J. Patrick Coolican addresses both the worry and complacency among many Democrats regarding Trump’s clear plan to intervene and manipulate the outcome of the November midterm election. He discusses his recent article, “The Blueprint for Fighting Trump’s Attempt to Sabotage the Election, Drawn up in Minnesota,” about Doran Schrantz ‘s 14-page Democratic party internal memo titled, “Act Free to Be Free: A State and Local Pro-Democracy Framework.”
SCOTT HARRIS: This is Counterpoint. My name is Scott Harris. You’re on listener-sponsored WPKN in Bridgeport. Right now, I’m very happy to bring to our program J. Patrick Coolican, editor-in-chief of the Minnesota Reformer. And we’ve invited Patrick to talk here about a recent article he wrote titled, “The Blueprint for Fighting Trump’s Attempt to Sabotage the Election, Drawn Up in Minnesota.” Thanks so much for joining us this evening. Appreciate it, Patrick.
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Great to be here.
SCOTT HARRIS: So first of all, before we get to the article and the important issues that are examined there, I wonder if you tell our listeners about the important work that you and your reporter colleagues do at the Minnesota Reformer.
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Yeah, we’re a small nonprofit newsroom that covers politics and policy here in Minnesota. It’s been a very eventful few years for all of us, but especially Minnesotans. And we’re part of a broader nonprofit called State’s Newsroom, which has similar operations in 39 states and partnerships with nonprofit news outlets in the other 11. And what we’re trying to do is really get stories that other media are not telling. And often that it means being more adversarial about our posture with people in powerful positions.
SCOTT HARRIS: Thank you for that. In your recent article titled, “The Blueprint for Fighting Trump’s Attempt to Sabotage the Election, Drawn Up in Minnesota,” the information there really calls for broad national attention in that it deals with the critical question of what we can expect Donald Trump and his regime to do to interfere or attempt to manipulate the outcome of this November’s midterm election, which will determine the control of both the House and Senate. First, tell us about the memo on which your article is based. Its title is “Act Free to Be Free,” written by Doran Schrantz, who I believe is a political organizer, and largely taken from some of the lessons of massive resistance and civil disobedience to the ICE assaults and murders of citizens and the brutality to everyone in Minnesota that we saw in January.
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Yeah, I mean it was a terrible time here, but if there’s a silver lining, it’s that we got an up close look at what this administration is capable of. And especially someone like Doran Schranze, you mentioned, she’s a former executive director of an important organizing group out here called Isaiah. It’s an ecumenical progressive faith group, very active in elections and lobbying and just in organizing in general. So even after the election is over, they’re really pressuring legislators on their progressive agenda. She was a big part of that and has taken some of these lessons that she’s learned in Minnesota and tried to get her colleagues across the country. I think they were working with civil society organizations in 19 states, 80 or 90 different organizations. And the idea is that you need to get prepared now. You can’t wait until the election when they’re disputing the results in Black and Latino counties.
You need to get ready now. And so that was kind of her thinking coming out of (ICE’s) Operation Metro Surge—”Okay, what lessons have we learned and how can they be applied to the next big challenge?”— which they see as not just the election, but the election results and the tabulation of results and people getting seated, the winners being properly seated.
SCOTT HARRIS: Yes. There’s so many different tools in their toolbox that they are not shy about talking about. And really the article you wrote talked about the scope of this crisis. And unfortunately it seems like a lot of Democratic party politicians and staff people and all that, there’s a real, I think, problem of complacency. And as you said in the article, a failure of imagination of what Donald Trump is capable of that, again, as you said, we observed up close—and you personally in Minnesota, with that brutality in the murders of American citizens and the brutality for thousands of people. What is it that you are most concerned about after reading this memo and knowing what you know about Trump in his second term? What do you think that they may be capable of doing that is not really sort of top of mind for too many Americans?
