Senate District 59 is anyone’s call at this point. Go Patwin!

Campaign Press Release

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (March 21, 2016) – Patwin Lawrence, former board chair of the Minnesota State Council on Black Minnesotans, a policy advisory organization, now known as the Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage, announced today, his candidacy for the Minnesota State Senate from Senate District 59.

Lawrence stated, “It’s time for legislators to stop playing games with the lives of their constituency.  Cosmetic solutions are no longer acceptable. The stakes are far to high. It’s similar to placing a band aid on a paper cut, while suffering from a life threatening illness.”

Lawrence, 39, is a native of South Carolina who has lived in the Twin Cities for over 13 years. He received his bachelor’s degree from the College of Charleston in 1998. He was a co-founder and former director of TORCH Community, former Minneapolis Urban League board member, and he was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton in 2011 to the Council on Black Minnesotans’ board of directors where he served three years of his four-year term as board chair.

“The residents of Senate District 59 can no longer afford to have leadership at any level focused on bringing benefits to a few nor continued failure to take substantive action on viable solutions which would effectively reduce disparities plaguing the district and the state.”

Lawrence is aware of the current deliberations to resolve disparities, there are some good solutions, but believes most are cosmetic. “There is a systemic problem with our legislative operations. This is why certain segments of Minnesota sound like a broken record. Voters are tired of being asked to support incumbent’s election cycle after election cycle for nothing substantive in return. Issues are not being sufficiently addressed even though both the legislature and executive branches have been repeatedly advised on the matter. The solutions should be community driven, the community dictating to their public servants what the solutions should be, not dictated by the public servants and especially not from the “few” who expect to benefit monetarily.”

Lawrence’s priorities at the Capitol will be focused on a comprehensive “Marshall plan” for SD59 which treats depressed neighborhoods as assets to grow and not liabilities to manage. The plan will be replicable statewide.

“In the most blessed nation on earth, with our free market economy, rule of law, and the possibility of upward mobility, we should not be plagued by the disparities we are seeing in SD 59 and around the state. We need to fight to ensure all citizens regardless of sex, race, class, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin, have a level playing field to grow their talents and become productive citizens.”

For further information, please contact patwinlawrenceforSD59@gmail.com.

Twitter: @PatwinLawrence