Longtime St. Paul Democratic U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum is in search of one other term in Minnesota’s Fourth Congressional District and again faces May Lor Xiong, who in 2022 was the primary Hmong-American Republican nominee for Congress.

McCollum is Minnesota’s longest-serving representative and has safely won the seat twelve times before. The district is a historic Democratic stronghold held by the party since 1949 and includes Ramsey and Washington counties.

Still, McCollum, first elected in 2000, says she doesn’t take any election with no consideration despite her strong advantage. She said she has been out locally hearing from voters about what they’d prefer to see from their representative, calling the election season her “report card time.”

McCollum says Democrats have to take control of the House to finish years of Republican “chaos,” take bolder motion on climate change, and protect abortion rights on the national level following the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Nonpartisan national election evaluation from the Cook Political Report rates the Fourth District as solidly Democratic. And despite losing by around 36 percentage points in 2022, Xiong says she hopes to shrink that gap by constructing on her past campaign.

“This time I hope, with a reputation recognition locally and nationally, that I’ll find a way to get my message across the district more,” the previous St. Paul English language teacher said in an interview.

GOP challenger

Xiong, a graduate of Concordia College, is a mother of 4 and immigrated to the U.S. from Laos as an 8-year-old refugee. She said she selected to run for office after the 2020 riots following the murder of George Floyd destroyed small businesses in St, Paul.

Xiong said she thought Democrats were weak on crime and that they went too far in shutting down businesses and schools through the coronavirus pandemic.

Public safety stays a theme in her 2024 campaign, but like many Republicans, she’s also campaigning on the rising prices of groceries, housing and utilities. GOP candidates have attempted guilty inflation on Democrats’ major spending bills.

Xiong’s campaign says to stop inflation the federal government must stop “excessive money printing and reckless spending in Washington, D.C.,” and produce back fiscal responsibility.

Progressive priorities

McCollum described the economy as “picking up” after the difficult pandemic years and if reelected said she’s going to proceed pursuing progressive priorities. McCollum sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee where she chairs the Defense Subcommittee and sits on the Interior-Environment Subcommittee.

“I’ve been very focused on ensuring that the following generation — whether it’s climate, whether it’s education, whether it’s health care — all those things that impact our day by day lives, that when the federal government has a task in it, it steps up,” said McCollum.

McCollum said the House under Republican leadership has stopped Congress from getting its work done on time, and that college districts and native governments who rely on federal help have to have more reliable national leadership.

As was the case in 2022, Xiong has painted an image of life within the district as one where constituents have a tricky time getting ahead — something she says calls for brand new leadership.

“We’ve been electing a Democrat to represent for therefore long, for 60 to 70 years, and I feel that we haven’t seen any change,” she said, pointing to the emergence of a “Hmong homeless encampment” in St. Paul for example of the district’s struggles.

“That’s not what I find when I am going door-knocking. Individuals are putting time and energy into their communities and their schools and their churches and synagogues and mosques, they usually need to construct a stronger community,” she said.

McCollum is a graduate of St. Catherine University who grew up in South St. Paul. Before she was elected to Congress in 2000, she served on the North St. Paul City Council and within the Minnesota House.

Xiong faces a steep climb against McCollum, who generally defeats her Republican challengers by greater than 30 percentage points. And as of mid-October, McCollum had spent about $1.3 million dollars on her race, about 15 times greater than Xiong’s $85,000.