Good morning, and welcome to Wednesday. 

A challenger comfortably topped Duluth’s two-term incumbent in a mayoral primary Tuesday. MPR’s Brian Bakst reports former state Sen. Roger Reinert earned the most votes and Mayor Emily Larson secured the second spot on November’s ballot. Reinert got 63 percent of the primary vote and Larson had 35 percent. They were among five candidates in the primary. Issues in the race include housing affordability, the condition of streets and property taxes. Larson ran with the backing of Gov. Tim Walz and the DFL Party’s endorsement even though the office is technically nonpartisan. Reinert served in the Legislature as a DFLer until 2017, but said he’d run without party backing in this race. “I'm willing to talk to anybody who's willing to talk to me, and I will work with anybody willing to work with me,” Reinert said. “I'm not an ideologue. I've never been. I'm a very practical public servant. And at the local level, that's a place where you can really be that.” Larson is vying to be the city’s first three-term mayor in about two decades. She didn’t make public remarks to supporters after polls closed, but issued a written statement that said, in part: "Now that there are two candidates, Duluth has a clear choice between facing our challenges and progressing forward together, building on the work we’ve done to make Duluth a leader in the state, or going nowhere on critical issues like housing, childcare, climate change and jobs.” 

Walz was in Coon Rapids with state lawmakers Tuesday to highlight new funding for Minnesota nursing homes. MPR’s Dana Ferguson reports that they toured Park River Estates Care Center and got to hear from workers there about how part of $173 million in special state funding for 340 nursing homes across the state could help keep the facility afloat financially. Nursing homes faced inflation, staffing issues and money shortages during the pandemic, and their leaders urged lawmakers to pass extra funding to keep them in business. In a last-minute move this spring, the Legislature unanimously approved and the governor signed into law the package that will send direct payments to nursing homes and help them pay their employees more. Nursing homes are set to get another payment next August under the law. 

House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said Democrats shouldn’t be claiming credit for the funding. "House and Senate Republicans were the only true champions of nursing home funding, and it's disingenuous for Democrats to be taking a victory lap after refusing to prioritize aging Minnesotans this past session,” Demuth said in a statement Tuesday. "It wasn’t until the final hours of session that Republicans reached an agreement with the Democrat trifecta that secured the funding nursing homes needed and deserved. While we're grateful that we were able to pass this funding to help save nursing homes throughout Minnesota, it's disappointing Democrats played politics with the lives of seniors until the final hours of session." 

Walz will meet with members of Ricky Cobb ll’s family today. Cobb was fatally shot last week after State Patrol officers pulled him over and a trooper fired at him as Cobb drove away. Walz says the state weighed which agency should launch a probe into a fatal shooting and ultimately landed on the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. "This is the best qualified group of folks out there,” Walz said. “As I've said, we need to have a transparent, fair and rapid investigation of what happened here, and I am confident." The BCA investigation is ongoing and three troopers have been placed on administrative leave. Cobb's family and friends have called for the troopers to be fired and prosecuted.

Meanwhile, Walz said he plans to keep up his out-of-state appearances on behalf of President Joe Biden. His latest one will take him back to Iowa over the weekend to make the case for the president's reelection. "I'm going to the Iowa State Fair for two reasons: to stump for the president and to tell them (Iowa) they have the second-best state fair," Walz told reporters on Tuesday. Walz said he'll wear Minnesota garb during his visit, which might lose the president some votes. He said he supported Biden and would continue traveling around the country to make the case for him. When asked about Dean Phillips floating a presidential run and urging other Democrats to challenge Biden, Walz said he would stick with the incumbent. “The congressman's a good congressman. President Biden is the nominee, will be the nominee, and that's what I'm supporting,” Walz said.

Anton “Tony” Lazzaro is due to be sentenced today in federal court. As MPR’s Matt Sepic reports, after a 10-day trial in March, a jury found Lazzaro, 32, guilty of paying five teenage girls for sex, in violation of federal sex trafficking laws. The charges carry a mandatory minimum prison term of 10 years. In a filing last week, Lazzaro’s attorney Daniel Gerdts argued that his client should serve no more than that in part because “all of the minors were eager and excited” about their brief relationships with Lazzaro, and that Congress’ intent in passing the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act was to protect minor victims from threats and coercion by a third party. Lazzaro is a former donor to the Minnesota Republican Party. 

And one more election result, via the Associated Press:  Ohio voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected a Republican-backed measure that would have made it more difficult to change the state’s constitution, setting up a fall campaign that will become the nation’s latest referendum on abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nationwide protections last year. The defeat of Issue 1 keeps in place a simple majority threshold for passing future constitutional amendments, rather than the 60 percent  supermajority that was proposed.