The door of a corner house on Bryant Avenue N. in north Minneapolis is draped with a string of small wooden objects. Two Hmong shamans live inside, and they believe the small symbolic carvings protect the house from bad or negative spirits.
Only positive spirits have been at the Lee doorstep this fall for the shamans' son, Fue Lee, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and moved to the United States with his family as a toddler. On Tuesday, Lee won a seat at the Minnesota Legislature, representing his North Side district. Lee is just 25 years old.
Lee surprised many veteran political pundits by beating 10-term representative Joe Mullery in the DFL primary. Because the district votes heavily for Democrats, Lee was expected to win handily.
But that didn't stop him from continuing to campaign this week. On Monday, he worked out of his campaign office, an overflowing backroom of his family's house, where Lee and four siblings live with their mother and father. The campaign office also holds two altars, where his mother and father, both shamans, perform ceremonies for community members who come to them for help and spiritual guidance.
One sister, Lee's communications director, was at the kitchen table. Another sister is his treasurer. Lee was able to door-knock the neighborhood relentlessly, in fact, largely because of his expansive family. He has nine brothers and nine sisters in all, plus a virtual campaign team of nieces and nephews who all pitched in to help.
This is what democracy looks like.
When Lee first broached the idea of running for office, however, his father was concerned.
"He said we are a very modest family, and that in Thailand you have to have a lot of money to run for office," Lee said. That often included bribes.
