Democrats and Republicans are scheduled to appear together at the annual agricultural gathering in rural Minnesota. Angie Craig, Peggy Flanagan, Michele Tafoya and Royce White are all listed in the U.S. Senate event at this point. The Governor Forum has Amy Klobuchar, Lisa Demuth, Mike Lindell, Kendall Qualls all RSVP’ed in the litmus test on rural issues that often proves pivotal and feisty.
The Republican-endorsed Qualls and the President Trump-endorsed Lindell squared off on our latest edition of Twin Cities Public Television’s Almanac. Demuth chose not to attend, officially citing a scheduling conflict of the debate scheduled well in advance. That was seen as either as a big mistake or a brilliant move, perhaps Primary Election results will tell if the House Speaker’s advertising through a large fundraising lead are enough to bring a win to get her through to the General Election. Lindell is leading polls and betting odds.
Voter turnout in these August elections are small, maybe getting into the 20% range versus the 60-80% range the state usually sees in November. The polls tend to query general election voters, so it’s hard to accurately judge primary voters real results ahead of time. The race I get asked about the most is the DFL U.S. Senate contest between Lt. Gov. Flanagan and U.S. Rep. Craig which had a lot of endorsements and accusations in the last week. Voters can only vote on one side of the ballot, just DFL or GOP in the primary. The Secretary of State explained that and much more nonpartisan context on election security and history on our SpinSisters podcast this week as well which is important information with leading candidates for governor continuing to bring up disproven election allegations. Turnout could be high with hotly covered contests on both sides of the ballot, but still nothing like a General Election is expected on August 11th. We will see…
