PRIMARY LAUNCHED
Needed rain, turning on the dehumidifier.
Twins lose. Lynx in PHX tonight.
50 Best named Diane’s Place in Minneapolis as one of North America’s top 50 restaurants. LIST: https://fluence-media.co/4dPLgjD
Sunday Take recapped the GOP state convention with candidates Kendall Qualls, Adam Schwarze and Mike Lindell in Duluth. LISTEN: https://fluence-media.co/432x94b
About six-in-ten Americans say countries around the world, including the U.S., will not do enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Among Democrats, this share has increased from 51% in 2022 to 69% in 2026. PEW: https://fluence-media.co/3PUcjRl
A record-high 56% of Americans rate moral values in the U.S. as “poor,” up 12 percentage points from last year, and 80% say moral values are “getting worse,” up 14 points. GALLUP: https://fluence-media.co/4dLO3sw
It’s National Game Show Day…which is your favorite from your younger years?
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Here are the two MNSider’s from the weekend, with insight from the conventions.
SAT: https://fluence-media.co/49se3rS
SUN: https://fluence-media.co/4u5nHIc
SPEAKING Lobbyist and trade associations that are killing time waiting today, let me know if you want me to speak to your summer and fall events about the “Signals vs. Noise” of the election. bloisolson@gmail.com
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Get smarter… Long Term Care – Is Minnesota Ready? Care Providers Minnesota and LeadingAge Minnesota hosted providers, Senator Grant Hauschild (03, DFL), Representative Natalie Zeleznikar (03B, GOP), and Representative Nathan Nelson (11B, GOP) for a conversation about the future of careing for our seniors. This coming week the conversation moves to St. Cloud. LISTEN: https://fluence-media.co/4ue3YXA
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POLLS + PACS
The call to go to a June primary is loud from insiders in both political parties after the weekend. Between the process at the conventions (hours of rules fights), and time it takes on a beautiful weekend suggest that in our world of faster and easier, the political convention doesn’t fit in everyday Minnesotan’s lives.
Republicans will likely test the primary stronger than ever before, in possibly two races as Speaker Lisa Demuth has until 5PM Tuesday to decide if she’s going to challenge endorsed candidate Kendall Qualls and Mike Lindell in the primary. She reportedly talked with supporters last night.
Having two women in the primary could change the undefeated streak for the GOP endorsed candidates in primaries. The presence of SuperPAC’s will be more significant in Minnesota races than ever before. One question in our language – what’s a PAC, versus a Super PAC. Hmmm.
The anti insitutuion sentiment was a common thread of the loudest voices at each convention this weekend. It aligns with the anti-AI, anti-corporate sentiment of populism that seems to dominate the narrative of our politics this year.
State candidates had a fundraising deadline yesterday – reports are due June 15th, which means that we will not have a clear picture of the fundraising battle in the Governor’s race for Republicans until a few weeks before the primary.
FIRST: via news release this morning from North Star Dawn, a PAC supporting Rep. Angie Craig for Senate. VERBATIM: “A new poll from Global Strategy Group shows Rep. Angie Craig surging in the democratic primary for Minnesota’s open U.S. senate seat, with the race now in a dead heat…The latest results show Craig with a slight edge leading 43-42, with momentum rapidly shifting in her favor. Another 13% of voters remain undecided as the contest escalates into the summer. This is the first public poll to indicate Craig has taken the lead… A 53% majority of voters select Craig as the candidate who will do the better job of standing up to Donald Trump and holding ICE accountable, with only 43% choosing Flanagan. MEMO: https://fluence-media.co/4uHZSXZ
Here’s the ad North Star Dawn launched against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan this weekend. WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/4u5qAIU
ENDORSED: The following candidates were endorsed by their parties at state conventions this weekend:
GOVERNOR: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL) and Kendall Qualls (GOP)
US SENATE: Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (DFL) and Adam Schwarze (GOP)
SEC OF STATE: Sec. Steve Simon (DFL) and Tad Jude (GOP)
ATTY GENERAL: A.G. Keith Ellison (DFL) and Ron Schutz (GOP)
AUDITOR: Zack Filipovich (DFL) and Nate George (GOP)
GOP GOV: via MPR News, VERBATIM: “Minnesota Republicans spent almost a half-day and needed 10 ballots Saturday to endorse former health executive Kendall Qualls for governor. … He surpassed the 60 percent threshold in a head-to-head showdown over the lone remaining opponent, House Speaker Lisa Demuth. … Qualls will still have to [win] an August primary, with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell pledging to move forward. … Demuth had vowed to abide by the party endorsement. But on Saturday, she objected to the voting process [and] raised questions about the integrity of the electronic voting technology. … Qualls said [it] was a pretext for Demuth to bypass the endorsement process and move to a primary.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4vkvZNh
MORE: via WCCO-TV, VERBATIM: “Mike Lindell helped engineer [Kendall] Qualls’ victory. … After [he] was forced to drop out, Lindell urged all his supporters — more than 20% of the convention delegates — to support Qualls. Lindell argued that Qualls is, like him, an outsider candidate. Lindell was quoted as saying he wanted to block [Lisa] Demuth from getting the nomination.” READ/WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/4uK2Hbf
MORE: GOP gubernatorial candidate Patrick Knight confirmed that he is abiding by the endorsement and dropping out as he had previously pledged. TWEET: https://fluence-media.co/4uHOFa9
CLICKERS: Both parties reportedly experienced technical issues at their conventions this weekend, but Speaker Lisa Demuth and Kendall Qualls made the GOP’s voting “clicker” problems a major part of their closing arguments.
