A Minneapolis City Council candidate's beliefs about police departments — and whether to abolish them — have come under scrutiny after a series of previously deleted tweets became public.
Aurin Chowdhury, who is vying for an open seat in a closely watched, three-way contest in the 12th Ward, advocated for abolishing the police in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder three years ago, but no longer does. Today, she said in an interview Friday, she supports "a comprehensive public safety system. That includes policing."
Nonetheless, one of her opponents, Luther Ranheim, accused Chowdhury of espousing "extremism" after a series of tweets from 2020 and 2021 were first published Friday by Axios.
The tensions over evolving opinions on policing aren't unique to the 12th Ward, which encompasses the southeastern reaches of the city, but are a thread across Minneapolis that have surfaced in other races as well.
In the high-stakes Eighth Ward race, Council President Andrea Jenkins has found herself defending her commitment to police reform from challenger Soren Stevenson, who is campaigning to the left of Jenkins and successfully wrested the endorsement of the DFL Party from her earlier this year.
Jenkins was among nine council members in the summer of 2020 who stood on a stage in Powderhorn Park and joined a pledge to "begin the process of ending the Minneapolis Police Department." But, like untold numbers of residents, Jenkins' position shifted. By the time she stood for re-election a year later, she spoke of a new vision of policing that still included the department.
Another council member who joined the pledge and softened his view was Council Member Andrew Johnson, who isn't seeking another term and whose seat Chowdhury and Ranheim are vying for alongside candidate Nancy Ford.
Chowdhury has the backing of Johnson, as well as the DFL and the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, an ascendant group in the city whose tactics and positions have highlighted divisions within the left-of-center body politic of Minneapolis.
While the DSA's slate of candidates features some of those most critical of police, Chowdhury has staked out a more moderate lane. For example, she told the organization she did not support their effort to "demilitarize the police."
But in December 2020, she tweeted: "If you're not for abolition of the police at this point, you really have some deep work to do. Time and time again reforms fail. Police and safety cannot coexist in Minneapolis."
In an interview and public statement Friday, Chowdhury, a policy associate for Council Member Jason Chavez, said she posted the tweets "at a time the world was on fire ... and I was on fire as well."
Since then, she said, "I have grown and evolved." She cited her work for the city, which has included speaking with residents affected by crime and discussions with police officers, as well as the murder conviction of Derek Chauvin, the then-police officer who killed Floyd, as contributing to her changing views. Today, she said she believes "police are a critical part of our public safety system."
Chowdhury said she had deleted the tweets as part of a total scrubbing of her social media history in preparation to run for office, a common practice among first-time candidates.
Ranheim, who accuses Chowdhury of moderating her message to win over more moderate voters, found himself answering questions about his own social media activity Friday — activity that could lead some to believe he was friendly toward abolishing the police as well.
In early June 2020, days before the iconic Powderhorn Park pledge before the "Defund Police" banner, Ranheim liked a tweet with remarks by Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, one of the architects of the pledge, in which Ellison said in part, "We are going to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department. And when we're done, we're not simply gonna glue it back together."
Ranheim, a gift planner at the St. Paul & Minnesota Foundation, locked his personal account on X, formerly Twitter, when he announced his run for office, but said he didn't scrub its content. He allowed a Star Tribune reporter access to the feed to confirm previous activity.
As to that and several likes of several other tweets critical of police, Ranheim responded that he didn't recall liking the tweets and suggested he was sloppy with his thumb or mouse.
"My inadvertent likes are not constitution of an endorsement of any one person's statements," he said in an interview Friday. "An errant like might be in support of one person and not their statements. I think it's disingenuous to compare that to original content my opponent has created and shared."
