MPR News: It wasn’t until Nelsie Yang volunteered on Dai Thao’s 2015 St. Paul City Council reelection campaign that she realized people of color could be elected officials.

“I didn’t even know that somebody like me could do this work,” Yang said. “I remember saying to myself, ‘Wow, if Dai can do this, I can do it, too.’”

Sahan Journal: “We made our campaigns about people,” says council member-elect Nelsie Yang, 24 -- a renter, a woman of color and one of the new faces of political power in St. Paul.

MPR News: When Thom Miller was eyeing retirement from the St. Louis Park City Council, he asked Nadia Mohamed to help him find someone to run for his seat who’d reflect the city’s increasing diversity.

After two weeks of searching, Mohamed decided she wanted it.

Nadia Mohamed, 23, came to St. Louis Park as a refugee at age 10. Now she’s council member-elect, ready to focus on affordable housing, climate action and racial equity. It’s a whirlwind story.