Lori Swanson set to run for MN Governor, with Rick Nolan as running mate.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Lori Swanson is really pissing me off.

[henster]

Lori Swanson seems like a bitter egomaniac. Butthurt over losing the endorsement for AG, now jumping into this race and making a mess. Tim Pawlenty ain't winning, but it sure doesn't look good on the Democrats' part...

She didn't even really lose the endorsement. She had a majority of delegates, just not the required 60%. She could've fought to peel off delegates to get to 60, or exhausted all ballots to force no endorsement. Instead she withdrew from the endorsement race, thus allowing Pelikan to be endorsed b acclimation. Even then she could've ran in the primary and won.

This is just bizarre. And also why there's no chance of me supporting her.

I think that Swanson was just itching to move onto higher office, and being snubbed by the delegates at the convention gave her the fire in her belly to actually make a bold move.

I’m pretty surprised that Nolan agreed to be her running mate though. He endorsed Walz way back, and retired because of health issues in the family, so he must be pretty confident about their chances of beating Walz & Murphy in the primary.

Swanson/Nolan probably have name ID in the 90s among primary voters, probably dominate in the Range and she has done well in the suburbs in her past runs. And I don't buy Murphy will automatically take the Twin Cities area, voters there have seen Swanson's name far more than Murphy's.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Surprised nobody tried to primary Smith, given the circumstances.

[Jeppe]

Surprised nobody tried to primary Smith, given the circumstances.

Everybody likes Smith

Richard Painter’s actually challenging her, but he’s an internet meme.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Surprised nobody tried to primary Smith, given the circumstances.

Everybody likes Smith

Richard Painter’s actually challenging her, but he’s an internet meme.

IIRC, a lot of folks were pretty annoyed that Swanson didn’t get the seat at the time.

[Gass3268]

Ellison is in for the AG race:

https://twitter.com/golden_erin/status/1004045486267957248

[Blair]

Surprised nobody tried to primary Smith, given the circumstances.

Everybody likes Smith

Richard Painter’s actually challenging her, but he’s an internet meme.

IIRC, a lot of folks were pretty annoyed that Swanson didn’t get the seat at the time.

It was also presented as a placeholder choice- and then suddenly Smith was running in 2018. To be a fly on the wall...

It would have been interesting to see competitive primaries in both Governor/Senate and the AG Field.

[Former Kentuckian]

I see Murphy's running mate made an E85 gaffe today, she didn't seem to know what it was. E85 cost Hatch the race in 2006, needless to say it doesn't inspire much confidence in the Murphy ticket.

Murphy's LG pick makes no sense from an ideological or geographic standpoint. Quade represents the Twin Cities area, just like Murphy, and she's identical (maybe even further left) to Murphy on the issues. I don't know why she didn't choose someone more moderate or someone from outside the Twin Cities. Someone like Del Rae Williams, the outgoing mayor of Moorhead, would have made so much more sense. Not to mention what you just referenced: Quade is an inexperienced freshman State Rep. She went from working in Keith Ellison's office to freshmen Rep and has little firsthand experience on the issues. She's just a bad choice.


I like Murphy, and she has a solid background as a union leader, a nurse, and a former State House Majority Leader, but she messed up choosing Quade.

[Arkansas Yankee]

Between her and Walz I don't know who to support now.

If you do not live in Minnesota, who gives a hoot.   I mean we all have folks we like or dislike in other states.
But to make it a question of any importance or concern seems ridiculous.

[CookieDamage]

Dayton endorses Murphy.

I just.... Minnesota is now suddenly interesting politically.

[Arkansas Yankee]

Lori Swanson seems like a bitter egomaniac. Butthurt over losing the endorsement for AG, now jumping into this race and making a mess. Tim Pawlenty ain't winning, but it sure doesn't look good on the Democrats' part...

How do you know who is going to win? Swanson has been a good Democrat as far as I can tell.  I don’t understand how as good Democrat you can turn on her so.

[henster]

I see Murphy's running mate made an E85 gaffe today, she didn't seem to know what it was. E85 cost Hatch the race in 2006, needless to say it doesn't inspire much confidence in the Murphy ticket.

Murphy's LG pick makes no sense from an ideological or geographic standpoint. Quade represents the Twin Cities area, just like Murphy, and she's identical (maybe even further left) to Murphy on the issues. I don't know why she didn't choose someone more moderate or someone from outside the Twin Cities. Someone like Del Rae Williams, the outgoing mayor of Moorhead, would have made so much more sense. Not to mention what you just referenced: Quade is an inexperienced freshman State Rep. She went from working in Keith Ellison's office to freshmen Rep and has little firsthand experience on the issues. She's just a bad choice.


