Event chair Marian Broida said they invited Representative Brad Finstad to the meeting but did not hear back from him. They decided to continue with the town hall, reserving a chair for Finstad.

Broida said the two Indivisible chapters invited Representative Finstad to the town hall “because so many of us have deep, deep concerns about his actions and inactions to protect our democracy and to protect our rights and to protect so many agencies and institutions on which we depend.”

Co-host Viktoria Davis of Madelia, who has been a member of the St. Peter/Greater Mankato Indivisible group for years and is helping with the New Ulm chapter, said the constituents of Congressional District 1 need to hear from Representative Finstad.

“We want to engage with him,” Davis said. “We want to hear his reasons for things. We don’t want to yell at him. We don’t want to argue with him. We want to have a conversation with him. We invited him to be here to answer some of our questions. He didn’t come. We decided to ask the questions anyway.” 

Garrett Ebling, founder of the New Ulm chapter of Indivisible, speaking at the Empty Chair Town Hall meeting Saturday in St. Peter. Photo by Peter Engeldinger

Garrett Ebling, founder of the New Ulm chapter of Indivisible, spoke to the audience about the concerns the group has.

“I’m not a career activist,” he said. “I’m not really an activist at all. But like many people, I can see what’s going on around us and I’m feeling, you know, that something’s not right.”

Ebling said he wanted to be involved but he couldn’t find anything in New Ulm that fit. “I consider myself an independent,” he said. “The county Democratic Party wasn’t necessarily where I felt I fit, and the Brown County Republican Party I didn’t think I fit in, so where can I find a place that fits for me? I did some googling and found Indivisible.”

There wasn’t a New Ulm chapter of Indivisible so he contacted the St. Peter and Greater Mankato group.

“I asked them about their group and what it would be like to start one in New Ulm and they fully encouraged me to do it and so all I did was start a Facebook group.” Ebling said the New Ulm chapter attracted 350 members in the first month.

“We’re still figuring out infrastructure and logistics and all of that, but our goal is to raise awareness that this is an issue that needs attention. And so that’s really what we’re doing right now,” Ebling said.

Katie Dorschner, a member of Indivisible New Ulm, attended the St. Peter town hall to voice concerns she has. “I wanted to participate in the town hall because I think it’s important that our representatives hear what we have to say, and it’s frustrating that Representative Finstad doesn’t meet with constituents. I am especially concerned – well, there are a lot of things I’m concerned about – but particularly the dismantling of education and the potential cuts to Medicaid are going to be devastating to our communities.”