About Nelsie

Unleashing My Inner Me

I began community organizing in 2015 to liberate myself and communities from the chains of  racism, sexism, and classism that kept us from living joyful and dignified lives. In 2019, I ran for office to ensure our East Side community had a champion for people across race, class, gender, age, and disability. I was elected that year and became the youngest and first Hmong-American woman elected to the Saint Paul City Council.

My Why

I grew up hearing stories from my Hmong  elders and parents about their treacherous journey in surviving the Secret War, a covert war that took place during the Vietnam War to stop the spread of communism. I still remember the chills and goosebumps I had as a little girl listening as they recounted the pain in  fleeing genocide and political persecution after the war was lost. Though their journey from the jungles of Laos, across the Mekong River, in Thailand refugee camps, refuge in the United States is just a sliver of the history of the Hmong diaspora, it is my why and the seed to how I became a staunch advocate for peace, housing justice, criminal justice reform, and racial, economic, & gender equity.

POVERTY POWERFULLY TRANSFORMED ME TO FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

In March 1989, my parents resettled in the United States and were transplanted in the projects of Duluth. There, they bore my four older siblings and I. Through the help of welfare, government assistance, and Dad’s job at a bakery earning $4 an hour, Mom raised me and my siblings. Though we were barely surviving and living at the bottom of the economic and social ladder, my parents refused to let our circumstances define us.

Rather, they sought the importance of community and opportunity and moved us to North Minneapolis where more was possible for the both of them economically. It was also where we could be closer to our extended family and people who looked like us and spoke our native Hmong language. Mom and Dad landed full-time jobs as medical-assemblers at St. Jude Medical and achieved their dreams of homeownership in six years. I have very fond memories of playing in the backyard of my childhood home in Brooklyn Park. I have less fond memories though, of the recession and the foreclosure on my parents’ dream home in 2013.

We lost our family home just two days before my high school graduation from Park Center Senior High and immediately relocated to Saint Paul. As painful as it was to lose our home, I knew it pained my parents more because they felt they had failed us. I lacked the words and proper knowledge to protect my parents and to understand what happened to us and families who experienced our similar loss and grief. I began searching for answers. In 2015, I found a voice in grassroots community organizing. I found healing, liberation, and a true calling in this work. I promised myself I would never let poverty be the author of my destiny or anyone else’s again.

MY ORGANIZING JOURNEY AND LIFETIME COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY

Through organizing, I learned how to turn my pain and anger into a fire that fought for justice--to dismantle the racism, sexism, and classism that was at the root of the injustices my family and many families across the nation experienced. I began community organizing in 2015 by volunteering on campaigns to elect progressive champions like former Councilmember Dai Thao into office. I wanted to have elected leaders who cared about uplifting our most marginalized communities and advancing equity. These campaigns led me to issue-based organizing where I worked in coalition with people and organizations to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour and pass Earned Sick and Safe Time in Saint Paul. These victorious, people-led campaigns became a pillar in my leadership growth. I took my passion to the next level by working for people-centered organizations like TakeAction Minnesota and Hmong Americans for Justice. With courage and determination, I ran for office in 2018 to ensure that our East Side community was represented by a progressive, working class champion who worked collectively to unite and improve the lives of people across race, class, gender, age, and disability. Together, we won in 2019 and embarked almost four years of co-governing with one another, surviving a pandemic, and working toward our biggest hopes and dreams. 

FUN FACTS ABOUT ME:

• Birthdate: March 11, 1995

• Favorite Color: Blue

• Favorite Food: Spaghetti, Chorizo Tacos, Spicy Papaya Salad

• I played the viola in grades 5-12.

• ‘17 Graduate of Mankato State University, Bachelor of Social Work

• I studied abroad in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2015 for six months. There, I completed my social work internship at Baan King Kaew Orphanage. 

• I got married during the pandemic! My husband, Kong Xiong, and I have a smiley and playful son, Txongka Xiong! Txongka was named by his grandparents, and his name is a Hmong word meaning President and an individual great at being in charge.