JULY 2024 Newsletter
FROM BIDEN TO HARRIS
While President Biden won primaries or caucuses in every state earlier this year, earning far more delegates than he needed to be renominated for President, his disastrous performance at his debate with Donald Trump on June 27 raised concerns he had become too old and frail to be an effective candidate for another term (or to serve out that term if he won). After an often contentious and emotional debate among Democrats as to whether Biden should still be our candidate for President, he decided to withdraw from the 2024 race on July 21. He endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to take his place.
Harris’s campaign got off to an amazing start, raising over $100 million in small dollar donations in its first 48 hours along with an even larger amount in pledges to affiliated organizations, including the Democratic National Committee. A majority of Biden delegates announced they were committing their votes to her. Many of the people who had been rumored to be considered running for the Presidential nomination if Biden withdrew instead endorsed Harris. Harris was also endorsed by leading Congressional Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Schumer, as well as other important Democrats such as Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and finally Barack and Michelle Obama. The Biden campaign apparatus quickly transformed itself into the Harris campaign, which was necessary as there are fewer than 15 weeks left until the election.
The next major task for Presidential candidate Harris is picking a vice-presidential candidate to run with her. She hadn’t done that at the time this article was written, but Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is said to be one of the people getting serious consideration.
ELECTIONS ON OUR BALLOT THIS YEAR
We have fewer than usual partisan elections on the ballot this year. Voters will be electing a President, a U.S. Senator, a U.S. Representative, and a Minnesota House of Representatives. Here’s what will be on the ballot:
President: Vice-President Kamal Harris vs. Donald Trump
(Officially the Vice-President has to be nominated for President at the Democratic National Convention but she has a majoirty of all delegates pledged to her)
U.S. Senate: Senator Amy Klobuchar vs. Royce White or Joe Fraser
(The candidate will officially be determined in the primary election August 13. Klobuchar has several challengers but is the overwhelming favorite. White is the endorsed Republican candidate but many people think Fraser may beat him in the primary. Several other republican candidates are extreme long-shots.)
U.S. House of Representatives: Rachel Bohman vs. Rep. Brad Finstad
(Finstad has two challengers in the primary but is widely expected to win)
Minnesota House District 20B: Michael (Hutch) Hutchinson vs. Rep. Steven Jacob
(These candidates will not appear on the primary ballot)
Minnesota House District 24A: Heather Holmes vs. Rep. Duane Quam
(These candidates will not appear on the primary ballot.)
Minnesota House District 24B: Rep. Tina Liebling vs Dan Sepeda or Jesse O’Driscoll
(Sepeda and O’Driscoll will face each other in the August 13 primary. The winner will face Rep. Liebling in November)
Note sure what House District you’re in?: Go to https://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/ and enter your address. You can see your district halfway down the page and click on a sample ballot link further down the page.
There are also lots of non-partisan elections in the area this fall. The Rochester City Council Ward 2, Ward 4, Ward 6, and At-Large seats are all up for election. The incumbents for Ward 2 and the At-Large seat are not running for re-election. All of these seats have at least three people running so will have a primary to narrow them down to two on August 13. There are five seats up for the Olmsted County Board: Districts 1,3, 5, 6, and 7. The incumbents running in in Districts 1, 5, and 7 are unopposed and so will be re-elected. Three people, including the incumbent Gregg Wright, are running in District 3, so there will be a primary for that. Sheila Kiscaden is retiring mid-term from her District 6 seat and there are two candidates running for the last two years of her term. Finally, there are two candidates for each of the three Rochester School Board seats up for election. In two of them, the incumbent is one of the candidates running. Jess Garcia is retiring and there are two new candidates for her seat.
THE CAMPAIGN IN OLMSTED COUNTY
Each Minnesota House candidate and our Congressional candidate will be running his or her own campaign, but the DFL Coordinated Campaign will have a significant in-person presence here for the first time since 2018. The Coordinated Campaign is designed to elect DFLers in all four partisan elections on the ballot. The staff from the Coordinated Campaign will be working out of the Rochester DFL office at 1500 1st Ave., NE, Suite A. The phone number is 507-536-9785.
