During the Minnesota State Fair’s opening weekend, Rashad Turner led hundreds of determined protesters up Snelling Avenue to the gates of the State Fairgrounds.

In public interviews, he had toned down previous claims that one of the state’s most popular annual attractions was run by white supremacists, but he stuck to the message that the Great Minnesota Get-Together lacked enough workers and vendors of color.

The protest drew national media attention when a section of marchers was caught on film chanting threatening and derogatory remarks about police. Nevertheless, the “BlackFair” rally unfolded without violence, and some say the effort worked.

A few weeks ago, the State Fair held the first job fair of its 157-year history, advertising 600 temporary positions to St. Paul-area workers.

“No regrets,” Turner said in an interview this past week. “(The protest) sort of kicked down that door of entering those sacred spaces. If you look back over the past year, it inspired protests around the country.”

Turner, 31, the public face of Black Lives Matter St. Paul, is no stranger to controversy. That hasn’t stopped him from going door-to-door in the Hamline-Midway, Frogtown, Summit-University and North End neighborhoods and asking for votes. And judging by the growing number of “Turner” lawn signs, he’ll get some.

Turner is challenging three-term state Rep. Rena Moran, DFL-St. Paul, in the Aug. 9 primary for House District 65A. The two candidates have no working relationship or history, but their rhetoric has become increasingly rancorous on everything from the planned Major League Soccer stadium to police-minority relations.

“I think she’s silent on the social justice issues,” said Turner, who has also questioned Moran’s visibility in the community. “There hasn’t been one person when I’m out knocking on doors that even knows who she is.”

“I don’t know Rashad — this little kid that came out of somewhere, that I’ve never seen in the community actively engaged in any of the issues around housing, around education, around the disparities,” said Moran, the DFL-endorsed candidate.

“It’s clear Mr. Turner doesn’t know anything about the legislative process and hasn’t been engaged in that process,” she added.

According to pre-primary campaign finance reports, Moran had raised $9,007 as of July 18, spent $9,231 and had $14,945 cash on hand. Turner had raised $1,604 and spent $1,069, leaving $715 cash on hand.

DIFFERENT STYLES

Moran, who is Minnesota’s only black state representative, points to the State Fair march as an example of what she calls Turner’s showy and simplistic approach toward complex policy issues.

“No, I was not marching,” she said. “I’m very focused on solutions and I try to do that in collaboration with the community. I don’t know what its purpose was, and what was accomplished because of it.”

When it comes to social justice, Moran noted she authored legislation that updates the expungement process to allow judges to permanently seal the criminal records of reformed offenders. And she supported “Ban The Box” legislation that bars private employers from asking about a job candidate’s criminal background until the interview or conditional job offer stage of the hiring process. She’s been instrumental in obtaining state funding for the “Promise Neighborhood,” an educational initiative running along Selby Avenue and the Pierce Butler Route from Lexington Parkway to Rice Street.

Given his activism, Turner and his supporters maintain he has been at least as visible as Moran in the community, if not more so, and is just as ready to take on nuanced public policy concerns. Turner, who was raised in St. Paul and has a young daughter in the St. Paul Public Schools, holds an undergraduate degree from Hamline University in Criminal Justice and is completing his Masters in Educational Leadership at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.

He coordinates a scholarship and college prep program for incoming students at Century College, and was twice nominated as distinguished educator of the year while working as a cultural liaison in the predominantly-white White Bear Lake Area School District.

Millions of dollars in economic development projects such as the Green Line “have poured into the district over the last six years,” Turner said. “Why haven’t people from the community been getting the building and contracting jobs on those work sites?”

His campaign leaflets describe him as “a face you always see, not just at election time,” an apparent dig at the sitting state rep’s supposed low profile within her district.

“He doesn’t know anything about me,” Moran said. “I’m everywhere.”

Moran, who consistently holds an “A” rating from the Minneapolis-based advocacy group Voices for Racial Justice, said she door knocks throughout the district twice a week and has hosted town hall forums on policy matters, including a forum this spring on the Women of Color Opportunity Act. The act provided $1.5 million for “Girls in Action,” which does outreach to female students of color in Minneapolis, St. Paul and suburban schools. Other grants went to St. Paul nonprofits such as the YWCA.

