‘No one better to fight for us than one of us’, Minnesota flight attendant is running for Congress. Kaela Berg is running in a crowded field with a pro-union message and a vow to protect the state’s immigrants

When the Minnesota state legislature is not in session, Kaela Berg is working in the skies.

Berg has spent the last six years doubling as a state legislator and a flight attendant, taking shifts when the legislature is on break.

“Even as a state legislator, I still live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “I have to have both of those jobs to make ends meet. I’ve gone without healthcare during the pandemic because I didn’t qualify through my employer. I know what it’s like to worry about medical bills, to not have healthcare.”

A former union leader who has worked as a flight attendant for 30 years, Berg said she had seen the Trump administration’s attacks against the labor movement and wants to fight for her fellow workers in Congress, where those who know what it’s like to work and still struggle to afford basic necessities are vastly underrepresented.

“These systems are designed to keep working people down.” Berg said. “There is no one better to fight for us than one of us, and working people have not been at the table.”

They see the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering ruling as a devastating blow to Black voters — but are ready to win anyway.

Rep. Terri Sewell grew up steeped in the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma. She’s represented Alabama’s 7th District for over 15 years, one of the few Black women in Congress from the Deep South. But the Supreme Court’s latest ruling, undermining the voting rights protections she’s long fought for, could threaten her seat in Congress. 

“I know in my heart that in the 16 years I’ve been representing the 7th Congressional District, I’ve saved hospitals, I’ve delivered money, I’ve delivered books,” she told The 19th on Wednesday. “I feel like I represent that district, and so we’re gonna hang strong and make sure that we fight against this. It’s going to be harder in red states, but this is a race to the bottom that we’ve entered into.”

The Supreme Court this week struck down Louisiana’s congressional map that included a second majority-Black House district, labeling it an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and significantly limiting the ability for voters to challenge voting maps under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 6-3 ruling in the case, Callais v. Louisiana, paves the way for Republican-controlled states to eliminate majority-Black districts.

Minneapolis activists are accusing a local House candidate of “cosplaying” as a protester, blurring the line between solidarity and opportunism. 

A seventeen-second video shows a dark-haired man rapping his pale knuckles gently below the tinted windows of a silver minivan. He stands back, shoving his hands into the pockets of his puffer coat, his boyish face twisted into a severe expression. The car drives off, and the camera pans to follow it down the suburban Minneapolis road. No words are spoken.

Splashed across the screen, a bright red and white caption reads, “ICE was circling a local elementary school. I knocked on their door to have a conversation, but they ran away instead.”  

The man is Matt Little, 41, a former mayor and state senator from nearby Lakeville seen as the front-runner to replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Angie Craig in Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional district. 

He’s staking much of his campaign on one of the most politically salient issues in the Twin Cities. In a series of videos pinned to his campaign Instagram under the name “GET ICE OUT,” Little documents himself at protests and in encounters with immigration enforcement agents. “When I’m elected to congress,” wrote Little in a January post, “we will hold ICE accountable.” 

Not everyone in his district is buying it.

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