Now that they hold the levers of state power by a slim majority, Minnesota Democrats are cramming far-left legislation down the throats of the state’s beleaguered conservatives, pushing the envelope on a range of progressive causes from transgender activism, restrictions on free speech, and expansions of the franchise to felons and illegal immigrants.

Minnesota has not voted Republican in a presidential election since 1972 and has a reputation as a blue stronghold. Despite that, its population is roughly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. Its rural red counties were a hair’s breadth from delivering the state to Donald Trump in 2016, when the state voted to the right of the national average for the first time since 1952. During the 2022 midterms, however, the state’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) achieved control over the state’s legislative and executive branches by a slim majority.

The result is an example of what an assertive American left will force upon its minority conservative population when it has the legal power to do so. This year, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and DFL lawmakers have introduced a legislative agenda that will embed the right to abortion within state law; make the state a “trans refuge” that will protect so-called gender-affirming care (including sex reassignment surgery for children); strengthen gun control measures including “red flag” laws to strip Second Amendment rights from anyone deemed dangerous by the state; mandate the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and grant voting rights to felons, which is likely to further consolidate the DFL’s electoral control in future elections.