I like Murphy, and she has a solid background as a union leader, a nurse, and a former State House Majority Leader, but she messed up choosing Quade.

It was her doubling down on her advantages against Walz. Doubling down on the Metro support and women but this was all in anticipation of her against Walz. At this point she can't rely on being the only women and Swanson has far more appeal to the Metro than Walz ever had.

[Famous Mortimer]

Omar will win the district 5 primary quite easily. Somalis + hipsters is a huge majority coalition.

[Free Bird]

More important: why in God’s name is Nolan running for LG? Is he bored?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

He's retiring from the House anyway and basically the only role of the job is to introduce the Governor when attending formal events where the Governor speaks. Why not take a job like that for a $127k/year salary?

Honestly Nolan makes the most sense about this ticket. The same way the Presidency is often given to some retired from active politics "elder statesman" in countries where its just a ceremonial office, doing that with an essentially purely ceremonial office here makes a lot of sense.

[Minnesota Mike]

Two new polls, One a for a Walz aligned PAC and one a Swanson Internal have Swanson in the lead for the DFL nomination.

https://twitter.com/JustinPerpich/status/1015263914072866816

By Greenberg Quinlan Rosner for Minnesota Victory PAC.

Swanson 37
Walz 29
Murphy 17

Victoria Reasearch and Consulting for Swanson:

Swanson 36
Walz 23
Murphy 13

[Jeppe]

Yeah, Swanson is the frontrunner. Really shows you how disconnected Atlas is, given that like 90% of people voted for Walz in the “who is going to win the DFL nomination for Governor”.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Pretty high undecided so this is still up in the air. Going to produce interesting map though that's for sure.

[Jeppe]

Pretty high undecided so this is still up in the air. Going to produce interesting map though that's for sure.

Trailing in your own internal poll is NEVER a good thing. Some internal polls are frighteningly accurate (like McGrath leading by 8, which was a crazy result), and sometimes they’re very off (like Stacey Evans showing a poll showing her losing by 8, but actually losing by 50).

[KingSweden]

It’d be very impressive for Swanson to win on such short turnaround after leaping into the race so suddenly - though we shouldn’t be surprised considering she’s had 3 statewide landslides.

[Jeppe]

It’d be very impressive for Swanson to win on such short turnaround after leaping into the race so suddenly - though we shouldn’t be surprised considering she’s had 3 statewide landslides.

Funny how a such a seemingly minor action by a couple hundred activists changed the course of the race so decisively. In a different world, Swanson would’ve been endorsed for re-election and Walz would be headed for an easy win against Erin Murphy.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

It’d be very impressive for Swanson to win on such short turnaround after leaping into the race so suddenly - though we shouldn’t be surprised considering she’s had 3 statewide landslides.

Funny how a such a seemingly minor action by a couple hundred activists changed the course of the race so decisively. In a different world, Swanson would’ve been endorsed for re-election and Walz would be headed for an easy win against Erin Murphy.

Yeah, but for a few whacktivists, MN would’ve definitely had a great Governor   Luckily, Walz should still win.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I might start volunteering for the Walz campaign. I was going to wait until after the primary and volunteer for the winner if that but no reason to not start now.

[KingSweden]

It’d be very impressive for Swanson to win on such short turnaround after leaping into the race so suddenly - though we shouldn’t be surprised considering she’s had 3 statewide landslides.

Funny how a such a seemingly minor action by a couple hundred activists changed the course of the race so decisively. In a different world, Swanson would’ve been endorsed for re-election and Walz would be headed for an easy win against Erin Murphy.

Swanson would have spanked Pelikan in a primary, though

[Jeppe]

It’d be very impressive for Swanson to win on such short turnaround after leaping into the race so suddenly - though we shouldn’t be surprised considering she’s had 3 statewide landslides.

Funny how a such a seemingly minor action by a couple hundred activists changed the course of the race so decisively. In a different world, Swanson would’ve been endorsed for re-election and Walz would be headed for an easy win against Erin Murphy.

Yeah, but for a few whacktivists, MN would’ve definitely had a great Governor   Luckily, Walz should still win.

Behind 8 points in internal polling

- "He's still going to win"