PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) told TPM on Saturday that he expects a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota will fail when voters head to the polls in November.
“I believe that the right to marry someone who you please is so fundamental it should not be subject to popular approval anymore than we should vote on whether blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus,” Ellison said after a panel on voting rights at the Netroots Nation conference here.
At the local level, Ellison said his campaign staff is working to defeat the amendment. “When we call, we don’t call and say, ‘Please vote for Keith.’ We say Keith is fighting to defeat the voter ID and the anti-marriage amendment. Will you support these efforts too?”
Ellison commended President Obama for endorsing same-sex marriage. “I was happy he did it,” Ellison said. “Who you marry is your business. That’s up to you.”
Recent polling shows momentum shifting against the amendment. A Public Policy Polling (D) survey of Minnesota released last week shows that 49 percent of Minnesota voters do not support the amendment. It marks a stark shift since PPP’s last poll of the state, when 48 percent of the state’s voters expressed support for the amendment.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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