"I'm Done Being Careful"
MN-06 Daily: June 25, 2026
At a Faith & Freedom Coalition town hall in Washington this afternoon, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said immigrants who “don’t assimilate” should “go the hell back to where they came from” — pausing to name Somalis as he said it, after telling the room he was going off his prepared script. He represents roughly 7,500 Somali constituents in St. Cloud alone.
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📌 Also today at the Minnesota Reformer: Rep. Tom Emmer highlights House Oversight work, unless it involves Epstein → — what the Whip amplifies from the House Oversight Committee (his son Jack’s Minnesota fraud findings) and the one thing he won’t touch (the committee’s Epstein investigation).
Three tweets. Two media appearances. Zero floor votes. One town hall — held in Washington. One sentence, delivered off-script: immigrants who “don’t assimilate” should “go the hell back to where they came from.”
1,051 days since Rep. Emmer’s last in-person town hall inside MN-06 — August 9, 2023, Hamburg.
47 days to the August 11 primary. Early voting begins tomorrow, June 26.
What He Said
This afternoon, Rep. Tom Emmer spoke on the opening “Capitol Hill Town Hall” panel of the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference in Washington, D.C. — chair Ralph Reed’s annual gathering, running June 25–27 at the Washington Hilton, where Emmer was a listed speaker. He opened by noting his staff had prepared “great talking points,” then asked, “Do you mind if I go rogue?” — and set the prepared remarks aside.
Transcribed by MN-06 Watch from the C-SPAN video of the town hall:
“Sometimes Minnesotans are so afraid that you’re gonna call us a racist, you’re gonna call us an Islamophobe… You know what, I would argue that I never did care, but I’m done being careful, even the least bit careful… I don’t really care where you come from, but if you come to this country, you have to understand you’re coming here to be an American. We celebrate everyone’s culture… Celebrate your culture. I don’t care — Italian, Polish… [pause] …Somali. But they don’t assimilate, and if they don’t assimilate, then they should go the hell back to where they came from.”
Moments earlier on the same panel, he said: “There is nothing racist about calling out a criminal.” Moments after the Somali line, turning to the host: “Sorry, Ralph. I know this is a family show. I can’t help myself today.”
The Record Around It
He named two groups — Italian, Polish — then paused, and added a third: Somali. Then: “they don’t assimilate… go the hell back to where they came from.” Readers can listen and decide what “they” points to. What isn’t in dispute is the setting and the history it sits in:
He delivered the line off-script, by his own announcement, seconds after invoking being called “a racist” and “an Islamophobe” — and minutes after telling the room that in Minnesota, immigrants “who come to this country not wanting to assimilate lie, cheat, and steal,” because “there is nothing racist about calling out a criminal.”
Emmer represents Minnesota’s Sixth District, home to roughly 16% of the state’s Somali population, including about 7,500 Somali residents in St. Cloud alone (2020 Census).
“Go back to where they came from” is the same construction the U.S. House formally condemned in July 2019, when it rebuked President Trump for telling four congresswomen of color — including Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar — to “go back” to the countries they came from. Emmer voted against that resolution.
What His Office Will Say
The defensible reading his office will offer: “they” referred to anyone who refuses to assimilate, not Somalis as a group — and he had, in the same breath, named Italians and Poles. We note it because it’s the strongest version of his side, and because the question is worth putting to him directly rather than answering for him. It is below, in The Questions. We will publish any response, but viewers can also judge for themselves.
The 2015 Comparison
In July 2015, at a town hall in St. Cloud — inside his district — a constituent pressed Emmer on Somali assimilation. His answer then, per audio later aired on This American Life:
Somalis are “some of the fastest-assimilating populations that we’ve had.”
He compared them to German and Polish immigrants, and that year co-founded the Congressional Somalia Caucus with then-Rep. Keith Ellison.
That was the in-district Emmer, eleven years ago. Today’s was the Washington Emmer, in front of a friendly room, telling it that he is “done being careful.” The full account of that shift is a longer piece. The two sentences, side by side, are today’s receipt.
The Questions
Submitted to Rep. Emmer’s office via his official contact form:
At today’s Faith & Freedom Coalition town hall, you said immigrants who “don’t assimilate” should “go the hell back to where they came from,” pausing to name Somalis as you said it. Did you intend that statement to refer to Somalis?
In 2015 you called Somalis “some of the fastest-assimilating populations that we’ve had.” Today you described immigrants who “don’t assimilate.” What changed your assessment?
Roughly 7,500 of your constituents in St. Cloud are Somali. Does your statement today apply to them?
You said you are “done being careful, even the least bit careful.” Careful about what, specifically?
It has been 1,051 days since your last in-person town hall inside the Sixth District (Hamburg, August 9, 2023). You held a town hall in Washington today. Early voting in your primary begins tomorrow. Will you take questions in the district before August 11?
We are still awaiting a response to all previous submissions.
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📊 Source Data:
Emmer remarks: C-SPAN, “Conservative Lawmakers Host Town Hall on Capitol Hill,” Faith & Freedom Coalition Road to Majority, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2026 — https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-tom-emmers-remarks-at-conservative-lawmakers-host-town-hall-on-capitol-hill/5201912
Event details: Faith & Freedom Coalition, Road to Majority 2026 program (ffcoalition.com); June 25–27, Washington Hilton
2015 St. Cloud town hall remarks: This American Life (audio); MinnPost fact brief (Dec. 2025)
MN-06 Somali population / St. Cloud figures: Minnesota Star Tribune (2020 U.S. Census data)
2019 House condemnation resolution: H.Res. 489, 116th Congress — Roll Call 482, July 16, 2019; passed 240–187; Emmer (R-MN) voted No (clerk.house.gov)
Congressional Somalia Caucus: Emmer–Ellison, 2015 (archived release)
Town hall history: Mobilize / Indivisible CD6
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