Tag: elections

The Midnight Special: Midwest Primary Hot News

Back in the days of fast mail by rail, many trains left the big city union stations ’round midnight with literally hot off the press election results to be delivered in the morning across the states.

I been worried- Democratic Socialists are not the preferred answer when voters simply want fair pay and reasonable prices. To put it simply, give Americans a union job, pension, and a home of their own and they’ll lose all interest in socialist fantasies, no matter how colorful the unicorns. Thus in normal election cycles democratic socialists are viable candidates only in D+20 or better districts.

Wisconsin is 94% counted and defying the polls, moderate David Crowley is leading Democratic Socialist Francesca Hong by about 3000 votes with most of Milwaukee’s absentee ballots still out. Looks like Wisconsin democrats took a hard look at Hong and decided she’d given the GOP too much ad material to use against her.

Minnesota is 95% counted with Amy Klobuchar easily winning the nomination for governor while the least crazy GOP candidate, Lisa DeMuth, sent Pillow Man back to Texas and endorsed candidate Qualls into 3rd place, ouch! In the US Senate race Peggy Flanagan scored an upset win over Angie Craig by a 20% margin, and on the GOP side former Football reporter Michele Tafoya handily beat endorsed candidate Adam Schwarze and 3 time Order for Protection recipient Royce White.

The governor’s race is pretty much over and Klobuchar will insure that even if the GOP controls the legislature Minnesota won’t sink into the abyss of backward GOP “governance”. The US Senate worries me though- We need to win 4 seats to take back the senate and the Democratic Socialist candidate in Michigan is likely to lose the seat we hold there. We’ve a democratic seat to lose in Minnesota too, and the GOP has plenty of Democratic Socialist misstatements to turn into attack ads against Flanagan.

But with strong turnout even “yellow dog democrats” and Democratic Socialists can win outside of progressive strongholds. In Minnesota the closest analogue to the 2026 race is 2018, and it took about 1,200,000 votes to win that year which we democrats handily did. Despite having two competitive statewide primary races to the democrats one, the GOP side of the primary had about 410,000 votes cast while on the democratic side about 689,000 votes were cast. Most of those will carry over to the general election, giving the democratic statewide candidates about 500,000 general election voters to win over while the GOP needs to win over about 800,000 to win. So while the GOP can spend millions broadcasting baseless fraud charges against Flanagan, Even playing the GOP moderate with no political past Tafoya has to win over nearly twice as many general election voters- That’s a tall order! The democratic turnout advantage will resonate all down the ticket- unsubstantiated charges of fraud, decency to trans folks and immigrants, and making a better state flag are unlikely to succeed when the democrats are turning out half again as many voters as the GOP!

Minnesota CD7 DFL Outreach & Inclusion Officers Report for August 2025

“Privileged Farmers”- That’s an actual quote heard in a DFL legislative caucus meeting! Please send that lost DFL legislator out here where we can introduce them to farmers trying to make the payments on $10,000 an acre land and $100,000+ used “economy” tractors and combines with $3 a bushel corn! Truth is, farmers are at risk of losing multi generational million dollar and more investments while earning less than minimum wage feeding and fueling us.  That’s how out of touch the metro’s “democratic socialist” leaning legislators are with the rural economy they claim as their progressive roots. Heck, the Farmer-Laborites would have laughed them right outa the party!

Rural democrats have been getting diss’d by the Environmental Caucus too, I’ve been thrown outa their meetings for sticking up for farmers by reminding them that biofuels can reduce climate change as well as their Teslas, an inconvenient truth they deny. And while we respect their support for the BWCA, we wish they’d show the same concern for the “prairie potholes’ we canoe and fish in out here. This DFL legislator and caucus wouldn’t dare so boldly malign any other group, but apparently farmers and rural folks are fair game for them.

Article 9, Section 16 of the DNC Charter states “Democratic Party Credo.”… “At the heart of our party lies a fundamental conviction, that Americans must not only be free, but they must live in a fair society.”… :We believe it is the responsibility of government to help us achieve this fair society”…  “a society where the livelihoods of our family farmers are as stable as the values they instill in the American character;” Further, our DFL Party has authorized a Rural Community Caucus, validating that our struggles as rural residents are as valid as other groups.

Memo to that lost DFL legislator and community caucus: Your bias against farmers and rural folks is not a democratic value, and you’re certainly not helping us win elections!

Sunday was rainy so I watched the challenge hearing to the Minneapolis DFL convention that the “democratic socialists” took over and used to award a sham “endorsement” to their mayoral candidate, suffice to say their (mis)behavior was so bad the their own brief was enough evidence to revoke that “endorsement”. Their argument was that they botched the convention but it didn’t matter anyway, evidenced by their inability to keep up their end of a Zoom stream during the meeting. Take them seriously, the Minneapolis convention was practice for their plan to take over our state convention next year- We rural DFLers are the institutional memory that keeps our party stable and successful, so make sure we fill every delegate seat we have at SCC meetings and next years conventions.

Survival is winning… Many of you probably saw the video of a motorcyclist being attacked by several ICE et al goons in DC. Thanks to wearing a helmet he’s probably OK,, but one of the goons who was too manly to wear a helmet slipped, fell, and gave himself a concession while piling on the poor motorcyclist. Then his fellow goons shoved him in their SUV instead of calling an ambulance. While puffing up their chests with body armor the goons were too manly to wear a helmet, thought as a consolation prize this one might get a disability pension. Their face masks sure as hell ain’t N95s, and they’re probably too cool to get vaccinated too- As happened with the also unneeded wars in Iraq, the costs of treating and compensating injured personnel will push the federal budget deeper into deficients for decades. Outlast the enemy- Stay safe, protect yourselves, and live to see democracy again!

Respectfully submitted, Dyna Sluyter