The central task of a political party is winning elections. Parties that fail at this lose resources and shrivel. Did Minnesota’s two major-party endorsing conventions succeed in enhancing their electoral chances in November?
Democrats had some success toward that goal, but Republicans had none.
The main way Democrats enhanced their November chances was through nominating Amy Klobuchar for governor. She is the most electable Democrat, with an enviable record of electoral wins over her 20-year U.S. Senate career.
Yet all was not smooth sailing for Amy at the convention. One-third of the delegates voted to instead endorse far-left candidate Kobey Layne, who said of Klobuchar: “What stands before us is the coronation of yet another corporate Democrat. What it takes to change these systems is a working-class candidate who refuses to be bought.”
Layne’s insurgency points to a deep divide in the Democratic Party between younger progressives and older, more traditional liberals. Klobuchar’s declining approval in recent polls threatens to make the problem acute. Such divisions do not help a party win elections.
Party divisions are even more apparent in the contested Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate nomination. Though Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan won endorsement by acclamation, her primary opponent, Second District Congressperson Angie Craig, took to the airwaves to decry Flanagan’s electability.
Craig noted that recent polling shows fraud to be a top issue for voters, and that nominating prominent Walz administration official, Flanagan, to a place at the top of the ballot will hurt Democrats in the 2026 election. This concern equally applies to Attorney General Keith Ellison, who also received endorsement by acclamation.
Democrats’ convention problems, while notable, pale in comparison to the actions of the GOP endorsing convention, which did nothing at all to improve the party’s electoral chances in November.
This is no surprise. This is a party whose organization rejected plans to professionalize its operations and created big disputes with the party’s U.S. House delegation. Its electoral operations have been far inferior to the vaunted DFL Party organization.
The party maintained its “F Troop” organizational reputation at its endorsing convention when its electronic voting system went haywire. Hundreds of votes disappeared during the ten ballots taken for the gubernatorial nomination. This led some GOP state legislators to declare all endorsement results illegitimate.
In recent election cycles, the party has nominated obscure candidates for governor and senate who had few resources. They have all lost by wide margins. In response, the party in 2026 endorsed obscure governor and senate candidates with few resources to contest a statewide election.
U.S. Senate endorsee Adam Schwarze and governor endorsee Kendall Qualls have no governing experience. Schwarze has never run for office before. Qualls’ only prior election experience saw him lose the Third District congressional race to Dean Phillips in 2020 by a 55–44 percent margin.
Senate candidate Adam Schwarze touts himself as a person who “will not compromise.” This is another way of saying he will not govern, since compromise is essential to governance. Governor nominee Kendall Qualls decries “the Saint Paul swamp,” yet somehow will steer it successfully once he is governor.
The state GOP Party leadership and activists are so anti-government that they cannot conceive of endorsing a candidate with success at contesting elections and making the hard choices of governance. Their task, as delegates see it, is to raise a large middle finger to the Minnesota government whenever possible.
Candidates with more name recognition and campaign resources, such as Michelle Tafoya for the Senate and Lisa Demuth for governor, will contest Schwarze and Qualls in the August primary. Perhaps a larger group of participants will save the party from repeating long-standing electoral mistakes.
The delegates at both conventions seek to impose their ideological visions on a reluctant public. In recent years, the DFL has proven much more artful at this than the GOP. In all, the conventions left the DFL in better competitive shape than the GOP. More of the same, then.
Editors Note: Read more from Steven Shier – THE TRUMP EFFECT: CONSEQUENCES OF A DISRUPTIVE PRESIDENCY, coedited by Steven E. Schier and Todd E. Eberly. “The Trump Effect is a bracing corrective to anyone under the illusion that Donald Trump and his movement represented a passing storm. This fine volume illuminates how the Trump years buffeted, and likely left enduring changes, on every institution in the American polity.” John F. Harris, founding editor POLITICO. Order here: The Trump Effect: Disruption and Its Consequences in US Politics and Government: Steven E. Schier: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
“a person who “will not compromise.” This is another way of saying he will not govern, since compromise is essential to governance:” –> Agreed, the “not compromise” people are a problem and not particularly competent in a governing legislature format