DEMUTH: “Election integrity matters, even when it comes down to something as broken as a system as this. Election integrity matters. There is no confidence in what is happening.”
QUALLS: “The corrupt St. Paul swamp, the establishment we’ve been talking about, want to protect themselves. … They can play with all the shenanigans and all the things they want. These clickers were working for all day yesterday for every candidate.”
GOP SEN: via MinnPost, VERBATIM: “After six rounds of balloting that eliminated other candidates, including former NBA player Royce White, the endorsement went to former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze, who received the support of nearly 63% of the GOP delegates. … Michele Tafoya [said] her campaign will continue moving full speed toward the August primary election. But that carries some risk: a non-endorsed GOP candidate has not won a Republican primary since 1994. … Losing the endorsement has cost Tafoya the support of the state Republican Party, [but] she’s backed by the NRSC, which could pour millions of dollars in the race.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3PYJrr8
DFL GOV: via Pioneer Press, VERBATIM: “Sen. Amy Klobuchar [got] her party’s endorsement this weekend at the state convention with overwhelming support — though there were a few progressive holdouts. After one round of voting, [delegates] backed Klobuchar, a fourth-term senator, with 67.6% support. Also on the ballot was Kobey Layne, who received roughly 27.6% of the vote. The rest were uncommitted. … Layne called on the Democratic Party to live up to its stated progressive ideals and do more to fight corporate interests.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4ej8qhl
DFL SEN: via MPR News, VERBATIM: “Delegates at the party convention in Rochester enthusiastically endorsed [Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan] by acclamation on Saturday afternoon. … Sen. Tina Smith, whose seat Flanagan is running for, stood on stage to endorse her. … The endorsement was shaping up to be one of the bigger battles of the 2026 election year, but Rep. Angie Craig announced days before the convention she’d skip the convention and take the race to the primary. … That move was not popular among many of the DFL faithful in Rochester.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/49AukLo
TRIBUTES: via Bring Me The News, VERBATIM: “At the Minnesota GOP convention, delegates held a moment of silence for convicted murderer Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd in 2020 and who continues to serve his prison sentence. At the Minnesota DFL convention, tribute was paid to Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark just under a year after they were assassinated.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3Sd3D9t
ACTIVISTS: via Star Tribune, VERBATIM: “Leaders in both parties grappled all weekend with a familiar question: Energize the people already in the room, or find a way to reach the people who weren’t? That tension was especially visible in Rochester, where more than half the delegates were attending their first DFL convention [due] to Operation Metro Surge. … The parties also face the challenge of converting convention enthusiasm into a coalition broad enough to win in November — and of uniting activists whose priorities do not always align.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4dFD45g
MORE: via Faith in MN advisory, VERBATIM: “168 Minnesotans across race, faith, and class participated as Faith in Minnesota delegates at the DFL State Convention to shape candidates and the party around The People’s Agenda, a set of issue priorities including affordability, universal and lifelong care, affordable housing, divestment from human rights abuses and genocide, and more. … Faith in Minnesota volunteers wrote and ratified this agenda after a listening campaign of one-on-one and small group meetings with over 10,000 Minnesotans.” AGENDA: https://fluence-media.co/4o7Pgzq
ICYMI: Premium subscribers can access MNsider briefs covering even more details from the state conventions this weekend. SAT: https://fluence-media.co/49sOqHs SUN: https://fluence-media.co/4uCDEql
GRAND OLD DAY: Flint Hills Resources is thrilled to be this year’s sponsor of the Grand Old Day parade. Flint Hills employees, families and friends will be showing their Saint Paul pride as they hand out giveaways alongside one of the Pine Bend refinery’s fire trucks. New this year, Flint Hills Resources engineers will demonstrate how science is really fun (and tasty) at the Future Innovators Zone. Kids can learn how to make their very own ice cream at home. Be sure to stop by on June 7! LEARN MORE: Grand Old Day (SPONSORED: Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend refinery)
Follow the 2026 Minnesota elections up close with the Fluence Election Tracker.