Our Regional Field Organizer is Elizabeth Kuhlmann of Kenyon. The first Field Organizer assigned to Olmsted County is Mason Moran. Mason was raised in Kasson, graduating from Kasson-Mantorville High school in 2014 before attending Winona State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration. In recent years Mason has worked for non-profits and museums such as the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center in Powell, WY. When not working to elevate the political discourse in our community, Mason is an avid history buff, mountaineer and gamer. We expect at least two more Field Organizers as soon as they are hired and trained.
The field organizers will be reaching out to DFLers to ask them to knock on doors or call people to find out who will be supporting DFL candidates this fall. Please consider volunteering for this critical work.
We will also have lawn signs available for the DFL candidates at the office. They can be requested on line at https://forms.gle/b7dwhVgoSHjEWUxs6, by calling the office at 507-536-9785, or by stopping in at the office when it is open. We will be open from at least 1-4 PM on weekdays. However they’re reserved, you can pick up signs at the office. The signs are free, but free-will donations to help support the office are welcome.
CAMPAIGN WEBSITES
Kamala Harris: www.kamalaharris.com
Amy Klobuchar: www.amyklobuchar.com
Rachel Bohman: www.bohmanforcongress.com
Michael Hutchinson: www.vote4hutch.com
Heather Holmes: www.heatherholmes4mnhouse.com
Tina Liebling: www.tinaliebling.com
POLITICS IN MINNESOTA 2024
The DFL wants to win Minnesota for the 13th consecutive Presidential election and maintain the control of the Minnesota House, Minnesota Senate, and governorship it has had since the beginning of 2023. Whatever else happens, Tim Walz and the other DFL state constitutional officers have two more years in office.
State Senators are also in the middle of their terms, but Sen. Kelly Morrison (DFL-45) resigned recently as part of her campaign for Congress to replace the retiring Dean Phillips, where she is heavily favored. This was a strategic move as it meant her successor would be elected on Election Day and it is thought the DFL has a better chance of holding the seat that way. This is important because the DFL only had a 34-33 majority in the Senate and so has to hold Sen. Morrison’s seat to keep the majority. There are three DFL candidates and a Republican candidate for the seat, including Ann Johnson Stewart, who served as a DFL Senator from 2021-23. This race, in the West Metro suburbs, will draw lots of attention and there will be enormous amounts of money spent on the race.
The Minnesota House has been 70-64 DFL for the last four years. Republicans think they can gain seats here as they did in 2016 and 2020 in Trump’s previous runs. Most of the seats that are viewed as competitive are in the Twin City suburbs. In northeast Minnesota, Republicans hope to win the last DFL-held seat on the Iron Range, now open since Rep. Lislegard is retiring. However, the DFL wants to take back two seats on the Range it barely lost in 2022. Closer to us, Rep. Gene Pelowski from Winona, in office since 1987, is retiring and both parties plan to fight for the seat. We won’t know who is running until after August 13 and there are primaries for both the DFL and Republican nomination. In a surprise, Greg Davids from Preston, the second most senior House member, lost the Republican endorsement and is will face off with the man who won the endorsement in a primary. If he loses that primary, the DFL has a much better chance of flipping that seat.
None of the Olmsted County seats are viewed by outside analysts as competitive at the moment.
Statewide, Biden was up 2-6 points in June’s public polling with single digit support for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. There aren’t any polls yet in Minnesota comparing Vice President Harris with Donald Trump. In the U.S. Senate race, June polls, done after each party endorsed its candidate, showed Amy Klobuchar up 13-14%. We haven’t seen polls for the 1st District race.
State House candidates have to announce their fund-raising and spending for the first half of 2024 by July 29 with results available the next day. Federal candidates announced fund-raising and spending for the second quarter on July 15.
