Reposted by AkhileshAisha Chughtai @aishaforward10.com · 12/10/2026We stand with @ilhanmn.bsky.social and our Somali neighbors. 017331
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 12/10/2026Donald Trump is weaponizing the Department of Justice against political opponents. The search of Ilhan’s home this morning proves our country has plunged deeper into fascism, authoritarianism, and autocracy. I am proud to stand with Ilhan. Statement: www.hennepind2.com/statements/2... 0137
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 08/10/2026People ask me: "Dr. Commish, you've built the case that we need to build the Blue Line Extension. So how do we make it happen?" The next step is to formally apply for $752 million of federal funding. But we can't apply until every dollar of local funding is accounted for. 🧵 156
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 29/09/2026Today, the @hennepin.bsky.social County Board set the 2027 maximum levy at 8.15%. I was proud to vote for it. All year, this Board set clear direction to protect democracy, public services, and our most vulnerable neighbors. This budget meets that direction. www.hennepind2.com/statements/2... 163
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 28/09/2026Light rail drives development like nothing else. In 2026 alone, this new development is generating $35.7 million in property tax revenue that isn't falling to existing property owners, including $7.7 million for the City of Minneapolis and $4 million for Minneapolis Public Schools. 1247
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 28/09/2026The Green Line Extension opens June 12, 2027. I follow a long line of @hennepin.bsky.social County Chairs who pushed this project forward. I’m a lifelong transit user. When my family was new to the country, they relied on transit to get everywhere we needed to go. Transit was our lifeline. 1297
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 24/09/2026September is National Workforce Development Month. At our September 15 @hennepin.bsky.social Board Meeting, I recognized the county programs doing this work and the people behind them. When we invest in the workforce, we invest in people. 122
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 23/09/2026The median-value Minneapolis home would pay over $540 more in 2027. Over 75% comes from the City, even as it proposes reduced services and layoffs. I am concerned about asking residents for so much more while cutting the very services they are asking us to protect. 2/7 143
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 23/09/2026I sent a letter to the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation on the 2027 property tax levies. About 100,000 of my constituents live in Minneapolis. They get one tax bill based on all of our decisions. Read the letter: www.hennepind2.com/statements/2... 1/7 1107
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 26/08/2026Yesterday, meeting as the Resident Services Committee, the Hennepin County Board unanimously affirmed our commitment to free and fair elections. We reaffirmed our oaths, and directed county leadership to oppose unlawful requests for elections data. 🧵 131
Reposted by AkhileshCedrick Frazier @cedrickfrazier.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Numbers don’t lie. We have a working class countywide coalition. They have a donor class country club coalition. 1469
Akhilesh @akhileshmenawat.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Folk outspent the rest of the County Attorney field combined and still lost by 13 points — spending $6.18 a vote to Frazier's 96¢. All his money couldn't close the gap and November's is bigger. At 2022-scale turnout, a majority costs Folk another $1.6M. That’s a lot to raise. 1/3 1327
Reposted by AkhileshErica @ericamauter.com · 21/08/2026Seems like a lot of people still don’t get Irene Fernando, politically. But, your bad if you underestimate her. She’s smart and strategic and she gets shit done. (And yes, she’s a big personality.) 091
Reposted by AkhileshAsh Chudgar @chudgar.com · 20/08/2026Akhilesh has with more good news in dazzling dataviz! 031
Akhilesh @akhileshmenawat.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Don’t read Frazier's 35.95% as a sign that Hennepin voters don’t want a progressive attorney. The data says the opposite. To start: Frazier finished first in 227 of 394 precincts. Folk: 1st in 74, 2nd in 115, and 3rd-5th in 206 (more than half the precincts in Hennepin County). 36418
Akhilesh @akhileshmenawat.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Irene Fernando won a mandate — 55.3% in a four-way race. And the more I dig into the math, the stronger her win is. To start, she won every city in the district: all four Minneapolis wards, Plymouth, Golden Valley, St. Anthony, and Medicine Lake. 🧵 23913
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 11/08/2026Today is the Primary Election. Polling places are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Here is what you need to know to vote. Find your polling place and see a sample ballot for your precinct at pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us. 🧵 122
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 10/08/2026Community is the heartbeat of Hennepin County's purpose and mission. It steadies us in hardship and inspires us toward possibility. For me, investing in my own community has always been personal. 🧵 212
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 07/08/2026At the heart of Hennepin County's important work is our incredible and vibrant workforce. They're the people behind every public good we deliver, and strong public goods create strong communities. 🧵 142
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 06/08/2026When we grow what we have to work with, we can give our neighbors what they've asked for — without asking stretched families to give even more. That's the math. Rail doesn't just move people. It moves the numbers and changes the trajectory. Go to BlueLineExt.org — and let's build it. 7/7bluelineext.org METRO Blue Line Extension - Metropolitan Council 071
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 06/08/2026This isn't hypothetical — right now the opposite is happening in Downtown Minneapolis. Commercial values have fallen almost 35% since 2022. When that tax base shrinks, someone else covers the difference: the homeowner portion of taxes jumped from 47% to 56% in just five years. 5/ 151
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 06/08/2026People ask me: "Dr. Commish, you say light rail increases the tax base. But what does the math say?" Here's what a century of disinvestment looks like in dollars: West Broadway generates about $48 million in property value per mile. 50th and France generates nearly nine times more. 🧵 1298
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 05/08/2026Yesterday, @hennepin.bsky.social County committed $2.254 billion to the METRO Blue Line Extension. The largest single investment in public transit in Minnesota history, and I enthusiastically voted yes. Strong public goods create strong communities. 🧵 www.hennepind2.com/statements/2... 153
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 05/08/2026Before I was a Commissioner, I co-founded a youth leadership nonprofit and earned a Master's in Youth Development Leadership. That's why I'm proud to have led the Board toward opening a new Youth Stabilization Center in December 2025, for youth in crisis who cannot safely stay home. 🧵 142
