A nontraditional UMN student rejects party labels in his bid for Congress
By: Josie Wise
It’s no secret that the divide between political parties in the United States today is stark. There’s evidence that polarization is higher than it’s been in the past two decades, and a record number of Americans find both the Democratic and Republican parties unfavorable, according to the Pew Research Center.
DeVelle Jackson, 35, is one of the many American voters who are dissatisfied with the country’s party options. Rather than sit on the sidelines and wait for a viable third option, Jackson said he felt a calling to do something. So, despite never wanting to be a politician, he is running for Congress as an Independent.
Jackson said he never pictured himself creating a political career, but he felt the need to serve a purpose and reach people. “I feel like this might be a way to do that,” Jackson said.
Jackson’s campaign is still in the very early stages. He said he’s been staying up late at night, working through an endless to-do list that includes filling out candidate profiles for political sites such as BallotPedia, creating a website to declare his policies and reaching out to donors.
He is running in Minnesota’s fifth Congressional District, where the current representative, Ilhan Omar, received roughly 75% of the vote in 2024. Omar has announced her plans to run for reelection in the 2026 midterms, according to Axios.
Jackson said that, with the Democratic Party’s backing in a largely Democratic district, Omar makes a daunting opponent. However, he is confident that his message will resonate with the people in his electorate.
Jackson wants to give people who feel politically isolated a place outside of the two parties to express their views and feel represented by the person they elect to office. He said he doesn’t like to see just two parties dominate American politics, and he believes his experiences as a Minnesotan and working-class citizen give him the ability to relate to the people in his district.
He plans to campaign for better healthcare for Minnesotans, common-sense gun safety laws that still align with Second Amendment guarantees, and privacy protections to combat increasingly normalized mass surveillance practices.
Jackson said he would also demand transparency, accountability and immediate reforms for federal immigration enforcement officers after the heated escalations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the Twin Cities in the early months of 2026.
Jackson wants other Black people like himself and minorities to feel represented, because it’s isolating when people make assumptions about beliefs based on race. He said he knows what it’s like to get lumped into a large group of people who are just considered guaranteed votes for a certain party.
“It’s unfortunate that being a colored person makes people automatically think that I’m supposed to be a Democrat or politically against them,” Jackson said.
An unconventional path to Congress
Jackson completed the first three years of his degree before moving to Atlanta in 2017 to work in the construction industry. His plan was originally to go to law school and become a sports agent, and he still intends to take the LSAT and pursue a law degree after graduating from the University of Minnesota in May.
While working in Georgia, Jackson was often surrounded by people with conflicting political opinions, which he said made him feel like he was on a political island in his work environment.
“I always tried to move up in the industry, and as I moved up, there would not be very many people who looked like me,” Jackson said. “I really was out of place. If I had views, I really couldn’t say anything. It was hard for me to relate.”
The morning after the 2024 presidential election, Jackson had a Zoom meeting with a University of Minnesota advisor to discuss finishing his degree. He said he remembers the meeting as if it were yesterday because, after seeing the election results, he knew it was time to start taking steps toward fulfilling his potential.
Going back to finish school felt like an essential next step, Jackson said.
“It would make me less isolated if I were able to complete my degree,” Jackson said. “That election really pushed me over the edge to try to do something. If I’m going to have any credibility doing anything, I need to complete my college degree.”
Once he was back at the University of Minnesota in 2025, Jackson took a class on Congressional politics and institutions, where he found himself attending office hours regularly simply to talk with the professor, Kathryn Pearson, and pick her brain for her expertise on Congress.
When Jackson expressed his frustration with the two parties to Pearson, they came up with the idea of starting a student group that could bridge the gap between political parties.
The Sovs is the student group Jackson is founding with the mission to give others who feel isolated in the current political environment a forum for discussing and expanding their beliefs. He said it is a society of voters who feel independent-minded or alienated and are searching to define their own political identities rather than accept the status quo.
“You would get people who will believe in the fact that you want to see a change, not just live in this rehearsed theater of politics, where you don’t see anything happen,” Jackson said. “Or if you do, it takes a very long time, and it feels like a compromise that didn’t really result in anything.”
Jackson said the professor thought it would be a good idea for him to run for the state legislature first to gain experience in elected office before running for Congress. Jackson responded that this would still require him to identify with a party, which is what he wants to avoid.
Jackson said he knows people expect him to do things traditionally by finishing law school or aligning with a party. However, he said he’s no stranger to breaking barriers.
“The only thing stopping me would be tradition, semantics,” Jackson said. “But I’ve never been one for tradition.”