CAUCUSES, PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, AND UNIT CONVENTIONS
We decided to organize our February 27 caucuses differently than we had before redistricting. Instead of having two relatively high-turnout sites in Rochester and four very low-turnout sites elsewhere in Olmsted County, we chose to have all our caucuses at Mayo High School. We did not expect a large turnout since we did not have any contested endorsement races, but a near blizzard, the only significant snow of February, hit the hour before caucuses were to start, undoubtedly driving down turnout even more. Because the turnout was so low, we did not elect chairs or vice-chairs in many of our precincts or townships, leaving lots of opportunities for post-caucus volunteers to volunteer for those roles and become active in the unit’s operations.
A week later the 2024 Presidential primary took place. In our unit, Biden got 1713 votes (76.8%), there were 342 votes for Uncommitted (15.3%) and 176 votes (7.9%) went for a variety of other candidates. In the 1st Congressional District as a whole, the Biden percentage was 78% and the Uncommitted percentage was 12%. By our rules.,delegates can only be awarded to candidates (including Uncommitted) with over 15% in a congressional district, so Biden got all 5 delegates awarded in the 1st Congressional District. Statewide, Biden got 70.1% and Uncommitted got 18.8%. Dean Phillips was third with 7.8%. Incidentally, in our area, Trump won the Republican primary with 3267 votes (66.3%) followed by Nikki Haley with 1549 votes (31.4%) and with 112 votes scattered among remaining candidates.
The Olmsted 20/24 DFL convention was at Century High School on April 21. We elected the 2024-26 officers and directors for the unit, voted on which 28 resolutions we wanted to send to the DFL state convention, elected delegates and alternates to the 1st Congressional District and state DFL convention, and elected members and alternates to the state DFL Central Committee for 2024-26. We heard from our candidates for elected office and some people running for positions in the DFL.
The Senate District 20 DFL endorsing convention was in Elgin on April 20. Michael Hutchinson was unanimously endorsed as the DFL House candidate for District 20B. Will Harvey, the Olmsted 20/24 DFL chair, was elected Vice-Chair of Senate District 20 DFL.
The Senate District 24 DFL endorsing convention was in Byron on April 27. Heather Holmes and Tina Liebling were unanimously endorsed as the DFL House candidates for District 24A and District 24B, respectively.
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT AND STATE DFL CONVENTIONS/DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
The 1st Congressional District DFL convention was held on May 4 in Albert Lea. Rachel Bohman was unanimously endorsed as the DFL candidate for Congress. We elected 5 Biden delegates who will go to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. We also elected someone to serve as an elector and as an alternate elector to vote for Kamala Harris and her Vice-Presidential candidate in the Electoral College in St. Paul this December if she carries Minnesota. Many positions on state DFL standing committees earmarked for our Congressional district and Director positions for the 1st Congressional District DFL were also filled. Will Harvey, our Olmsted 20/24 DFL chair, was elected to the state DFL Executive Committee and to the Nominations Committee.
The state DFL convention was in Duluth from May 31-June 2. Amy Klobuchar was endorsed for re-election to her U.S. Senate seat on the first night. Most of a 14-hour convention day on Saturday was devoted to debating and voting on the extensive changes proposed in the state DFL constitution and to debating resolutions proposed for the DFL platform or Action Agenda. Sunday was devoted to electing the rest of Minnesota’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention and electing our 4 delegates to the Democratic National Committee.
The Democratic National Convention will be held in Chicago August 19-22. Joe Biden had a huge majority of pledged delegates and would have been nominated on the first ballot. However, since he is no longer running and has endorsed Vice-President Harris for President, the Biden delegates are no longer legally committed. Enough of those delegates have promised to vote for the Vice-President that it looks as if she will win on the first ballot. That ballot will occur virtually about two weeks before the convention to ensure that the Democratic ticket will be on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia given the deadlines some states have to get names on the ballot. Vice-President Harris is expected to name her pick for vice-president to run with her in time for that nominee to be on the virtual ballot. John Swanson, the chair of Senate District 25 DFL, is the only delegate to the convention from Olmsted County.
