If you possess a long institutional knowledge of MnDOT's Name-a-Snowplow contest... please, for the love of god, get outside more. (This applies to the author maybe more than anyone.)
But let's go back to 2021, the first year MnDOT asked the public to name its 35-ton trucks. Sensing that bureaucratic meddling may've muddied the results, independent journalist Tony Webster filed a public records request that showed "Abolish ICE" had finished No. 2 among the 23,000 or so entries that year.
That political rallying cry would not be splashed across a plow. "It wasn’t one we were going to put forward to a final list," spokesman Jake Loesch told Webster, citing the name's "politically controversial" message. (It must be restated that 2021's winner, Plowy McPlowFace, remains an apolitical abomination.)
Fast-forward to Tuesday, and MnDOT is back with the winners from its sixth-annual contest: Flurrious George, Sled Zeppelin, K Pop Blizzard Hunter, Minne-Snow-ta, Every Day I’m Shovelin’, O Brother, Where Art Plow?, The Life of a Snowgirl, and Oh, For Sleet’s Sake.
Considering that ICE just conducted a months-long ethnic cleansing campaign throughout Minnesota, you might be wondering: Did Abolish ICE roar back in the wake of Operation Metro Surge? Your hunch may've been boosted by the fact that Chicagoans just voted their way to an Abolish ICE snowplow, fresh off ICE's Operation Midway Blitz terrorizing their city.
Well, hunch confirmed.
MnDOT tells Racket that of the 6,750 submissions to this year's Name-a-Snowplow contest, around 400 included ICE-specific messaging. No other thematic submission outranks those numbers, according to the agency; it stands to reason Abolish ICE topped that pile and, thus, the contest itself. Like in past years, however, it was eliminated from competing in the 30-name finalist stage that saw 18,800 voters arrive at Led Zeppelin and "Party Rock Anthem" puns instead.
"For six years, MnDOT’s Name-a-Snowplow contest has been designed to be fun, light-hearted and apolitical. This year is no exception," spokesman Devin Henry tells us. "As always, we have rejected submissions with political messages and selected puns, memes, and Taylor Swift jokes. Most of this year’s submissions were funny celebrations of Minnesota’s snowplowing prowess, and that’s what we prioritized when choosing finalists."
This policy extends to political figures. Webster noted in 2021 that Amy Snowbuchar, Tim Plowlenty, Walter Plowdale, Plow Wellstone, and George W. Push were axed from contention. (That Bush one makes Plowy sound 1,000% more palatable, yeesh!)
To date, the public has named 48 of the snowplows in MnDOT's fleet—an imperfect yet commendable experiment in democracy. Now, at a moment where 62% of Americans are dissatisfied with democracy while 72% disapprove of ICE, the agency has the opportunity to kill two birds with one righteous snowplow.
We'll see if Abolish ICE, the fabled people's plow for over a half decade, finally hits the road next winter.
