COMMENTARY
From Refugees to Representation: Cultivating Hmong American Political Power in Minnesota
By Sieng Lee
August 7, 2025
Key points: The Hmong community in Minnesota has transformed into a powerful political force, driven by decades of grassroots organizing, community resilience, and a determination to claim a rightful place in American democracy.
Next week, XP Lee, a Hmong American candidate for Minnesota state representative and former city councilmember of Brooklyn Park, will be running as the DFL-endorsed candidate to succeed the late Rep. Melissa Hortman who was assassinated in June 2025. Lee’s candidacy is the latest in a strong upward trend of Hmong American civic engagement and public service, and reflects a community’s determination to claim its place in American government and society.
This year commemorates 50 years since the Hmong diaspora was forced to flee Southeast Asia in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Long before my community engaged in democracy here, we were fighting to defend it thousands of miles away without even fully understanding what democracy meant. Today, our people face deportation without due process from the very nation whose ideals we risked our lives for during the Secret War in Laos.
Our parents sacrificed everything to halt the spread of Communism, paying the ultimate price: statelessness and exile from their homeland. Yet it is our enduring belief in democratic principles and the determination to claim our place within government that fuels our community’s rise as a political force in Minnesota.
I arrived in this country at three years old, a refugee with no memory of war, yet carrying the collective trauma and resilience of my people. That identity has shaped my life’s work in electoral and political organizing. Like many of my peers, I started as a volunteer phone banker, door knocker, never imagining it would become my work for the next decade.
My professional journey began in 2014, organizing within Minneapolis’ Hmong community alongside others focused on voter registration and turnout in historically marginalized neighborhoods. The data revealed a striking truth: some primary elections were decided by fewer than 2,000 voters in districts of 40,000 people. Even more telling, many lifelong residents had never been contacted by their representatives. Here was an opportunity.
Hmong Americans are the largest AAPI subpopulation within Minnesota, with a population that numbers nearly 100,000 today. Hmong Americans are also the fastest-growing AAPI community in Minnesota; as the graph below shows, the Hmong population grew from just over 60,000 in 2013 to 95,000 in 2023, while other community populations stayed mostly stagnant.
The 2015 police killing of Jamar Clark sparked weeks of protests, echoing the 2006 shooting of Fong Lee, a 19-year-old Hmong boy who would have been my age. In this environment, I learned the fundamentals of grass roots organizing and the critical importance of speaking directly to voters. I knocked on doors in neighborhoods where injustice was the fabric of daily life, where systemic disenfranchisement thrived. These were places where, unless you were a political insider, the pathways to participating in democracy felt deliberately obscured, as if locked behind a door only a select few could open. Witnessing the response or absence of elected leaders during crises, I realized lasting change required holding power accountable. And the most effective tool was electoral politics.
Minnesota had previously elected two Hmong legislators Senator Mee Moua and Representative Cy Thao, but by 2015, only Senator Foung Hawj remained. The stage was set for a new generation of young Hmong American leaders to rise.
There are nearly 60,000 Hmong of voting age in Minnesota. This number far exceeds the number of voting age populations of other AAPI subgroups. It is clear that the Hmong population in Minnesota is a powerful voting bloc and one that is keen to participate in politics and make their communities heard.
In 2015, only one Hmong American served in the state legislature. By 2024, there were nine, plus nine more in local offices across Minnesota. This progress wasn’t handed to us; it was built by young organizers who turned their struggles into action. Though Hmong Americans make up just shy of 2% of Minnesota’s population, Hmong legislators represent 4.5% of the Minnesota Legislature.
Fue Lee and Sieng Lee working during the 2016 elections
Our political impact defies our numbers. In August, a special primary election will be held to fill the seat left vacant by the tragic death of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman. If elected, XP Lee who is currently a candidate, would join the Minnesota State Legislature as its tenth currently serving Hmong American. The primary election is set for August 12, followed by the general election on September 16, 2025.
My own wins and losses are just a small part of this larger story. I’ve been fortunate to witness a decade of extraordinary growth in Hmong civic engagement, a testament to our community’s resilience. This is our generation’s calling: to secure the political representation that our elders dreamed of when they fought alongside Americans in Laos for a democracy they barely knew.
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Sieng Lee is the National Field Director of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote), the nation’s leading national nonpartisan organization whose mission is to engage, educate and empower Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) to strengthen their voices and create impact. Prior to joining APIAVote, Sieng was an influential and effective campaign manager and field director of political campaigns in Minnesota.