WAVE TO GO, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Texas, Kansas, Maine, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, and on and on. All contributed to the blue wave sweeping the nation in Tuesday’s mid-term elections. I couldn’t be more excited about the results, with the exception of some localized races.
It’s good to feel optimistic, to feel like “we the people” are reclaiming our country from the brink of disaster. I’ve felt for nearly two years now like the United States has been failing on so many levels under the leadership of a narcissistic, power-hungry president (and his minions) who could care less about the people.
Election results, which now put Congress in DFL control, give me hope that this country will see a restoration in the balance of power (among executive, legislative and judicial branches), an end to the corruption which has marked this presidency, and real change that will move us back into a good place.
It’s clear from election results that people are fed up with out-of-control prices, tariffs, trade wars, the Iran War, illegal immigration enforcement, unaffordable healthcare, constant belittling of people, hateful rhetoric, attacks on free speech and the press, destruction of the environment, gutting of government agencies, and on and on. You add your own concerns.
In Minnesota, we’ve elected our first female governor, Senator Amy Klobuchar. Ohio did the same. Minnesotans also elected the country’s first female Native American senator. Our neighbors to the east in Wisconsin voted in their first Black governor and Georgia elected its first Black woman to that state office. Texas will welcome its first Latina governor. And in Michigan, voters elected the first Muslim to the U.S. Senate. All are DFLers.
It was a big night, a big blue wave, for the Democratic party. If the President was expecting an endorsement of him and his policies when he asked voters to vote like he was on the ballot, well, that didn’t work out so well for him. He was resoundingly defeated. It seems he’s losing his grip on those who believed his promises to Make America Great Again.
In my U.S. First Congressional District in southern Minnesota, typically a Republican stronghold, voters flipped the seat. Jake Johnson, a high school math teacher, is the apparent winner over the incumbent Republican by a slim margin of 323 votes. Representative Brad Finstad has asked for a recount. I’m thrilled that, if results hold, I will have a representative who listens, who will continue to host town halls, who seems to genuinely and deeply care about the people he will serve.
We need that now more than ever. A willingness to listen. A willingness to stand up to the President and his policies. A willingness to work together for the good of all, not just the good of the wealthy and those with a singular, selfish agenda.
I’m excited about my local city council, which will now have four women serving, joining two councilmen and the mayor. On the school board, though, the only Latino on the ballot failed to get elected, a major failure on the part of voters, in my opinion. We needed his representation for our diverse community.
Republicans retained control of state House and Senate seats in my districts, another disappointment. But their challengers did well. That should send a strong message to the incumbents.
All in all, Tuesday’s election results give me hope that life will get better here in America.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Destructive ice, the help of community & more August 27, 2026
Tags: commentary, community, construction, Faribault, hail, hail damage, hailstorm, Hispanics, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Minnesota, Operation Metro Surge, opinion, storm, United States of America
IN THE FOUR-PLUS MONTHS since destructive hailstones pummeled Faribault and the surrounding area, my community has been the site of ongoing exterior construction. Drive nearly anywhere in town and you will see roofing and siding crews or newly-repaired houses.
Seven hail-damaged houses within sight of mine, including ours, have been repaired, or have yet to be fixed. That’s a lot in a single neighborhood.
Business is booming for local and out-of-town roofers and other construction companies. Local contractors can’t possibly meet the immediate demand for work.
EMPATHETIC OBSERVATIONS
But blocks from my house, an underway construction project seems a community undertaking. I know because I talked with the owner. He bought the house with the intention of fixing and flipping it. Good for him if he can improve a dilapidated house and make money by selling it.
This particular renovation caught my eye because, when I passed by, I saw a house with rafters totally exposed, loose insulation inside and workers busy sheeting. Similar work was done on our house with new sheeting laid over the existing, mostly-solid roof boards. Rafters were not exposed. I appreciate that we now have a sturdier, straighter roof.
When I saw the condition of the flip house, my first thought was “that looks worse than ours (looked).” At least on the roof. I felt instant empathy for the homeowner. So, although I don’t usually stop at construction sites, I did at this one. I felt bad for the owner.
He just happens to be Hispanic. I learned from him that the Hispanic community is deeply connected. He tapped into the strength and skills of community for his house renovation. This did not totally surprise me. I’ve seen how Hispanic/Latino communities care for one another, how they work together, how they value family, culture and community.
If not for Hispanic roofing crews, hail-damaged houses in Faribault would go mostly unrepaired. These crews work hard and fast, putting in long days, often finishing roofs in a single day.
THE VALUE OF COMMUNITY
My conversation with the flip house owner got me thinking about other communities which come together to help one another on construction endeavors. In the past, and maybe even still today, the Amish raise barns in a day. Habitat for Humanity brings volunteers together to build homes alongside professionals. Decades ago, friends came over to help shingle our roof. During this past year, volunteers rehabbed a rental house owned by my church.
And in 1967, extended family arrived at my childhood family farm to help my dad and a local carpenter build our new home with a walk-out basement. If not for helpful family, I don’t think my parents could have built new. The cost would have been out of reach. We needed a new house to replace the cramped, drafty 1 1/2-story aged farmhouse with a partial dirt cellar, no bathroom, three small bedrooms, and an oil-burning stove centered in the living room.
WORSE THAN A HAILSTORM
All of this came to mind when talking with my new Hispanic acquaintance. I praised him for improving the neighborhood by buying and fixing up a run-down home. I also told him I’m sorry for the aggressive and often illegal detainment of Hispanics, Latinos and others by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Operation Metro Surge (and beyond) in Minnesota. That includes right here in my city.
A recent media report states that the 5,000th immigrant detainee (since November 2025) was recently flown out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. That’s documented by a Minnesotan with boots on the ground at the airport video-taping departures of shackled detainees.
ICE has targeted Hispanic roofers. In December 2025, ICE arrived at a construction site in Chanhassen, southwest of Minneapolis, stranding two workers on a roof for hours during sub-zero temperatures resulting in hypothermia. In Bemidji in far northern Minnesota, roofing companies lost nearly all of their crews during ICE raids this summer. Many other such detainments have happened across the state and country and are ongoing.
Soon a new ICE detention center will open in a former abandoned private prison in Appleton in far western Minnesota. CoreCivic, a name familiar to anyone who has followed ICE actions, sold the prison to the federal government and is now contracted to run the detention center.
Suddenly that April hailstorm in Faribault doesn’t seem all that bad in comparison with what’s unfolding in this country. And I’m not talking only immigration. I’m also talking about government surveillance, an unnecessary war, tariffs, efforts to suppress voting rights (especially those of Black voters and of women), high gas and food prices, a failing economy and on and on. So much damage has been done to our country that will take years, if not decades, to recover, to repair the destruction hailed upon this nation.
© Copyright 2026 Audrey Kletscher Helbling