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Yeah, I mean on the one hand, we have this advantage of an election administration process that is very decentralized. So all the votes are counted at, generally speaking, at the county level. And there’s thousands of polling stations and counties that are doing the work. So it’s not all centralized in the federal government. So that protects it, insulates it to some degree. So he’s using all these other tools at his disposal that are their intimidation and they seem to be trying to create chaos around election tabulation.
So if you put all these together, instead of thinking of them as discrete events, if you really think about them as a group, you see that there’s a purpose here. And so think about what’s going on. In 2026, in Georgia there was the FBI raid of Fulton County. In June, FBI agents raided something called the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. The Justice Department is suing states over their refusal to provide voter rolls. They’re apparently investigating the Wisconsin results from 2020. So it’s a lot of his 2020 vengeance tour here. The Justice Department’s sending election monitors to suspiciously, blue states. And you kind of say, look at all this stuff. And a lot of people might say, “Well, you’re just drawing some conspiracy theory here.” But I think if you look at the past and Trump’s behavior the last decade, I mean, his first major election was the Iowa Caucus. He lost. And remember what he did? He immediately said it was fixed. And so that is his MO. And then of course in 2020, he tried to fix the election. It’s pretty clear. And so why wouldn’t he try to do the same thing again?
And I think people who don’t see that, and you mentioned the lackadaisical response of the Democratic elite. I think to not see that I think is to be willfully blind. And I think that’s part of the reaction of a lot of Democratic primary voters around the country and why they’re siding with these outsiders and Democratic socialists and so forth, because they’re frustrated that they look at the Democratic elites and they see people who seem to have put blinders on to what is potentially happening here.
SCOTT HARRIS: This is Counterpoint here on listener-sponsored WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut. And we’re speaking this evening with J. Patrick Coolican, editor-in-chief of the Minnesota Reformer. And we’re talking about his recent article titled, “The Blueprint for Fighting Trump’s Attempt to Sabotage the Election, Drawn Up in Minnesota.” So in talking about the complacency we see too often, when I’ve had guests on the air here very often, the response to “What do we do to prevent the elections from being taken over, corrupted, manipulated by Trump,” who is pretty much very clear that’s his intention. I hear responses like, “Well, make sure your registration is current. Also, vote early.” And that’s about the extent of it.
But in your article and in the memo written by Doran Schrantz, there’s a real serious discussion about the need for preparations well in advance of Election Day to prepare for massive civil disobedience and just large numbers of people in the street, because that’s the lesson we’ve seen from other nations that have risen up to prevent a fascist or authoritarian takeover in countries all over the world. We’ve seen it on our TV screens now. Now we may be in the thick of it ourselves.
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Yeah. And I mean, the one thing I would add is that the types of things that they want people to do are not just prepare for large demonstrations, although that is certainly important, but there needs to be legal, political press and public tactical and operational grassroots deployment. So there’s all these different categories of different roles that people need to play. And if people are looking for something to do, it definitely would be see if there’s a civil society group in your state that is doing this kind of work. Or at the very least you can sign up to be an election observer or an election judge. And so that way you can be a witness to everything.
So the preparation needs to start now so people understand, “Okay, who counts the votes and then who certifies the votes?” And I mean, she has this amazing paragraph in the memo about doing a power analysis. And she says, “Knowing who sits in which seat is not enough. You have to ask who has leverage over that person? What does it take to move or block a specific decision? Who are the allies already inside the system? What is the procedural timeline for each key decision? Who could be positioned for sabotage? Etc., etc.” So I think as the aftermath of 2020 was happening, we were all sort of, I think a lot of us were just in the dark. We’re like, “Okay, what happens next?” And I think this time it’s just important to be truly prepared for all these different possible scenarios and then even do rehearsal.
So if they show up with a bunch of MAGA types demanding that the vote counting stop, then you’d have to have a counter demonstration and be there to support the people who are counting the votes. You need to have a press operation set up. You need to have a legal operation set up. And it’s not something you can do the day of the election like, “Oh, this is happening. Now what do we do?” I mean, that cannot be the response on the day after or the night of the election or the day after or the days after.
