Larry Kraft is a homemade ice cream aficionado. Kristin Robbins went to the same graduate school as a recently retired colleague. And it turns out that both Robbins and Sandra Feist care deeply about how social media impacts kids. It’s exactly these types of personal discoveries and connections that these members of the Minnesota legislature have made with each other through the Civility Caucus.
Launched in 2017 after a workshop on building trust through civil discourse at an annual legislative conference, Minnesota’s Civility Caucus is designed to bring members of the state House and Senate together across the aisle. The idea is simple: By getting to know members of the “other side” as people, rather than as presumed adversaries with stereotypically held beliefs, more effective, bipartisan legislation will get done.
Next City reports that there are similar efforts on the federal level, like the Problem Solvers Caucus and the Congressional Civility and Respect Caucus, as well as a broader civility in government initiative in New Hampshire, but Minnesota’s state caucus stands alone.