The speaker for Tuesday’s Group was Cyle Cramer, one of five candidates seeking the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s endorsement for Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional District.
The other candidates seeking the DFL endorsement are Trina Swanson, Emanuel Anastos, and John-Paul McBride, while the Republican Party has already endorsed incumbent Pete Stauber.
Stauber is the current U.S. House Representative for much of the Iron Range and Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness, and the topic of mining has been hotly contested in recent months.
Cramer began by stating, “The Democratic party is lacking a true vision forward… a huge part of my running is being open about that vision.”
Being raised by his grandparents gave him an appreciation for the programs Democrats typically represent, and has informed his platform ever since.
He enlisted in the Army National Guard at 17 and after a six year enlistment, used his GI Bill benefits to attend law school. Cramer’s background as an employment defense lawyer allows him a level of expertise in talking about corporate personhood in America, and how he believes these policies impact American workers negatively.
“Increased corporate power dehumanizes workers, instead of benefitting [them].”
Cramer’s ultimate goal, if elected, would be to sign Rep. Betty McCullom’s bill to permanently ban copper mining. McCullom is a Democratic representative for Minnesota’s Fourth District, and has been adamant about protections for the BWCA for over a decade.
The presentation included the timeline of federal protections in the Boundary Waters.
In 1966, the narrative of protection changed; the federal Bureau of Land Management issued two “preference of right” mineral leases.
Cramer said these leases were permitted because the U.S. government was embroiled in the Cold War with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the USSR.
He said the American government was extremely concerned with ensuring any edge available to them in the nuclear arms race, and this inspired a desire to develop natural resources in the United States.
Cramer said these two permits “became the basis of today’s debate about mining.”
Today, Twin Metals owns the leasing rights to these two exploratory permits. The company is a subsidiary of the Chilean Corporation Antofagasta PLC. The company’s foreign backing adds more contention to the mining debate.
In 2016, under President Barack Obama’s administration, the U.S. Department of the Interior declined to renew the mineral leases.
Obama’s Interior Department initiated a mineral withdrawal study, with the goal of enacting a 20 year mining ban.
After President Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017, the Interior’s decision was reversed. The reasoning behind this decision’s reversal was to advance America’s “energy dominance and strengthen domestic mineral independence.”
Copper, nickel, and the other mineral groups gained from mining are used in everything from housing and wind turbine construction, automobile and aircraft engines, and cell phones or electronics equipped with signal transmission.
Between the shifting administrations of 2016-2026, the decision to renew the leases has been reversed, overturned, and debated over and over again.
Recently, Stauber introduced Joint Resolution 140 to the U.S. House, which would restore leasing eligibility and is now facing a vote in the U.S. Senate.
Cramer’s view on the issue? “National security only matters when you have something to protect,” highlighting his belief that if copper-nickel mining were to be allowed, the region’s freshwater would be polluted beyond repair.