https://fluence-media.co/electiontracker
THIS WEEK: The list of candidates running in statewide primaries will become finalized later this week — the filing period ends tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. and the withdrawal period ends Thursday. Early voting for the August 11 primaries will begin June 26.
CD1: via Rochester Post Bulletin, VERBATIM: “An unpopular war in the Middle East. A president with underwater approval ratings. Households squeezed by soaring costs. And a public school teacher with a thin political background makes a bid for Congress. Those were the conditions that existed in 2005, the last time a DFLer pulled off an upset victory over a GOP incumbent in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District. Back then, the challenger was Tim Walz. … Today, it is Jake Johnson who is trying to repeat history. … [But] what’s different from two decades ago is that the district Johnson is running in is more conservative [than] the one Walz won.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4e0hXcZ
SENATE RACE: Via Huffington Post’s Jennifer Bendery, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan compared Rep. Angie Craig to her Republican counterparts during a recent press call, saying she thinks Craig is similar to GOP candidates Adam Schwarze and Michele Tafoya because they all accept corporate PAC donations. FLANAGAN: “[Craig is] funded by the same corporate interests who are rigging the economy against working people and supporting Donald Trump’s ballroom. … This campaign has always been about ‘the many versus the money.’” TWEETS: https://fluence-media.co/4a52XZX
MORE: via MinnPost, VERBATIM: “A look at their personal finances shows vast differences between former sportscaster Michele Tafoya and former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze. Tafoya [has] reported that she and her husband’s assets were valued at between about $17 million and a little more than $33 million. … Meanwhile, Schwarze’s financial disclosure report listed absolutely no income, assets or liabilities. [His] campaign said Schwarze’s sole income is a military pension, which was not disclosed. The campaign also said Schwarze does not own a home but rather [rents] his residences.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/3QcYCgA
CLEAN | RELIABLE | AFFORDABLE: via Xcel Energy, VERBATIM: “We’re powering the Upper Midwest with clean, reliable, and affordable nuclear energy. For more than 50 years, our Prairie Island Nuclear Plant, located near Red Wing, MN, has been a workhorse of reliable, carbon-free energy. With two pressurized water reactors producing about 1,100 megawatts, Prairie Island generates enough electricity to power 1.5 million homes across the Upper Midwest. Unlike sources that depend on weather, nuclear energy delivers 24/7 reliability — providing the power we need today while protecting the environment for tomorrow.” LEARN MORE: https://fluence-media.co/4oCHdK9 (SPONSORED: Xcel Energy)
DC + MN
MEDICAID: via FOX 9, VERBATIM: “Sunday was the deadline for Minnesota to complete the revalidation of thousands of Medicaid providers in ‘high-risk’ programs as the state fights with the federal government over about $2 billion in funding. Earlier this year, state leaders announced an effort to revalidate more than 5,500 providers. … As of last month, state officials said only 550 providers have had applications approved, site inspections completed and been re-enrolled.” READ/WATCH: https://fluence-media.co/4dYGzCQ
IMMIGRANTS: via WCCO Radio, VERBATIM: “Local food and hospitality leaders are demanding immigrant work permits to address severe labor shortages. Community advocates gathered [to] share how this year’s immigration enforcement has driven up food prices, strained small businesses, and caused widespread instability for essential workers. … Advocates say that easing the work permit process is only the first step toward repairing the industry-wide damage caused by Operation Metro Surge.” READ/LISTEN: https://fluence-media.co/3PYMO1g
ARREST: via Sahan Journal, VERBATIM: “A federal immigration agent charged in the January shooting of a Venezuelan man during Operation Metro Surge was apprehended in Texas on Friday after a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest. … ICE agent Christian Castro, 52, was arrested by Texas Rangers and agents with the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General. Investigators with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) were also on the scene for the arrest.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4vmkm8N
MORE: via WCCO Radio, VERBATIM: “Both Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty welcomed the arrest. … Both of them acknowledged that federal authorities may attempt to move the case to federal court, but Ellison says Minnesota prosecutors would still retain control of the trial.” READ/LISTEN: https://fluence-media.co/3RTpFxW
