2018年，时任代表明尼阿波利斯及其部分郊区国会议员的基思·埃里森当选明尼苏达州总检察长，成为美国历史上首位当选全州公职的穆斯林。
In 2018, Keith Ellison, then the member of Congress representing Minneapolis and some of its suburbs, was elected Minnesota attorney general, becoming the first Muslim elected to statewide office in the history of the United States of America.
这个事实值得停下来认真思量。在美国建国后的头242年里（如果从1776年算起），从未有穆斯林赢得过全州公职。他在一个以白人和基督徒为主的州获胜，并于2022年成功连任。无论接下来发生什么，他都已经在历史上留下了不可磨灭的印记。
It’s worth pausing to reckon with that fact. No Muslim won statewide office in the first 242 years of the U.S. (if we’re counting from 1776). He won in a majority white and Christian state, and was re-elected in 2022. Whatever happens next, he has made an indelible mark on history.
但我担心的是接下来会发生什么。埃里森是一位称职的总检察长，他利用自己的职位保护明尼苏达人免受企业不法行为和联邦政府的侵害。如果他获胜，这一切将继续。如果他失败，明尼苏达人将不再拥有一道亟需的屏障，来抵御一位似乎越来越执迷于惩罚他们胆敢违抗他的总统。而且，埃里森第一次在一场夹在至少两大叙事之间的选举中面对一位有实力的对手，这两大叙事各自将选民拉向相反的方向。
But I am concerned about what happens next. Ellison has been a competent attorney general who has used his office to protect Minnesotans from both corporate malfeasance and the federal government. If he wins, that continues. If he loses, Minnesotans will no longer have a badly needed bulwark against a president that increasingly seems obsessed with punishing them for daring to defy him. And for the first time, Ellison is facing a competent opponent in an election caught between at least two major stories, each pulling the electorate in opposite directions.
共和党人的竞选策略是指责民主党在社会服务项目中存在普遍欺诈。民主党人的竞选策略是指责共和党占领了我们的州、杀害了我们的人民（更不用说汽油、食品杂货和医疗保健的高昂价格了）。
Republicans are running on blaming Democrats for widespread fraud in social services programs. Democrats are running on blaming Republicans for the occupation of our state and the murder of our people (not to mention high prices on gas, groceries and healthcare).
我知道哪一方对我更有说服力，但我并不完全确信我所在州的选民会做出正确的选择。在全国范围内，这场选举正在针对民选官员和候选人的反穆斯林偏见的持续叙事中开辟丑陋的新领域，而这个叙事可以说至少在本世纪是从基思·埃里森开始的。
I know which side is more compelling to me, but I’m not totally confident that my state electorate will make the right choice. Across the nation, this election is breaking new, ugly ground in the ongoing story of anti-Muslim bigotry against elected officials and candidates, a story that arguably begins, at least in this century, with Keith Ellison.
埃里森于2002年当选明尼苏达州众议员，2006年当选国会议员。他是首位当选国会议员的穆斯林，这当然是历史性的，但赢得全国最进步的选区之一来开辟新天地，要比在全州范围内获胜容易得多。
Ellison was elected to the Minnesota House in 2002, then Congress in 2006. He was the first Muslim elected to Congress, which is historic, of course, but it’s a lot easier to break new ground by winning one of the most progressive districts in the country than by succeeding statewide.
他当选时所遭遇的疯狂种族主义和伊斯兰恐惧症，最终成了预兆，预示着如今已成为共和党主流话语根本组成部分的变本加厉的偏执。2006年他当选后的几天里，当时担任CNN评论员的格伦·贝克对埃里森说：“先生，向我证明你没有与我们的敌人合作。”丹尼斯·普拉格——如今是右翼试图改写美国历史的主要设计者之一——谴责埃里森选择手按《古兰经》而非《圣经》宣誓，称如果允许他使用自己的圣书，“他对美国团结以及对这个国家赖以形成的价值体系所造成的损害，将超过9·11的恐怖分子。”埃里森 famously 选用了一本曾属于托马斯·杰斐逊的《古兰经》。
The unhinged racism and Islamophobia that greeted his election turned out to be a harbinger of the intensified bigotry that is now so fundamental to mainstream Republican discourse. In the days after his election in 2006, Glenn Beck, then a CNN pundit, told Ellison, “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.”Dennis Prager, now a principal architect of right-wing attempts to rewrite American history, condemned Ellison for choosing to swear his oath on a Quran instead of a Bible, saying that if he were allowed to use his own holy book, “he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9/11.”Ellison famously selected a Quran once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
从这些攻击——无耻且自信地认为骇人听闻的伊斯兰恐惧症不会给施害者带来任何真正的代价——到今天正在发生的事情，之间存在一条直接的线索。特朗普对民主党众议员伊尔汗·奥马尔的攻击（既有言语上的，也有身体上的，通过司法部和国土安全部突袭她在华盛顿的住所），以及围绕“索马里欺诈”的整个话语，反映出明尼苏达州本已糟糕的局势进一步升级。
There’s a direct line from these attacks, shameless and confident that outrageous Islamophobia would generate no real penalty to the perpetrator, to what’s happening today. Trump’s attacks on Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (both verbally and physically, via a Justice Department and Homeland Security raid on her home in Washington) and the whole discourse around “Somali fraud” reflect an escalation of an already bad situation in Minnesota.
