be from a small community (Floodwood, population 503) with two big communities (Chisholm, population 4,960, and Hibbing, population 17,071) in the district.

DFL-endorsed candidate and Iron Range attorney Carly Melin easily won the primary with 50 percent of the votes. The 25-year-old is from Hibbing.

I’m not going to pretend that I am informed about northeastern Minnesota politics or the DFL candidates (other than my cousin) who vied for the office vacated by Tony Sertich, the newly-appointed commissioner for the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board.

But I can tell you that Jeff, like his great grandfather, grandfather and father (my Uncle Harold) before him, is living a legacy of service. He cares about rural and small-town Minnesota. Jeff’s length of public service (nearly 20 years) speaks volumes to me about his dedication to making life better for Minnesotans.

© Copyright 2011 Audrey Kletscher Helbling