After 'barely lifting a finger' before, Trump's win drove Moorhead woman to activism

FARGO-Nicole Mattson is no professional activist.

The 41-year-old freelance marketing writer is politically minded, but has never taken a lead role in any such causes, she said.

Yet Mattson, a wife and mother of two boys who lives in Moorhead, leads the local chapter of Indivisible FM, part of a progressive movement nationwide trying to beat back President Donald Trump's agenda.

It's a role she sort of fell into.

"I did not expect this to happen the way it has, but I'm happy that it has," Mattson said. "It restores my faith in democracy."

Just as the Tea Party did after President Barack Obama took office in 2009, a similar grassroots wave is building to try to undermine Trump's initiatives.

Mattson said Indivisible has around 7,000 groups registered across the country. She estimates the F-M group has more than 3,000 people signed on. Their Facebook group has more than 2,500 members and their Twitter account more than 500 followers.

Since Mattson formed it in late January, the group has held two formal meetings. Members requested a town hall meeting with U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., in late February to let him know they didn't want the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, to be repealed.

"I don't know to what extent our little group changed any minds, but I do know all of the groups in the country, working together, are why that bill didn't even go to the floor for a vote," Mattson said, referring to a decision by Republican leaders to pull the legislation to repeal and replace the ACA.

Cramer said some stories shared at that town hall meeting had an impact on him, but he doubts the work of liberal Indivisible groups had any effect on the Freedom Caucus, the most conservative of House Republicans who were poised to vote against the bill. It was the opposition from the Freedom Caucus that killed the bill in the House.

"It's a long stretch," Cramer said.

'I took it all for granted'

Mattson's 83-year-old grandmother, Zinie Peterson of Bismarck, is thrilled to see her granddaughter taking on the role of activist.

"It's about time," Peterson said. "She's always been strong in her beliefs that you have to get involved to keep our country going on the right track."

Mattson wasn't politically active prior to the election because of work and family commitments. She thought whatever other progressives like her were doing was enough and was "pretty shocked" when Trump was elected.

"I felt terrible. I felt like I barely lifted a finger here," she said.

The realization was sobering.

"I took it all for granted. And that's the moment when I stopped taking it for granted," Mattson said.

Shortly after Trump's inauguration, she came across the Indivisible guide online-a document written by five former Democratic congressional staffers. It outlines tactics they saw the Tea Party use to block much of Obama's agenda and offers insider information on how best to influence members of Congress. The document helped give an outlet for progressives' opposition to Trump.

Mattson saw there was no group registered in Fargo and decided she would be the one to do it.

Much of her work so far has focused on daily reminders to contact members of Congress on certain issues, referred to as "today's action" on the Indivisible FM website.

Mattson is also seeking more face-to-face time with political representatives.

Group members met in Moorhead with Rep. Paul Thissen, D-Minneapolis, the morning of Monday, April 10, and attended a town hall meeting on health care later in the day, held by Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn.

Grandmother's influence

Mattson's interest in politics can be traced deep down to her family roots.

Her great grandfather came to the U.S. as a teenager, alone, to escape war in what was then Syria, now a part of Lebanon.

He later settled in North Dakota, ran a successful farm operation and raised seven children here, including Mattson's grandmother.

Mattson takes personally Trump's moves to keep refugees out because she said she owes everything to the fact that her great grandfather was welcomed here to live, work and practice his religion.

"What kind of a person would I be if I took all of that, then pulled up the ladder behind me, and said to the people coming today, 'Sorry we're full up?'" she said.

Mattson said her grandmother has had the biggest influence on her political beliefs, so it's fitting that she's also involved in Indivisible FM.

Zinie Peterson regularly contacts U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., but doesn't take time to reach out to Cramer "because I think he's so rigid, so far to the right," she said.

Cramer said Peterson is drawing conclusions, without having talked to him.

"It's not like I'm hard to talk to, but she may be right if she thinks I would disagree with her," Cramer said.

'We love America'

Part of what Mattson wants the group to accomplish is to continue making Fargo-Moorhead a more welcoming and inclusive community.

When she first moved here in 1999 from western North Dakota, she had trouble making friends, she said, because people "have their little bubble."

At the same time, the group's larger focus is state and national issues that impact people locally.

She's frustrated by a stereotype held by some conservatives that "people on the left hate America." She said that couldn't be further from the truth, and she's thankful to have been born in the United States.

"I'm not trying to tear it down, I'm trying to build it up," Mattson said. "I really want to send a message that this is because we love America that we're doing this."

Cramer said the one thing that bothers him about Indivisible FM is that the group claims to want honest dialogue, but has an "antagonistic agenda."

Still, he'd prefer to have people engaged in the issues, like Indivisible, than have apathy.

"If they make mistakes, if they're maybe a little clumsy with it, so be it," Cramer said.