埃里森的对手、公司律师罗恩·舒茨表现得通情达理。2018年，埃里森面对的是道格·沃德洛——恐同诉讼和立法的设计者之一——他开展了一场赤裸裸的种族主义竞选，最终失败。但在2018年，参议员艾米·克洛布彻以惊人的35个百分点优势连任，其他全州选举中民主-农民-劳工党也以约10个百分点的优势获胜。埃里森仅以3个百分点获胜。2022年，蒂姆·沃尔兹在州长竞选中以8个百分点轻松获胜，而埃里森勉强获胜，得票率为50.37%对49.53%，险胜对冲基金律师吉姆·舒尔茨。
Ellison’s opponent, corporate lawyer Ron Schutz, presents as reasonable. In 2018, Ellison faced Doug Wardlow, an architect of homophobic lawsuits and legislation, who ran an explicitly racist campaign that ultimately failed. But in 2018, Sen. Amy Klobuchar was re-elected by a staggering 35 points, and other statewide races went to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party by about 10 points. Ellison won by only 3 points. In 2022, with Tim Walz cruising to an 8-point victory in the governor’s race, Ellison barely won, 50.37% to 49.53%, narrowly defeating hedge fund lawyer Jim Schultz.
当明尼苏达州选民已经证明他们愿意分裂选票（需要明确的是，这在很大程度上是因为种族主义），我们第三次还会如此幸运吗？
Are we going to be so fortunate a third time, when Minnesota voters have already proved that they’re willing to split the ticket (largely, let’s be clear, because of racism)?
也许吧。即便是温和的明尼苏达人，也仍然对共和党人愤怒不已——因为勒妮·古德和亚历克斯·普雷蒂被谋杀，也因为他们被戴着面具的秘密警察占领和恐吓的经历。但这并不能保证什么。
Maybe. Even moderate Minnesotans remain furious with Republicans for the murder of Renée Good and Alex Pretti and the experience of being occupied and terrorized by masked secret police. But that’s no guarantee.
明尼苏达州从数字和名声上看（至少在一些政界人士看来）是一个紫色州，但从结果上看并非如此。1970年，明尼苏达州总检察长、民主-农民-劳工党候选人沃伦·斯潘诺斯赢得选举，并开始了他为该州枪支管制而奋斗的漫长生涯。我们的总检察长往往长期任职。休伯特·汉弗莱之子斯基普·汉弗莱在整个1980年代担任该职，之后是两位职业民主-农民-劳工党人迈克·哈奇和洛里·斯旺森。
Minnesota is a purple state by number and reputation (at least among some politicos) but not by outcomes. In 1970, Warren Spannaus, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for Minnesota attorney general, won his election and began a long career fighting for gun control across the state. Our attorneys general tend to hold office for a long time. Skip Humphrey, the son of Hubert Humphrey, held it through the 1980s, followed by two career DFLers, Mike Hatch and Lori Swanson.
2018年，在对特朗普首个总统任期的反弹被广泛预测为“蓝色浪潮”的那一年，我们选出了埃里森。所以实际上已经超过五十年了。事实上，共和党人自2006年以来就没有赢过全州选举。
In 2018, a year widely forecast as a “blue wave” in the backlash to the first Trump presidency, we elected Ellison. So that’s actually more than five decades. In fact, Republicans haven’t won statewide race since 2006.
过去八年里，埃里森一直是一位相当正常的左翼总检察长。他专注于企业欺诈、保护公民免受强大利益集团的侵害，而且大多数时候出人意料地远离新闻——当然，起诉杀害乔治·弗洛伊德的警察以及对抗议占领的持续法律回应除外。
For the past eight years, Ellison has been a pretty normal left-wing attorney general. He has focused on corporate fraud, protecting citizens from powerful interests, and has stayed surprisingly out of the news most of the time — with the exceptions, of course, of the prosecution of the cops who killed George Floyd and the ongoing legal response to the occupation.
我们即将弄清楚的是，一位有理性的中右翼共和党人，带着一个强有力的议题（欺诈），对阵一位有争议的候选人（尽管我认为所有这些争议都是种族主义的无稽之谈），在一个极度反共和党的环境中会有怎样的表现。
What we’re about to find out is how a reasonable center-right Republican with a strong issue (fraud) running against a controversial candidate (for all I think the controversies are racist nonsense) does in a wildly anti-Republican context.
9月时，这场竞选基本打成平手。到了10月，埃里森在可能投票的选民中领先8个百分点，但仍有大量潜在选民尚未决定。这场竞选将揭示很多关于全国情绪的信息——以及对共和党人的愤怒能否战胜美国种族主义和伊斯兰恐惧症的强大力量。
In September the race was basically tied. In October, Ellison is up by 8 points with likely voters, but with a big pool of possible voters still undecided. This race will reveal much about the national mood — and whether fury with Republicans can overcome the powerful forces of racism and Islamophobia in America.