Source: Politics<\/p>\n
When Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was tapped last year to take the lead in the prosecution of police officer Derek Chauvin, he took on a major political risk. Failing to secure a conviction could have blown up the Democrat\u2019s career with the entire world watching.<\/p>\n
But the gamble paid off, thrusting Ellison into the national spotlight and adding another chapter to a career that\u2019s taken him from Congress to an unsuccessful run for the Democratic National Committee chairmanship in 2017 to statewide office. Now, armed with enhanced name recognition after Chauvin\u2019s guilty verdict, progressives are buzzing about the 57-year-old\u2019s prospects for higher office \u2014 if there are any.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever future he wants to lay out for himself, there are many of us who would support him in that,\u201d Rep. Pramila Jayapal, leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told POLITICO. \u201cIt adds to a record of his successes in the many roles that he\u2019s had over the years. And it got a lot of public attention, so the recognition of him and what he did for our country \u2014 and it really is for our country, and for Black people across the country \u2014 is immeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellison, a prominent ally of Bernie Sanders during both of the Vermont senator\u2019s presidential bids, has received accolades from both flanks of the Democratic Party for his role in Chauvin\u2019s trial. Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress and a longtime critic of Sanders, tweeted that she is \u201cso grateful\u201d that Ellison was in charge of the case. Progressives such as Justice Democrats spokesperson Waleed Shahid praised \u201chis leadership.\u201d Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, also singled out Ellison for his role.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a living example of how the state\u2019s top law enforcement should not only react to a crime, but also assemble the evidence and facts,\u201d said Donna Brazile, the former chair of the DNC. \u201cHe has been phenomenal. There\u2019s no other way to describe it. He filled a void. He provided steady leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced last May that Ellison would be at the helm of prosecuting Chauvin \u2014 a decision that came in the wake of Floyd\u2019s family members, activists and lawmakers voicing concerns about the local prosecutor who had been leading the case until then.<\/p>\n
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman had been managing it and would have been in charge of the prosecution, but that changed after 10 state representatives sent a letter to Walz saying they \u2014 and particularly their Black constituents \u2014 no longer trusted Freeman\u2019s ability to \u201cimpartially investigate and prosecute\u201d the case.<\/p>\n
Ellison, on the other hand, was a more natural fit. A former state legislator, he was Minnesota\u2019s first Black member of Congress and the first-ever Muslim elected to Congress, where he represented a Minneapolis-based district for over a decade. Early in his career, he worked for 16 years in civil rights law \u2014 five of them as the head of the Legal Rights Center, a Minnesota firm that promotes racial and social justice. As a law school student, he led a protest against police brutality and the failure to charge transgressing officers in Minneapolis. He also has been singled out by cops in his own life, he said, because he is Black.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the right person for this moment. Him and his team, they changed the course of history,\u201d said Nina Turner, Sanders\u2019 former campaign co-chair who worked with Ellison during the senator\u2019s presidential bids. \u201cHe\u2019s very down-to-earth, very committed, very focused but also warm. \u2026 With all of his intellect and skills that he has, he is a Black man in America and he understood from lived experiences the historic import, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview, Jackson called Ellison \u201ctough\u201d and said \u201che has the capacity to relate to all people, and give them a comfort level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet Ellison\u2019s record has also attracted criticism. Minneapolis Police Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the local Police Officers Federation, said in 2018<\/a> when Ellison was running for attorney general that \u201cKeith Ellison has a long history, and it\u2019s a negative history, with the Minneapolis Police Department \u2026 I don\u2019t wholeheartedly believe that [he respects law enforcement]. I think he\u2019s got a different agenda that, quite frankly, is anti-law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n