By J. Patrick Coolican | Editor-in-chief
Good morning, Reformers.
Breaking: House Speaker Lisa Demuth is announcing this morning that she’s staying in the governor’s race. Michelle Griffith is there for us and will have more later.
Demuth will face off against GOP-endorsed Kendall Qualls and MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, setting up a rough and expensive August primary.
I can see why: Qualls has no money and no name recognition, no feel for this political moment or the Minnesota electorate. As I wrote yesterday, Demuth doesn’t want to see her House colleagues lose a bevy of districts because of a poor candidate at the top of the ticket.
And now, even Qualls’ one major achievement, the convention victory — is looking like a flop.
Torey Van Oot reports that the state party postponed their major fundraising event for this week, the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner — and rescheduled for after the primary. Big red flag.
Here’s Van Oot: “Several sources familiar with the decision to delay the dinner tell Axios that donors' frustration with the endorsement for (governor and U.S. senator) played a role in the last-minute change of plans.”
Party Chair Alex Plechash, citing voting irregularities Saturday, went so far as to absolve any candidate who decided to go to the primary after pledging to abide by the endorsement. This is permission to Demuth and (yikes) Lindell, though he never agreed to drop out if he lost the endorsement.
This could be the first signs of terminal illness for the convention process, at least on the GOP side. (Democratic voters have long ignored the endorsement in the governor’s race.)
Ken Martin may be an ineffective DNC chair but I always appreciated one of his rules of politics: The only thing you can’t get more of in a campaign is time. There’s a limited number of days in a campaign, and even fewer days when the public is tuned in.
Qualls won the GOP endorsement Saturday, and then his moment evaporated, like a puddle in the desert.
He’s thus far failed to capitalize and gave a low-energy answer when asked about the GOP convention’s national newsmaking event: a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin, who was found by a jury of his peers to have murdered George Floyd.
(If you really wanna go deep on the claims of Chauvin’s innocence, read Deena Winter’s old Reformer debunking of the Liz Collin documentary that sought to exonerate Chauvin.)
Rep. Danny Nadeau, a Republican from Rogers who chaired the convention, speaks to delegates after a delegate called for a moment of silence for Derek Chauvin at the Minnesota Republican Convention in Duluth, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (Photo by Glen Stubbe/Minnesota Reformer)
My favorite response is from Rep. Tom Emmer: “It’s a sad day in the state of Minnesota when it’s so-called ‘news’ that hundreds of patriotic Minnesotans came together to peacefully and respectfully recognize a member of law enforcement.”
Chauvin is not “a member of law enforcement,” last I checked. And the reverence for law enforcement is a little hard to take when Donald Trump — who once said about Emmer: “They always bend the knee” — tried to set up a slush fund for the Jan. 6 defendants who beat police officers as they sought to overturn the 2020 election.
Headline of the week from Alyssa Chen: “Listen to the moment of silence MN GOP delegates held for Derek Chauvin.” And kudos to Alyssa for finding the delegate who offered up the motion and chatting with him. FYI: He goes by “Rocco” or “Mr. Rocco.”
More Reformer:
By Michelle Griffith
Scoop by Michelle, who reports that Klobuchar was livid about being challenged at the convention, and in a moment of frustration threatened to leave the convention. It was apparently loud enough for people to hear it backstage.
Naturally, the accidental eavesdroppers told us about it.
The carefully crafted image of the “senator next door” will be challenged during this campaign and in the next four years.
As Michelle notes, the temperament issue has come up before, during Klobuchar’s 2020 presidential run.
By Kirian Crabtree
A grocery worker and writer implores Klobuchar to help Minnesota operators who have invested in higher agricultural standards:
“‘Save Our Bacon’ language would override state agricultural standards and undermine farmers who have already invested much time and money adapting to new market demands.
This debate is often viewed as a fight between agriculture and regulation. But for many farmers, it is really about fairness, stability and whether Washington should change the rules after producers have already made investments in good faith.
Across the country, many farmers and food companies have spent years changing their operations to serve markets with higher standards. Producers upgraded facilities, adjusted supply chains, and made business decisions based on where consumer demand and the marketplace were heading.
IN OTHER NEWS
Trump’s $1.77 billion ‘slush fund’ may be on the way out after GOP objections | Reformer via States Newsroom
Some trans military members banned by Trump allowed to continue service under ruling | Reformer via States Newsroom
House official who targeted Trump’s enemies is acting intelligence chief | Associated Press
The autism therapy business is booming — and so is the billing abuse | Wall Street Journal (gift link)
OH BY THE WAY
I’m headed to a States Newsroom editors’ conference in St. Louis, so Max Nesterak will be running things this week. Hit him up: [email protected]
I usually come home from these annual events with good news, so stay tuned.
I’m lugging “Lonesome Dove” with me — halfway through; just another 450 pages to go lol — and wondering if any Native readers have thoughts about its portrayal of Indigenous people and colonialism more broadly.
Correspond: [email protected]
Have a great day all! JPC
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