U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar had no challengers remotely close to her as she easily won the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) primary in last Tuesday’s election. The four-term U.S. senator was endorsed by her party and won the state with nearly 90% of the votes cast on the DFL ticket.

Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth had a much tougher path to her victory and the chance to oppose Klobuchar on the November ballot. 

Demuth, despite being chosen by her party in the state House as its leader, did not win the party’s endorsement – that went to Kendall Qualls. She didn’t have President Trump’s endorsement – that went to Mike Lindell. Still, Demuth defeated both of them decisively receiving 43.4% of the vote to Lindell’s 32.5% and Qualls’ 21.4%.

Klobuchar won Stevens County with 91% of the vote. The other six candidates on the ballot combined for just 9%.

In the primary election, voters were required to vote for either DFL or Republican candidates – they couldn’t  cross over voting for candidates on either side of the ballot. On the general election ballot, voters will be able to crossover.  

With Klobuchar and Demuth on the ballot, the state is virtually assured it will have its first female governor.

Lindell, who spent millions supporting Trump’s claims about rigged 2020 election results, proven wrong through more than 60 court cases and multiple recounts verifying the election results, had earned the president’s support through his loyalty.

Demuth’s win, with double the support of the party’s endorsed candidate, brings into question the endorsement process where a few active party members chose a candidate at a convention. 

Demuth told MinnPost that the primary and November general election give “people that maybe couldn’t go to either the Democratic or Republican convention” an “opportunity to be involved in the process and that’s important.” She didn’t, however, write off the endorsement process as no longer relevant.

Demuth faces a significant challenge in taking on Klobuchar, who has been one of the state’s more popular politicians, doing better in rural areas than other DFL candidates. 

Klobuchar is in the second year of her fourth term. If she is elected governor, a special election will have to be conducted to complete the remaining four years in her six-year term. 

U.S. Senate primary 

In the race to be the DFL candidate for the Senate, U.

S. 2nd District Rep. Angie Craig was the winner in western Minnesota with the exception of Stevens County. Swift, Pope, Grant, Traverse, and Big Stone, all bordering Stevens, went for Craig. Stevens County chose Flanagan.

Stevens County gave Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan a clear victory with 57.2% of its DFL votes. Swift County gave Craig a decisive 58.2% of its votes.

However, statewide, Flanagan easily outpaced Craig at the polls with results showing a wide, and perhaps unexpected by some, gap between the two. Flanagan had strong in the heavily populated seven county Twin Cities metropolitan area. 

Flanagan won Minnesota with 59% of the vote to Craig’s 39.4%.

Michelle Tafoya, a retired television sportscaster who worked as a sidelines reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football, easily defeated her challengers with her name recognition a factor.

She easily defeated the Republican endorsed candidate former Navy SEAL Adam Schwarze receiving 52.1%of the statewide vote to his 24%. Former NBA player Royce White received 11.2% 

Tafoya also had strong support in Stevens County with 41.8% of the vote, but that was 10 points behind the state results. Dragging numbers down was the support the county gave former submariner Tom Weiler who got 17.8% of the vote in Stevens County but only 7.4% statewide.

There is a good reason for that spike in his vote. Both Weiler’s parents were born and raised in Morris. After college Tom’s father joined the U.S. Navy as a pilot

“Tom was born during these Navy years, but Minnesota was always home: summers on his grandparents’ farm, time at the family cabin, and countless games of football, baseball, and basketball shaped his character and deep love for this state<’ his campaign said.

He graduated from Eden Prairie High School, attended the University of Notre Dame on a Navy ROTC scholarship, earning a Civil Engineering degree and was commissioned as a naval officer in 2001. 

He was stationed at Navy Nuclear Power Training Command in Goose Creek, N,C., at the time of the Sept, 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Over the next 20 years, he served in 13 duty stations and deployed worldwide as a submarine officer.

Tafoya’s campaign heavily promoted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which helped finance it advertising, MinnPost reported.

Flanagan will be trying to hold the seat being vacated by retiring DFL U.S. Sen. Tina Smith while Tafoya will try break a Republican losing streak in statewide races that goes back to 2006.

7th District U.S. House

In 2024, Republican U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach failed to earn the party’s endorsement but easily won the primary and the general election. This year, she earned the party’s endorsement and faced no challengers on the primary ballot. 

On the DFL side, endorsed candidate Erick Osberg of Wadena defeated challenger Steve Carlson. Osberg won nearly 66% of the vote in the 7th district, which stretches from Canada nearly to Iowa along its western side. It includes 38 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. In Stevens County, Osberg won with 74.4.5% of the vote.

Osberg has worked in the public sector for nearly a decade with the Rural Rebound Initiative Coordinator for Otter Tail County. It is a workforce and resident recruitment program launched by Otter Tail County that has received national attention. He also produced a TV show  highlighting the natural wonders of rural Minnesota called Outdoor Report.

For 10 years, he was a financial services provider with Edward Jones, as a banker, and as an agent for Farm Bureau Financial Services.

Fischbach is seeking her fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. She won her first election in 2020, defeating  Blue Dog Democrat Collin Peterson who had twice served as the House’s Agriculture Committee chair. Before running for the U.S. House, she had served in the Minnesota Legislature.