Both sides of the aisle will be busy this summer battling within their own parties before the August Primary Election in Minnesota. Republicans have a heated 3-way race for governor which includes the current House Speaker Lisa Demuth, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and endorsed candidate Kendall Qualls. It’s unusual that Democrats don’t have to square off for governor with U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar securing the nomination without a primary challenger, but DFLers will fight for an open U.S. Senate seat featuring Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Congresswoman Angie Craig. Immigration and fraud will be the top issues there. Republicans say fraud indictments are not done yet and will dog Democrats through the campaign season.
The contest for control of the legislature may not be as close as expected with Democrats making history with candidates filing for all 201 seats for the first time ever. Republicans failed to find people to run in several suburban seats that were once competitive. Here’s the House DFL news release:
Candidate filing for the 2026 election closed yesterday, and the Minnesota House GOP left 17 races for the State House uncontested, a historic low for the caucus going into a consequential midterm election.
“The House GOP has the lowest number of candidates since 1974 while we have candidates for all 134 districts, and it’s not surprising after Minnesotans have been the target of a campaign of retribution from Donald Trump,” said House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson (DFL - Coon Rapids). “This allows our unopposed candidates to help our candidates in tight races in our efforts to win back a majority and make life better for Minnesotans. House DFLers are ready to run the strongest campaign in the history of our caucus.”
While this is the first time in history that both DFL caucuses have maxed-out their candidate roster in the same year, the House GOP has 117/134 candidates, which is their worst showing since 1974 where they had 115/134 and the election was swept by Democrats.