SCOTT HARRIS: Yeah. One of the important things spoken about in the article and by Doran Schrantz was that preemptive proactive action is really necessary at the state and local level. As you said, that’s where the votes are counted. We have a decentralized system, and that’s where you really need to have your finger on the pulse of who’s there and what they’re up to. What are some of the preemptive actions that are discussed by Doran and in your article that we should keep in mind about things that need to start now?
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Yeah, I mean she comes from this kind of religious left background. So she mentioned as examples like clergy members can go and say, “We want to meet with a county election administrator. We’re going to meet with the secretary of state maybe, especially if you’re in a purple or a red state, and you have this meeting where you document your concerns, you lay out your expectations, and you ask for a kind of reassurance. And then you put it in writing after you have the meeting. Thanks for meeting with us. This is what we understand, we take away from the meeting.” And so even though we get this idea that the Trump movement is not accountable for everything, it’s really not true. And I mean, normal politics still apply and they don’t want to make an assurance to a member of the clergy and then go back on that later.
That’s going to be a bad look for them. And so that’s the kind of thing you can do to get prepared.
SCOTT HARRIS: And I think you said massive numbers of people being mobilized to make sure these local officials know that there will be accountability if they violate constitutional norms and prevent votes from being cast or counted, right? That they need to understand that this is not an accountability-free situation, that they will be held responsible.
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Exactly. If you wind up with a county canvassing board or whatever that is going to refuse to certify the vote in a county, they need to know ahead of time that they’ll be held accountable for that decision legally if need be. But also, if they’re going to be Mike Pence and uphold their constitutional duty or their legal duty, they will be supported, no matter their party. And so there “the carrot and the stick apply” as always.
SCOTT HARRIS: Right. Well, we’re almost out of time. And I wanted to ask you, J. Patrick, about the status of investigations into the ICE murders of Alex Pretti, Renee Good, and the shooting victim, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Well, two of those three were killed. And certainly people all over the country understand what’s happening or what happened in Minnesota in January. And they also are pretty much aware that the federal government under Trump stopped the federal government from cooperating in those investigations. What do we know about the status right now?
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: So there was a little bit of movement on this a couple of weeks ago where the federal government seems to turn over some of the evidence in the Good killing to state investigators. But as of this point, Renee’s family is still not satisfied because the Department of Justice will not confirm any kind of evidence-sharing arrangement. So we’re not really sure what the nature of this exchange was. I mean, what did the state have to do in a return? And everything seems to be a transaction with this administration. So I do foresee, I mean, I don’t have any news on this, but I anticipate charges coming locally in the incidents. And in the non-fatal shooting that you mentioned, there’s already been charges.
SCOTT HARRIS: Right. Well, there’s a lot to cover there. I’d love to have you back to talk more about the situation there.
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Happy to do it. Yeah.
SCOTT HARRIS: There’s a lot we can learn for this crisis, long-running crisis we’re in from the response in Minnesota, and appreciate all you do at The Reformer. How can our listeners find this article and the one we’ve been talking about tonight, but other important investigations you guys are doing?
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Yeah, just go to minnesotareformer.com. We are no paywall, no ads, and free and actually free to republish too. So you can always recommend that folks republish our material for free because we’re just trying to educate people and get the word out. We currently have a great piece today about a guy who was violently arrested to the point of and he was passed out, and Greg Bovino’s looking on, the former commander of Border Patrol. And so we have sort of an update on the man, Orban Mauricio Enriquez Serrano, who, he went through this ordeal. And it’s a powerful, compelling story about this man and his plight.
SCOTT HARRIS: All right. Well, we’ll make sure to do that. Minnesotareformer.com, right?
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: That’s right.
SCOTT HARRIS: Okay. All right. Well, definitely looking forward to our next conversation, J. Patrick. Appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you.
J. PATRICK COOLICAN: Good to be here.
SCOTT HARRIS: Take care. Goodnight. That’s J. Patrick Coolican, editor-in-chief of the Minnesota Reformer. This is Counterpoint. My name’s Scott Harris here Monday evenings 8 to 9:30 p.m.