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 04/08/2026Strong businesses and a skilled workforce go hand in hand. Elevate Hennepin launched in 2020 with 11 graduates in one cohort. Today, it's served 4,600 business owners — 68% led by entrepreneurs of color. 🧵 122
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 03/08/2026People ask me: "Dr. Commish, you say rail brings investment — but what does that mean for me?" Tax is the government word for revenue. Taxes are how we deliver services and respond to crises. BUT the way governments talk about taxes is not how you experience them. 🧵 132
Reposted by AkhileshWedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 30/07/2026HAPPENING NOW on the Wedge LIVE podcast: Hennepin County Commissioner Irene Fernando (born way back in the 1980s) talks about being a teenager and using big thick books called encyclopedias to research how to dress appropriately for Minnesota. 0202
Reposted by AkhileshWedge LIVE!™ @wedge.live · 30/07/2026My conversation with Irene Fernando is out now, wherever podcasts are found. In this clip we talk about what's motivating her to return for a third and final term on the Hennepin County Board, especially when the job can be so emotionally grueling and the political landscape is so grim. 0154
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 31/07/2026The right response to a crisis isn’t always a police car. We built a different kind of first responder into the 911 system itself — and it now serves every city in the county. 🧵 132
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 29/07/2026Hennepin County is dedicated to eliminating racial disparities — not just managing them. That distinction is the whole of my equity work: build the systems and the policies that will close gaps. 🧵 143
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 28/07/2026A democracy is strongest when every person is heard, valued, and included. That belief shapes how we invest, the initiatives that we fund, and what we fought for at the legislature. 🧵 132
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 27/07/2026People ask me: “Dr. Commish, you keep saying the Blue Line will change the trajectory of what’s possible. But what does that actually mean?” Let me start with two terms: investment and tax base. 🧵 142
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 24/07/2026As a daughter of immigrants, defending residents regardless of where they were born is personal for me. That shows up in how the county runs, and in the laws I've fought to change. 🧵 111
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 23/07/2026Survivors deserve systems they can trust — whether or not they have taken formal steps within those systems. That belief drives how I govern on domestic and gender-based violence: prevention, accountability, and real support. 🧵 112
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 22/07/2026Hennepin led on climate before others did — with equity at the center of every action. Cleaner air, resilient infrastructure, and solutions that reach the communities environmental harm hits first. 🧵 112
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 21/07/2026Transit is not just infrastructure — it is access to jobs, healthcare, education, and opportunity for the people who depend on it most. I advanced the Blue Line Extension from a stalled project with no viable route to a light rail line the community built and demanded. 🧵 164
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 20/07/2026We're gearing up to ensure HCMC's service and financial sustainability for the long haul. Because strong public goods create strong communities — and a public hospital is one of the strongest public goods we have. More at hennepinD2.com/results. 6/6hennepind2.comEight Years of Results — Hennepin County District 2 021
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 20/07/2026Access to health services is a human right — not a privilege, and never something reserved for the fortunate or the few. When the region's only public safety-net hospital was at risk of closing, I led the fight to keep it open. 🧵 132
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 17/07/2026We keep homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring. That is not a slogan — it is a governing standard, and Hennepin is the only county in Minnesota that funds shelter operations to meet it. 🧵 132
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 16/07/2026The federal government didn't just come for our budgets. It came for our neighbors. When Operation Metro Surge brought a federal crackdown to Hennepin County, we met it with a plan. 🧵 112
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 15/07/2026People ask me: "Dr. Commish, won't the Blue Line displace me or push people out of my neighborhood?" This is a real concern. It's why the Blue Line Extension is the first transit project in the nation to build anti-displacement directly into the project itself. 🧵 1245
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 13/07/2026Our systems are not broken. They do not work for all of us because they were never designed for all of us. That's the lens that shapes how we govern. 🧵 211
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 14/07/2026Counties are the caregivers of government. When Washington pulls back, we're what stands between a resident and the loss of their coverage, their food, their hospital. This is the work that doesn't make headlines — and it's more urgent now than ever. 🧵 111
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 10/07/2026Some of our biggest wins started as just one idea. Being good at governing isn't about having every answer — it's about building off each other, staying tied to community, and refusing to stop. 🧵 131
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 09/07/2026For the next several weeks, I'm sharing eight years of results from my time on the Hennepin County Board — the wins, the fights, and the work still ahead. I'm Irene Fernando, and you can call me Commish. Follow along, and see it all now at hennepinD2.com/results. 🧵 111
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 08/07/2026People ask me: "Dr. Commish, why Light Rail? Why can't the Blue Line just be a bus?" To be clear — I'm a regular bus rider. But this corridor needs buses AND Light Rail. Because Bus Rapid Transit brings only one-quarter of the investment Light Rail does. 🧵 1234
Reposted by AkhileshAshle Lynn Paige 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️ @northstarashle.bsky.social · 06/07/2026Here's something I want to point out. We spend more than this per annum just to partially maintain & repair our massive highway network. The more money we spend on public transit, the less damage to the roads, less repairs needed. Public rail transit IS the fiscally responsible option. 031
Reposted by AkhileshIrene Fernando @hennepind2.com · 06/07/2026People ask me all the time: "Dr. Commish, why did the Blue Line Extension get more expensive?" The honest answer is because we listened. And it's still the most affordable federal light rail project of its kind, per mile, in the entire country. 🧵 13710
