Dear Internet Friends,

Well, we’ve gotten a lot accomplished since we launched the website in April.

You helped us fill the new Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School Library on the Leech Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota by donating 2,500 new books the librarian had asked for and $82,000! The school will have a library of 20,000 books that will serve the whole community thanks to you! Great start, everybody!

The Al Franken Podcast is also off to a great start! If you haven’t listened to our very first one with Maria Teresa Kumar of Voto Latino, it’s unfortunately even more relevant today. Maria discussed voter suppression (including the citizenship question on the census), immigration, and the disgraceful conditions in the for-profit internment camps. Her description of an eight-year-old boy asking if there’s a coffee plantation nearby -he says he’s a good picker – is heartbreaking.

This week, The Founding Members of the Senate’s now defunct “Oh Ya! Caucus,” former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp and I discuss Heidi’s new organization, One Country.

How do Democrats get more votes in rural America?

1. Show up.
2. Listen.
3. Keep coming back.
4. Listen to the podcast.

Heidi lost her re-elect in a state that has turned solidly red over the past ten years. I won both of my races in a purplish-blue state by winning big in the Twin Cities and Duluth. But I did better all-around and in rural Minnesota in my second race (2014, a bad year for Dems) because I showed up, listened, and kept coming back. Turns out rural Americans care about what other Americans care about: health care; their kids’ education; keeping their kids close to them. Which means jobs.

Oh. And subscribe to my new YouTube channel. All the podcasts are there, plus some videos from my pre-Senate career as well as my years in the Senate.

Enjoy the website!