“I see Rena at events,” said Marvin Anderson, a founder of the neighborhood Rondo Days celebration and Everybody Wins Minnesota, a literacy program that, with Moran’s help, funded transport for state employees to read to kids in schools. “I’ve worked with her on a number of projects. I’ve sought her out. She’s introduced legislation for me.”

Moran, who has seven adult children and five grandchildren, holds a bachelor’s of science in Early Childhood Education from Southern Illinois University and is the Director of Parent Leadership for Prevent Child Abuse Minnesota, where she works closely with 21 families from across the state.

THE DFL ENDORSEMENT?

Turner’s concerns about racial inequality have gained added attention following the officer-involved shooting death on July 6 of Philando Castile, a St. Paul public school kitchen supervisor in Falcon Heights, and the November 2015 shooting death of Jamar Clark in North Minneapolis.

Nevertheless, some DFLers have questioned his campaign approach.

Turner last year ran for the St. Paul School Board as a write-in candidate under the banner of the Green Party. This time around, his campaign leaflets carry the “Minnesota DFL” logo in prominent rainbow colors, even though it was Moran, not Turner, who won the party endorsement this spring.

The same leaflet displays a quote from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, stating “I think he’s sincere.” The mayor, who has met with Turner to discuss safety concerns prior to street protests and walked beside Turner during the July 16 Rondo Days Parade, has gone on record supporting Moran.

“We were not asked for permission to use the mayor’s quote, which is from a Star Tribune article,” said the mayor’s spokeswoman, Tonya Tennessen. “Also, the mayor has been a longtime supporter of Rena and has endorsed her.”

THE ISSUES

In one of the clearest distinctions between the candidates, Turner opposes plans to build a Major League Soccer stadium in the Midway. Moran, who is a sponsor of the legislation that would keep the vacant and publicly-owned soccer stadium land off the property tax rolls, foresees new housing, retail and offices replacing the time-worn Midway Shopping Center next door.

“The land has been barren,” she said. “District 65A has almost no tax base at all. It’s a lot of nonprofits and churches.”

Her opponent foresees more black families displaced by gentrification. “I don’t think it’s going to benefit people from the community,” said Turner, who points to the number of black residents who can no longer afford apartments along historically-black Selby Avenue as precedent. “Gentrification is something that I would say the city participates in.”

Turner and Moran have each described themselves as the better social justice advocate. Turner’s campaign website lists six core priorities: education, criminal justice, minimum wage, youth in foster care and environmental justice. He takes a dim view of the Green Line light rail, which he said has done little to alleviate poverty, and he believes that too much affordable housing aimed at residents on government programs, such as Section 8 housing vouchers, has been concentrated along the light rail.

Turner supports a more diverse teaching workforce and less standardized testing in schools, free developmental courses throughout the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system and legalizing marijuana. He’s also pushing to end grand jury reviews for police officers accused of violence or misconduct, offer services to foster children past the age of 18 and increase the scheduled minimum wage from $9.50 to $15.

Moran points to her votes to support early childhood education and free all-day kindergarten for all Minnesota schoolchildren. She also supported a tuition freeze at MnSCU and efforts to close the gender pay gap and offer paid parental leave.

Moran said she worked to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by Aug. 1 of this year and backed MNsure, an online marketplace that offers financial help to individuals and businesses buying health insurance. “Now, 95 percent of Minnesotans have health insurance – the second best rate in the nation,” states her website.

In the next session, she plans to reconvene a Racial Economic Work Group in the House and work closely with other concerned lawmakers on a package of best practices intended to improve police-community relations, such as possible legislation mandating that more officers live within the city they police.

“Back in the day, when police used to walk the beat, they knew who you were, and said, ‘I’m taking you to your mom,'” Moran said. “Which is quite different from, say a Willmar officer coming into a district like 65A — very diverse — and maybe bringing biases and prejudices with them.”

Moran carries the official endorsement of the Minnesota DFL, the AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME Minnesota Council 5, WomenWinning and other labor groups. Turner said he has not actively sought endorsements.

Staff writer Bill Salibury contributed to this report.