Amane Badhasso

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Amane Badhasso

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

August 9, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

Hamline University, 2015

Personal

Religion

Muslim

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

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Personal Facebook

Personal Twitter

Amane Badhasso (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Minnesota's 4th Congressional District. She lost in the Democratic primary on August 9, 2022.

Badhasso completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Amane Badhasso received a bachelor's degree from Hamline University in 2015.

Elections

2022

See also: Minnesota's 4th Congressional District election, 2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Minnesota District 4

Incumbent Betty McCollum defeated May Lor Xiong and Diane Peterson in the general election for U.S. House Minnesota District 4 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Betty McCollum (D)	67.6	200,055
		May Lor Xiong (R)	32.3	95,493
	Submit photo	Diane Peterson (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	11
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	414

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 295,973
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 4

Incumbent Betty McCollum defeated Amane Badhasso and Fasil Moghul in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 4 on August 9, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Betty McCollum	83.4	58,043
		Amane Badhasso	15.2	10,557
		Fasil Moghul	1.4	997

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 69,597
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Evan Kail (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 4

May Lor Xiong defeated Jerry Silver and Gene Rechtzigel in the Republican primary for U.S. House Minnesota District 4 on August 9, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		May Lor Xiong	44.1	9,574
		Jerry Silver	34.1	7,399
		Gene Rechtzigel	21.9	4,753

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 21,726
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Mikki Murray (R)

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Amane Badhasso completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Badhasso's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Born a rural village in Ethiopia, Amane Badhasso has spent her life working for justice and advancing the American dream. As a child, Amane's family fled violence and she became a child refugee in Kenya and eventually found safety in the United States. At the age of 13, Amane came to Minnesota through a refugee resettlement program - Amane has seen firsthand the promise of the American dream.

Amane has been at the forefront of the most significant economic, racial, environmental, and social justice fights. As an international human rights leader and democracy advocate, she has organized our local and global communities, engaging Minnesota's diverse communities on domestic and international issues.

As a lifelong community organizer, she has helped lead advocacy efforts, initiatives, and electoral campaigns to fight for our progressive wins.

In 2020 Amane served as a key staffer for President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and the DFL ticket, ensuring Minnesota stood up to Donald Trump's reckless agenda.

Now, Amane is running for Congress to fight for a more fair, inclusive, and just America. For too long, our leaders have prioritized their personal power over the power of our community. Join our campaign today by checking out AmaneforCongress.com

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Economic Justice
• Racial Justice
• Environmental Justice

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

1)Healthcare that Works for Everyone

Healthcare is a fundamental human right. We need to ensure that every person has access to quality and affordable care. Amane strongly supports Medicare for All.
2)Empower the Working Class
The working class built Minnesota. Amane grew up working class, and understands the importance of hard work and a fair wage. She will put working people first and fight for an agenda that includes a $15+ minimum wage, supporting and defending our unions, protecting our renters and the unhoused, and making sure everyone pays their fair share of taxes.
3)Address the Climate Change Crisis
We must address the climate change crisis now with bold, transformative action that will protect our planet. Amane will be a champion for the Green New Deal and policies to reduce carbon emissions and help us meet 100% of our power demand through clean, renewable and zero-emission energy sources.
4) Tackling Systemic Racism
We need to take bold action to achieve racial justice to bring equity and equality to all communities, including indigenous communities. Amane will fight for criminal justice reform, the legalization of marijuana, and investments in mental health, social services, education, housing and economic opportunities in Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.
5) Defending our Democracy.

Amane knows what an unstable democracy looks like. She will fight like hell to defend our democracy and protect access to the American Dream for all.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Compassionate leadership - giving a damn about the people you are fighting for, and the everyday issues people care about: healthcare, housing, education, economy, etc.
Effective negotiation - our politics ultimately comes down to our negotiation skills, and being able to bring home results is essential to actually serving the people.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I believe I will be an effective communicator and a powerful negotiator.

From 2014-2017 I was the President of the International Oromo Youth Association, and through my leadership I engaged young people around the world, across the diaspora, in a conversation about a different future for the next generation. Over 75% of the Ethiopian people are under the age of 35, and the diaspora is an incredibly powerful influence.

I was able to bring multiple ethnic communities together in a dialogue about what a peaceful resistance movement, led by students, would look like. In 2014 I spoke at the United Nations in Geneva about the current health and wellbeing of children in Ethiopia. I was able to help shine light on some of the stories of children in the country I was born in, and help persuade the UN to invest in diaspora communities.

Throughout that time, I learned three things that I carry with me today: 1) the most important part of negotiation is bringing people together 2) young people have led every movement in history, and will continue to do so, and we should listen with open ears to what they are saying, and 3) the biggest problems require the most out-of-the box solutions, and they can come from anyone and anywhere.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

One of the first political movements I remember was Occupy Wall Street. The Occupy Movement introduced me to problems in our American Democracy, and the idea that money controls influence, rather than people power. Corporate money in our politics drowns out the voices of working class people and the voices of the marginalized. Corporate interests in our economy has helped exacerbate the incredible economic inequality we are dealing with. Occupy Wall Street is the first American political movement that opened my eyes to some of the systemic inequities that we need to continue to fight.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

Okoye from the Black Panther, a beautiful, strong, resilient stateswoman.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

Our greatest challenge over the next decade are actually making an impact on issues of racial justice, environmental justice, and economic justice. Our systems are stacked against working class people, and inequality is only growing. For the future of this nation, we must save our planet, and bring people together to tackle economic and racial justice.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

I believe Senator Bernie Sanders has been a champion for the working class his entire career, even when it wasn't popular. He has not wavered on his progressive beliefs, and I applaud and hope to do the same.

Both sitting representatives and candidates for office hear many personal stories from the residents of their district. Is there a story that you’ve heard that you found particularly touching, memorable, or impactful?

I heard the story of a young constituent from a nurse I talked to recently. This young man had recently been in an accident, and had lost both of his legs. Despite the physical challenges he was going to face in recovery, the biggest challenge he was worried about was his medical debt: he owed over $1 Million to the hospital because of his injuries.

As the nurse told me this story, she said her heart broke for this young man, and mine broke as well.

NOBODY in our society should have to go bankrupt because of an accident, because of a health condition, or because of medical debt. A single payer healthcare system, Medicare for All, would better distribute health care so it is accessible, affordable and available to everyone, no matter what life stage or circumstance they are in. Healthcare in a human right. Let's treat it like one.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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Candidate

U.S. House Minnesota District 4

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Footnotes

[show]

Minnesota's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Amy Klobuchar (D)

Tina Smith (D)

Representatives

District 1

Brad Finstad (R)

District 2

Angie Craig (D)

District 3

Kelly Morrison (D)

District 4

Betty McCollum (D)

District 5

Ilhan Omar (D)

District 6

Tom Emmer (R)

District 7

Michelle Fischbach (R)

District 8

Pete Stauber (R)

Democratic Party (6)

Republican Party (4)