A young Minnesota woman is in the race to make changes at the State Capitol, but after learning what her family went through in communist China, she’s also sounding the alarm and fighting backlash to bring civility back to the state before it’s too late.
Jenny Liang shared her story with Liz Collin on her podcast.
WATCH:
Liang is 21 years old, a graduate of the University of Northwestern, and a research assistant for the University of Minnesota Law School. She is the daughter of immigrants and grew up in a very blue area of the Twin Cities.
She is also the GOP-endorsed candidate for House District 40A, which includes Arden Hills, Mounds View, and parts of New Brighton and Shoreview.
What she discovered about her family and what they went through during the Chinese Cultural Revolution has always played a big part in her life.
“I am Chinese. If I were elected I would be the first Chinese state legislator. So take that Democrats,” she joked. On a more serious note, she explained significant parts of her family history that compelled her into leadership and politics
“My ancestors were peasant rural farmers that basically lived off the land during the Cultural Revolution,” Liang said.
She spoke about how her great-grandfather was a leader who cared about his people in the village, and as a highly respected person during the Cultural Revolution in the 20th century, the government viewed him as a threat.
“The Communist Party detained him and they ended up torturing him to death,” she said.
Censorship
Liang also spoke of severe religious and political censorship that takes place in China, including, seriously enough, a ban on Winnie the Pooh.
“A few years ago on Chinese social media, a picture went viral showing Barack Obama and Xi Jinping as just caricatures of Winnie the Pooh. The government cracked down on it right away … Xi Jinping views it as a threat to just his image as the perfect president,” Liang explained.
“You can’t access Facebook, you can’t access Google, anything. If you try to search it up, if you don’t have a VPN network, you can’t view anything that isn’t just sanctioned by the government,” she said.
Minnesota’s legislative session
Liang recently testified at the Capitol in favor of a bill that would make illegal aliens ineligible for state financial aid programs.
“I thought that was a no-brainer, but apparently the Democrats were really hostile. They were actually attacking [the bill author] for referring to them as illegal immigrants, which is interesting because they’re in this country illegally. I don’t know how else you would define that,” Liang explained.
WATCH: Jenny Liang, a child of legal immigrants, testifies in support of a bill to prevent illegal immigrants from accessing state financial aid programs
“As American citizens, our people come first. If we’re unable to take care of our own citizens, we can’t adequately serve the… pic.twitter.com/r4Ly5Ixyst
— Alpha News (@AlphaNews) March 11, 2026
“I find that as an immigrant it’s really helpful to speak in favor of this because a lot of my fellow conservatives don’t want to be attacked by the left as being racist. Basically every other nation in this world has immigration laws. I don’t see why our country shouldn’t. As Americans, we should place our citizens first,” she added.
Liang said she also sees some authoritarian tendencies in Minnesota under Gov. Tim Walz.
“Just the attack of any opinion that’s different to their own. For the left, any time my fellow Republicans or I just make a talking point, a lot of times we get attacked,” she said.
“We get called Nazis, we get called a racist, we get called like white supremacists, which is funny. So a lot of times they’re not using their brains in how they’re attacking us,” she continued.
“A lot of times dialogue across the aisle is just really looked down upon as well. I pride myself on being a Republican that wants to talk to Democrats, that I want to foster political stability, and yet a lot of times I get shut down, which is really ironic,” she said.
She’s already seen backlash to her run as she had to delete her TikTok account due to threats.
In pushing back on all of the unnecessary hostility and vitriol, Liang said, “But for me, I just hope to keep on going and be that light.”
Liz Collin
Liz Collin is a multi-Emmy-Award-winning investigative reporter, news anchor, and producer who cares about Minnesota. She is the producer of The Fall of Minneapolis and Minnesota v We the People documentary films, and author of the Amazon best-selling book, They’re Lying: The Media, the Left, and The Death of George Floyd. Her work has prompted important state laws. Yet perhaps most of all, Liz has been giving a voice to the truth—and helping others tell their stories—for more than 20 years.
Dr. JC Chaix
Dr. JC Chaix is an editor, educator, and an expert in media studies. He wrote and directed the Alpha News documentary “The Fall of Minneapolis” and “Minnesota v We the People.”
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