President Donald Trump has a new pitch for Republican candidates: they’re easy on the eyes. At a Saturday rally in Kentucky, he praised U.S. House candidate Ed Gallrein as "beautiful." Trump also described Ohio Sen. Jon Husted as a "perfect person" and "good-looking guy."
Minnesotans are checking voting off their list in big numbers. As of Friday morning, more than 200,000 Minnesotans had already voted in this year's election. The exact number released by the Secretary of State’s office is 202,252. Most of those, 121,382, were mail-in ballots, but 80,870 people had already voted in person. About a quarter of the early votes are coming from Hennepin County, where 51,137 ballots have been accepted. Four years ago 673,360 people cast their votes before Election Day.
At least twice this week, we’ll see the candidates for Minnesota governor on the same stage at the same time. Today, Republican Lisa Demuth and DFLer Amy Klobuchar are in the Brainerd Lakes area for a Minnesota Chamber of Commerce forum moderated by KSTP’s Tom Hauser. On Wednesday, they trek to Rochester for a primetime televised debate hosted by FOX9 and Gray Media. Tuesday would have been a third debate but Demuth declined an MPR News debate invitation that Klobuchar had accepted. The showdowns come with about two weeks left in the race. Our Dana Ferguson will have her eyes and ears on the encounters and
sets the table for them.
If you missed MPR’s Senate debate on “Politics Friday,” you missed a hot one.
From the opening, Michele Tafoya and Peggy Flanagan offered sharply different visions and sharply worded critiques of the other. We covered overseas conflicts, trade and cost pressures, taxes, presidential nominees and so much more. But it was two things that viewers and listeners heard most about: President Donald Trump and fraud. DFL nominee Flanagan mentioned Trump’s name 22 times as she tried to hitch Republican nominee Tafoya to the unpopular president. Tafoya came back to fraud 13 times as she associated Flanagan with the Walz administration’s clearest problem. Notably, neither candidate would commit to appearing with a dominant figure in their party in the closing weeks:
Tafoya sidestepped questions about if she would attend rallies with Trump if he comes here as he’s indicated he will; Flanagan dodged a similar question if she would partner up with Gov. Tim Walz in campaign-closing events. Check out the debate in its entirety here.
The Minnesota attorney general candidates have now held a pair of debates, with a very lively, often entertaining one on Minnesota PBS “Almanac” on Friday.
Incumbent Keith Ellison, a DFLer, and challenger Ron Schutz, a Republican, came loaded for bear with opposition research, sharpened attack lines and lots of paper. At one point, the two were reading from separate reports or letters on the attorney general’s office performance to reach different conclusions. The pages flapped on the set as moderator Cathy Wurzer moved to put the debate back on track. The attorney general’s race is expected to be close right up to the end and the ads by outside groups are airing in full force. Even with the acrimony clear as the cameras rolled, these two haven’t let their debates get ugly. “Thank you, Ron, it’s been a spirited debate,” Ellison told
his rival Friday at the close. “You wanted a spirited debate, Cathy, did we deliver Keith? Did we deliver a spirited debate,” Schutz added. In both live debates, they’ve ended with the two exchanging hearty handshakes and jovial conversations afterward.
The offices of some Minnesota Democratic officials are among those that received suspicious envelopes in the mail. Federal authorities are investigating letters with suspicious substances
that were mailed to congressional and election offices nationwide and are urging recipients to treat the mailings as “potentially hazardous.” The Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office confirmed a piece of mail addressed to the office was discovered Friday with a “threatening letter” and “unidentified white powder.” It was intercepted before it reached the office. U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s Minnesota office was also sent “a letter containing a suspicious substance.” An office spokesperson said it was intercepted and “no one in our office was in immediate danger.” The incident is under investigation. “Threats against election workers are unacceptable and should not be tolerated,”
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement.
The last Democratic vice presidential nominee, Tim Walz, is heaping a lot of 2028 praise on Pete Buttigieg’s potential presidential run. Minnesota’s governor appeared at a Georgetown University event in Washington last week and held Buttigieg up as a strong messenger for the party. Buttigieg played JD Vance during the Walz vice presidential debate prep in 2024 so the two have a rapport. You can see the exchange in this C-SPAN replay of the session. The
campus newspaper has more on what Walz had to say during the appearance.
This year, Minnesota is seeing an unusual amount of campaign ads and hearing campaign rhetoric that is directly targeting an entire ethnic community. Despite Republican candidates saying the Somali community itself shouldn’t be castigated for actions of some of those within it, groups are airing an onslaught of ads that are sweeping in their portrayal of those of East African descent. A new Restore Sanity ad (the group spending millions to attack Amy Klobuchar and prop up Lisa Demuth) suggests Klobuchar is running for office in Somalia, using footage of her speaking at a community gathering in 2017 as the centerpiece. Estelle Timar-Wilcox
examines how Somalis have become a go-to target in Minnesota this campaign, including by President Donald Trump. At Friday’s debate, GOP Senate candidate Michele Tafoya said she isn’t in line with Trump’s words about Somalis and added, “We do not need to paint with a broad brush an entire community, but Peggy Flanagan can’t name it. She won’t name it.” She was referring to the term “Somali gang violence” that some in law enforcement have voiced concern over.
Want to hash out the state of our politics over a cold one? Next week, our colleague Clay Masters is hosting a politics happy hour at Arbeiter Brewing. Members of our MPR News politics team will be there to chat with Clay about what they’re up to in these closing days and what they’re hearing from Minnesotans as Election Day draws nearer. Then, we’ll open the floor to take your questions and mingle about. Join us from 6-8 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 3038 Minnehaha Ave in Minneapolis. The event is free, but
registration is encouraged.
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