What you need to know about the DFL, GOP conventions this weekend

Hundreds of party activists will head to conventions this weekend to endorse candidates for statewide elections in November.

Minnesotans will have the ultimate say when they vote in the Aug. 11 primary election to decide the party nominees who will run during this consequential November midterm election, comprising races for all the constitutional offices including governor, as well as a U.S. Senate seat and all 201 legislative seats.

But the Minnesota Republican Party and Democratic-Farmer-Labor conventions, which begin Friday, are an important marker during this midterm election cycle.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the presumptive DFL nominee for governor, heads to the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester where she hopes to win over enough of the progressive base to win the party’s endorsement ahead of the primary.

Since she announced her bid for the office at the end of January, no other major DFL candidate has entered the race. She overwhelmingly won the party’s February straw poll.

Although she’s the state’s most prolific vote-getter, her moderate political style has alienated many of the progressive activists who will be at the convention this weekend and expected to provide some spirited resistance — including some throaty boos — even without a major alternative.

Klobuchar raised a staggering $4.8 million in her campaign’s first 60 days, and the senior senator is a favorite to win in November against a field of relatively unknown Republicans.

Klobuchar has yet to announce a lieutenant governor pick. Her choice will indicate how she intends to govern and a potential successor. She could attempt to extend an olive branch to progressive Democrats or pick a running mate from greater Minnesota who appeals to more moderate, outstate and suburban voters.

DFL delegates will also choose their preferred candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Tina Smith, who is retiring.

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig of the 2nd District and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan are in a heated race. Craig announced Wednesday that she will forego the DFL convention this weekend and instead focus on the August primary.

This all but guarantees that Flanagan will be the endorsed candidate, meaning she will have access to party resources and be the subject of party advertising.

A year ago, Craig was a formidable frontrunner for the Senate seat, but she’d long positioned herself as hawkish on border security and voted for the Laken Riley Act.

This was the first piece of legislation signed by President Donald Trump during his second term, and it mandates the detention of undocumented immigrants who are merely accused of crimes, including certain nonviolent offenses like burglary, theft and shoplifting. She reversed herself in early March, but by then, the incursion of 3,000 federal immigration agents into Minnesota ignited massive resistance, which Flanagan has capitalized on.

Flanagan has sharply criticized Craig’s Laken Riley vote.

Despite bowing out of the endorsement process, Craig has a significant cash advantage over Flanagan going into the primary. During the first quarter of the year, Craig raised $2.5 million while Flanagan raised $1.3 million. Craig had $4.8 million cash on hand, while Flanagan had about $1.1 million. Craig will need to persuade Minnesota Democrats that the delegates at this weekend’s convention are wrong about who should best represent them in November.

Republican gubernatorial candidates vie for party endorsement

Republican activists will gather at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center on Friday and Saturday to hash out who will face off against Klobuchar in the gubernatorial race. The three likeliest candidates to win the endorsement are House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring; Kendall Qualls, an Army veteran and former health care executive; and Mike Lindell, MyPillow CEO and right-wing conspiracy theorist.

Demuth and Qualls have both committed to dropping out of the race if they don’t win the endorsement. Lindell has not, according to the state party’s website.

Demuth wrapped up her second legislative session as House Speaker, presiding over a 67-67 tied House, this month after she successfully negotiated a final deal with Democrats. When asked if the bipartisan agreement might alienate the fiercely partisan GOP delegates she needs support from, Demuth said Minnesotans want a leader who can work across the aisle.

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Demuth has focused on fraud in Minnesota public programs, blaming Gov. Tim Walz, whose own campaign for a third term wilted under national scrutiny over the issue. Demuth, who chose attorney Ryan Wilson to be her running mate, says Klobuchar would be the equivalent of a Walz third term.

Democrats, gun control activists and Demuth’s own daughter have sharply criticized her for blocking a vote on a gun control bill that included a ban on so-called assault weapons and high capacity magazines. The bill had passed the DFL-controlled Senate, and gun control activists — including parents of the two children killed in the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church — pushed Demuth to allow the entire House to vote on it. In the end, Demuth didn’t allow a vote to take place on the House floor, arguing that House committees had already rejected the bill. Her stance on the bill is likely to warm the hearts of Republican convention goers.

Qualls, a perennial candidate who has run for an office three times since 2020 but has yet to win an election, touts himself as a “political outsider.” Qualls’ chosen running mate, businessman Brian Nicholson, has faced lawsuits challenges over alleged malfeasance, including failure to pay his bills.

Both Demuth and Qualls are Black, and if one prevails in August, he or she will be the state’s first Black major party nominee.

Lindell stands out among Republican candidates as a longtime loyal servant of President Donald Trump, who said in December that Lindell “deserves to be governor of Minnesota.” Lindell said he’s spent millions defending his unsupported hypothesis that the 2020 election was stolen, which made him broke. More recently, he said that he was seeking $400 million from Trump’s controversial $1.776 “anti-weaponization” fund in compensation for losses his company incurred due to his toxic brand after 2020. Lindell has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of his campaign money buying copies of his own memoir — “What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO” — thus padding his own pocket with donor money.

The Republican candidates have raised far less money for their campaigns compared to Klobuchar. In the first three months of 2026, Demuth, Lindell and Qualls respectively raised $225,000, $495,000 and $125,000, compared to Klobuchar’s $4.8 million.

Demuth won the statewide straw poll for Republican governor at precinct caucuses in February, at the beginning of the monthslong endorsement process, followed by Qualls and Lindell, neither of whom have held office before. The remaining slew of Republican candidates fell far behind.

Republicans will also be endorsing their candidate to run against Flanagan or Craig for U.S. Senate. Candidates include former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya, who has not committed to dropping out if she doesn’t win the endorsement, and former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze.

Tafoya, who lives in the Minneapolis suburbs, is making an electability pitch during a year when Republicans are looking to take advantage of a rare open seat that gives them their best chance at an upset. She favors abortion rights but has called Minnesota’s law protecting abortion rights “barbaric.” She enters the race with significant name recognition after years spent broadcasting on NFL sidelines. She’s also raised significant money since announcing her run in January — just over $2 million in the first quarter of the year — and had $1.8 million on hand at the end of the quarter.

Schwarze, a former Navy Seal, has won over the Trump-loving Republican base and the delegates who will decide the endorsement. So much so that he’s emerged as the frontrunner, in the estimation of a recent profile in the Star Tribune. Tafoya has gone negative, citing Schwarze’s earlier donation to Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign.

Also running are Royce White, former professional basketball player and conspiracy theorist; Alycia Gruenhagen, daughter of Republican state Sen. Glenn Gruenhagen; and a handful of other candidates. In April, state party leadership said White, who won the GOP’s senate endorsement in 2024, should suspend his campaign after a judge ordered him not to contact his ex-wife and son after finding credible evidence of abuse. White is still running for senator.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com.