what part of the speech was Minnesota, James' story - he's the homeless man in Boston who turned in the backpack with the money in it - went viral. So did another recent story about a Dairy Queen manager from Minnesota who stood up for a blind man who didn't know he'd been robbed
The part of the speech that includes Minnesota, James' story and the Dairy Queen manager's story would fall under examples or anecdotes used to support a point or highlight a particular theme.
The part of speech that is being referred to here is a proper noun. Proper nouns are used to identify a specific person, place, or thing. In this case, "Minnesota" is the proper noun. It is being used to specify the location where the events took place.
To determine the part of speech for a given word or phrase, you can usually analyze its function in the sentence. In this case, the phrase "Minnesota, James' story" and "a Dairy Queen manager from Minnesota" are both noun phrases, functioning as the subjects of the sentences.
In the first sentence, "Minnesota, James' story - he's the homeless man in Boston who turned in the backpack with the money in it - went viral," the noun phrase "Minnesota, James' story" is the subject of the sentence. It refers to a story about a homeless man named James, which took place in Minnesota.
In the second sentence, "So did another recent story about a Dairy Queen manager from Minnesota who stood up for a blind man who didn't know he'd been robbed," the noun phrase "a Dairy Queen manager from Minnesota" is the subject of the sentence. It refers to a story about a manager who works at Dairy Queen and is from Minnesota, and who stood up for a blind man who was robbed.
Therefore, both instances of "Minnesota" in these sentences are functioning as noun modifiers, specifying where the stories took place.