ABOVE: A crowd watches and listens as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison speaks during a talk hosted by the Fairmont Area Human Rights Organization at the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont on Saturday.

FAIRMONT – On invitation from the Fairmont Area Human Rights Organization (FAHRO), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison spoke at the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont on Saturday.

Ellison was Minnesota’s fifth congressional district representative from 2007 to 2019, and has been Minnesota’s Attorney General since 2019. He recently announced a run for his third term in the 2026 election.

FAHRO Representative Peter Engstrom said they first reached out when Ellison was in Worthington on a speaking tour in May.

“We sent him a note saying ‘Thank you, and if you could ever get to Fairmont, we would appreciate if you could come and talk,'” he said. “Six weeks ago, we got a phone call saying they would be able to come.”

The event drew around 45 people and featured folk music from Lee Kanten, including covers of “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King and “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie.

Ellison opened by saying he didn’t want to take a long time, because he wanted to talk about what was important to the people in attendance.

“There’s no bad questions,” he said. “We just really want to engage and talk. Honestly, as much as I want to share information, I want to learn about what’s going on in your life and what the AG’s office can do to improve that.”

An audience member asked about fraud in the state, such as Feeding Our Future. Ellison said he and his office don’t deal with the front end of these programs, but have been doing everything they can on the back end to prosecute those involved. He believes there needs to be more tools and cooperation on the front end to stop fraud.

“Minnesotans are generous,” Ellison said. “If you tell them kids are hungry, they’ll generally want to help. If you tell them, the kids got autism and need treatment, they generally want to help. If you tell them later, ‘Oh, that money got stolen by some crooks and the money never even got to the people who needed it,’ they get pissed, and they don’t want to do it anymore. You better believe we’re taking this problem extremely seriously.”

Fairmont resident and attendee Terry Riggs said she is worried about two young women she knows who are going to college, one of them on an H-4 visa and the other in her journey for citizenship. She shared concerns about their safety.

Ellison said it is important that they be in contact with an immigration lawyer if they have questions or concerns, and that they call their parents right away if they are picked up by ICE. He shared his fears on the subject as well. His wife is a naturalized American citizen from Colombia, and he worries about her being harassed if she’s out and about without her passport.

Attendee Wesley Rubenstein-Potts said he was concerned about crime, noting Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s decision not to prosecute cases arising from low-level traffic stops in her jurisdiction, which started in October.

Ellison said he disagrees with Moriarty on this and has had disagreements with her on the enforcement of crime in the past, touching on the murder of Zaria McKeever.

“I actually had to ask the Governor to take a case from her and get it into my office,” Ellison said. “Twenty-three-year-old woman, mother of a one-year-old child. Her ex-boyfriend went and organized two teenagers to bust in her house. They did do that, and they shot her to death nine times. [Moriarty] said because they’re teenagers, we’re not going to try them as adults. I said we are most certainly going to try them as adults.”

Ellison said a justice system should have mercy and accountability, and there is a difference between theory and practice.

“You show real, meaningful reform, you should get a shot,” he said. “What I will say, though, is that [Moriarty]’s ideas of general leniency. [There’s a] difference between theory and practice. I’m saying theoretically, something might sound okay. You do it in practice, it doesn’t.”

Ending his talk, Ellison said that people can take action in their community right now if they have concerns, including continuing to attend peaceful public demonstrations, starting a book club with books that discuss issues the community is concerned about, and voting.

“Vote for who you care about,” he said. “Don’t vote because somebody says Mexicans are doing bad things to us or because somebody says trans people are doing stuff to us. Say, ‘What do my rights look like? How is this going to affect my life?’ Then vote however you want. American democracy is deeply rooted in American culture, and I don’t think Americans are about to let go of their democracy easily.”

Engstrom said he thoroughly enjoyed the talk and what it was able to provide to the people of Fairmont.

“I thought he was really open and approachable with people,” he said. “I thought it was a lot of fun too.”