Can Minnesota’s Veep Moment Inspire a New Path Forward for the DFL?
Shifting tides in the Land of 10,000 Lakes should inspire new boldness for a party that's on a 16-year statewide win streak––not more of the same.
It was a moment from the Veep editing room floor: a law with a gaping loophole at its center, passed with large bipartisan support, went into effect and accidentally legalized edibles in Minnesota.
This bizarre development was undoubtedly a combination of savvy by DFLers[1], who hold the majority in the State House, and an oversight of epic proportions by Republicans, who hold the majority in the State Senate. But the upshot is the same: l’etoile du nord, my home state, became the first state (and probably the only one ever) to legalize cannabis edibles before legalizing recreational weed.
On its face, the law, which was passed and signed by DFL Governor Tim Walz earlier this year, was a modest attempt to reform the amount of delta-8 THC (the milder hemp-derived form) in already-legal cannabis edibles. The legislative text states that no product may contain more than 5mg of THC, but fails to define what kind of THC, clearing the way for products containing 5mg of the more potent delta-9 to be legally sold and consumed.
And given that DFLers hold the Governor’s mansion and one half of the Legislature––where the DFL leader says this was an intentional step to full legalization––the law will not change.
A fuckup like this––or a legendary progressive coup, depending on how you look at it––is uncommon anywhere, but especially in Minnesota. The Land of 10,000 Lakes is currently home to the only divided legislature in the country, where––by and large––adults from both parties try to pass helpful legislation that is neither exciting nor damaging, keeping the lights on and continuing things basically as they are. There’s political gamesmanship and everything passed is watered down through compromise, avoiding controversy as well as brinksmanship.
In other words, the absolute bare minimum of a healthy government––which, compared to the total dysfunction of some states and the terrifying efficiency of others, is a major achievement.
Taking a moment to wax anecdotal, I’ll say that this inoffensive, bland, genial approach to governing is popular because it is Minnesotan to its core. Broadly speaking, especially in whiter Greater Minnesota (a.k.a., the sparsely populated and hugely expansive land outside of the Twin Cities and its suburbs), Minnesotans are totally allergic to boastfulness or attention-seeking, preferring instead to be superficially genial (“Minnesota nice”) but fundamentally reserved.
This translates into a few trends, politically speaking: candidates who espouse functionality and effectiveness over ideology tend to do well, especially when they do it with a smile, but candidates can get a pass on being attention-seeking if they’re standing up to the powerful on behalf of the little guy; think of the late Senator Paul Wellstone, a legendary progressive populist rabble-rouser, and former Senator Al Franken, who was inspired by Wellstone and, previous to entering politics, was already known as a comedian dedicated to undercutting Bill O’Reilly and George W. Bush.
It has also translated, in the age of Trump, to shifting political dynamics––and to consistent GOP losses in statewide elections. Though Trump came close to winning Minnesota in 2016, he lost by 1.5%, keeping Minnesota’s blue streak in presidential elections––the longest in the country––alive.
The picture of shifting party allegiances in Minnesota is not dissimilar from the rest of the country: rural whites sided overwhelmingly with Trump in 2016, the former president serving as an accelerant for an ongoing rightward shift among the demographic in the Obama years. Still, this realignment is particularly stinging for the DFL, which has succeeded for decades at corralling an unlikely coalition of urban liberals and rural workers with a populist pitch––including the miners and steelworkers who make up a huge percentage of voters in Northern Minnesota and helped Trump run up the score in the “Arrowhead.”
Another national narrative––suburban revolt against Trump––is present in Minnesota, too. Pro-Clinton votes in the Twin Cities and suburbs offset Trump’s mammoth margins in rural counties in 2016, and in 2018, two suburban congressional districts held by country club Republicans flipped blue––just as two rural districts at the southern and northern borders of the state, long held by moderate Democrats (including now-Governor Walz), flipped red. (The GOP also picked up the district bordering both Dakotas in 2020).
All that said, the state GOP has failed––amidst all the shifting of the Obama and Trump years––to win a single statewide election; in races for President, Senate, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and State Auditor, the Minnesota GOP has not won in 16 years.
The factors contributing to this incredible lack of success––as every other state in the region has drifted rightward––are varied and intertwined. The utter failure for nearly 20 years could be due to poor candidate recruitment on the right, excellent candidate recruitment on the left, the strength of the DFL’s operation even as its “labor” component shrinks, lack of resources from the state or national Republican parties, internal drama, and the list goes on.
And the state party seems behind the 8-ball yet again in a Republican-friendly midterm environment this year, given a combination of poor candidate recruitment, massive internal conflict, and––in keeping with Republican parties everywhere––a Republican base eager for Trumpy candidates who will underperform in the general. (Look no further than Dr. Scott Jensen, a one-term state legislator, family physician and Fox News Covid skeptic who won the party’s endorsement last month; he’s running, of course, with formerly beloved Minnesota Viking Matt Birk).
All of these dynamics present DFL leaders with an opportunity to act boldly while the state Republican party is in a tailspin that, at least for two more years, seems bound to continue. While it’s true that the DFL does not have unified control of government, the margins in the legislature are so tight––the DFL majority in the House is by 11 out of 134; the Republican majority in the 67-member Senate is 3––that meaningful progress with swing-district members is virtually guaranteed.
But Walz and other DFL leaders have seemingly been resistant to apply much pressure on big-ticket policy items. While he did insert liberal red meat into his budget proposal, such as a call for legalizing marijuana with funding to oversee it, it has served as little more than a virtue signal. Instead, Walz has spent the last few months insisting that Minnesota legislators send $1,000 checks to every resident, returning the healthy budget surplus to taxpayers.
Suffices to say, that kind of tepid, non-ideological, Republican-lite election-year politicking is far from the best use of the DFL’s current dominance at the state level. Refusing to take a strong policy stance or expend political capital to get major policy passed is not what leaders do when they are three State Senate seats away from unified control of government. It’s what they do when they’re using a dusty playbook to win back disaffected moderate or conservative voters.
Which is not what the DFL needs to worry about at this current juncture. It’s undoubtedly painful that white rural workers have walked away from the party and into the race-baiting arms of Trumpism. But if the last few cycles have proven anything, it’s that we don’t need them––and that the state Republican party doesn’t know what to do with them.
Instead, the DFL can take this moment to energize the base it does have, centered in the Twin Cities––two of the most reliably Democratic areas in the whole country. Governor Walz and other leaders can and should do more in their second terms to show voters what the DFL believes in and will fight for, including broadly popular policy items such as further protections for abortion rights, gun control…and recreational marijuana.
The Minnesotan culture of common sense, compromise, and steadfastness is well-earned and in many ways laudable––but it is also a trap. In this moment, as Democrats everywhere are looking for a vision and the Republican Party is wrestling with its own identity, DFL leaders need to move beyond process and focus on substance.
By pushing for popular, solidly liberal policies in middle America, even in the face of shifting political tides, Minnesota might just show what’s possible––even if all the lawmakers, Republican and Democrat alike, actually know what they’re voting on.
[1] Minnesota does not have a Democratic Party; it is home to the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, or DFL, the union of two separate parties (the Democratic and the Farmer-Labor) that were separate in Minnesota until 1944.