Supporters of an Equal Rights Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution rallied at the Capitol on March 12, urging lawmakers to advance a proposed amendment that would ask voters to guarantee equal rights under state law.
The rally in the Capitol rotunda drew advocates from across Minnesota, along with elected officials including Attorney General Keith Ellison, Sen. Mary Kunesh and Rep. Zack Stephenson.
The proposed amendment, introduced by Kunesh and Rep. Leigh Finke, would place a constitutional amendment question before voters. Supporters say Minnesota is lagging behind other states in adding equal-rights protections to its constitution.
“Twenty-nine other states already have constitutional protections for equality,” ERA Minnesota co-president Kate Quinlan-Laird said. “Why not us?”
Minnesota’s Senate previously failed to pass the amendment in 2024 after multiple debates and filibusters, as well as controversy surrounding the participation of Sen. Nicole Mitchell, who had been arrested for a felony burglary charge after allegedly breaking into her stepmother’s home for her late father’s items. Her vote had been needed due to Democrats’ then-one vote majority in the Senate.
ERA Minnesota founder Betty Folliard, in a release, said the amendment would place those protections in the state’s “strongest legal document.”
Ellison told the crowd that Minnesotans have been fighting for such an amendment since 1923. He said the current moment called for expanding rights rather than only resisting efforts he said threaten them.
“We should never be the ones that just take it on the chin and be happy to get away with less bad happening,” Ellison said. “We need to think about how to create more good, do we not?”
Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton and the Senate chief author of the amendment, said the measure would help protect people who have been disenfranchised and excluded from the opportunity to live and prosper.
“We see many of our folks here, many of our women, that have been fighting for generations to pass this,” Kunesh said. “And a million thank yous would not be enough to put out there for these folks.”
Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids and leader of the House Democratic caucus, said supporters plan to continue pressing for passage.
Stephenson also referenced the late former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, saying she would have wanted lawmakers to stay focused on the work before them.
“But if she were here right now, she would say, that’s enough about me, get to work,” Stephenson said. “And in particular, get to work on passing the ERA.”
Stephenson, who co-authored the ERA bill passed by the House in 2024, said he sees the issue in personal as well as political terms.
“The only job I like better than being leader of the House DFL caucus is being a dad,” Stephenson said. “I’ve got two little girls, 13, 11. I want the law crystal clear for them that they have rights. But I also want it crystal clear to the little boys in the class that they have rights.”
Supporters said they intend to keep pushing for the amendment until it becomes law.
“And we will get it done,” Stephenson said.