SEIZURES: via CAIR-MN, VERBATIM: “The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations [is] filing a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Twin Cities labor organizer and ICE divestment advocate Janette Zahia Corcelius. The lawsuit alleges that border agents [had] violated the First and Fourth Amendments when they unlawfully seized Corcelius’ property and searched her cell phone at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. … They seized all of the political literature in her possession. … The agents offered no explanation for the seizures and no timeline for the return of her property.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4vpnwZA
ACROSS MN
MPLS: via Star Tribune, VERBATIM: “Depending on who’s talking, Uptown is either falling apart, coming back or simply changing into something new. What many residents and business owners do agree on, however, is that it’s not the same. … Restaurants have closed while new businesses have opened. Apartment buildings have risen while older storefronts have emptied out. Young residents are moving in, attracted by lower rents and walkability, while business owners are trying to convince people to spend money there. Taken together, today’s Uptown is in the middle of a reboot.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4uGzMVg
ST PAUL: via Pioneer Press, VERBATIM: “Macalester College will open a new 224-bed residence hall powered by geothermal and solar energy in 2027. The planned five-story building at Grand Avenue and Macalester Street in St. Paul will primarily serve juniors and seniors at the college as part of its new three-year residence requirement that begins in the fall.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4uPlthy
MOORHEAD: via Bring Me The News, VERBATIM: “Shows at Moorhead‘s Bluestem Center for the Arts are being scuttled for the summer after concert promoter Jade Presents announced it will shut down this week. The announcement puts many shows in the region on hold. … Concerts already scheduled at Bluestem and the UP District Festival Field ‘will not be moving forward,’ according to the announcement. … Bluestem Center for the Arts is owned by Fargo Public Schools and the City of Moorhead, but was booked and operated by Jade Presents.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4dTRSvM
ROSEMOUNT: via Pioneer Press, VERBATIM: “The Minnesota National Guard formally opened its renovated Rosemount armory [last week], capping off a more than $32 million project. … The Guard’s space was designed to serve about 350 soldiers. However, at the time of construction, it mostly served the needs of male soldiers. The modernization of the space allows support for more than 500 soldiers, including spaces for males and females, as well as enhancements for the changing needs of the Guard’s different units.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/436G0Ss
OLMSTED CTY: via Rochester Post Bulletin, VERBATIM: “The number of public assistance fraud investigations has been on the rise in Olmsted County, [but] it’s not necessarily due to there being more fraud. It reflects an increase in county resources focused on the issue. … Even with a single investigator, Olmsted County was exceeding the state’s general expectations. … [Now], the county’s two-person investigation team anticipates more cases will be reviewed and a deeper dive taken into each.” READ: https://fluence-media.co/4x15ZZc
GLOBAL TRADE BOLSTERS AG ECONOMIES: via Minnesota Corn, VERBATIM: “Each year, Minnesota’s exports of corn, ethanol, corn-fed meat, and dried distillers grains (DDGS) alone support over 11,500 jobs and add billions to the state’s economy. They also help ensure that consumers around the world have access to affordable protein and dairy products. In May, during World Trade Month, Minnesota Corn celebrates that important role trade plays in all our lives — in the U.S. and abroad.” LEARN MORE: https://fluence-media.co/4dqEqB1 (SPONSORED: Minnesota Corn)
LOOKING AHEAD
TODAY: Gun violence prevention advocates will host an “accountability action” at the Capitol for “calling attention to lawmakers who blocked progress on gun violence prevention legislation,” per a release. The event is at 3:30 p.m.
JUNE 5: Via Minneapolis Fed, Regional Outreach Director Erick Garcia Luna will host a webinar discussing results from the spring survey of construction firms across the Ninth District. The event is at 9:00 a.m.
JUNE 5: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will speak at the DFL’s annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner in Minneapolis on Friday, June 5. The event is at 6:00 p.m.
JUNE 8: Attorney General Keith Ellison is hosting a community forum on the proposed acquisition of North Memorial Health by Sanford Health. The event is in Robbinsdale on Monday, June 8 at 6:00 p.m.
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BDAYS: HOFer Tony Sanneh, attorney Jason Tarasek, cable leader Melissa Wolf, lobbyist Tom Poul, nonprofit advocate Tom Weaver, CD5 GOP candidate Dalia al-Aqidi
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IN MEMORIAM: morning take is dedicated in memory of Melissa Hortman.