Good morning. Fewer football teams and presidential candidates are still in the running after an eventful weekend.
The much-hyped presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reached a conclusion after just one state — Iowa — voted. DeSantis left the Republican race yesterday and backed former President Donald Trump, the rival who branded him “Ron DeSanctimonious” among a barrage of campaign attacks. NPR has the exit story . DeSantis finished second in Iowa, but far back from Trump. He wasn’t expected to fare well in New Hampshire. So it’s pretty much down to Trump and his former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. After Tuesday’s vote there is a lull in the action until Haley’s home state of South Carolina holds its Republican primary on Feb. 24. Trump is favored in both states.
The one-on-one Republican race in New Hampshire accompanies a more-muddled Democratic primary. Minnesota’s Dean Phillips is among the Democratic candidates named on the ballot; President Joe Biden’s won’t be listed, but his backers are waging a write-in campaign. MPR’s Mark Zdechlik is on the ground in the Granite State to catch up with Phillips and see how voters are receiving him. Here’s his dispatch. Listen on the radio if you want the full New England accent treatment.
Election geeks (like Brian) perked up at a New York Times story this weekend about the possibility that Dean Phillips could align with the “No Labels” group for an independent run. Phillips told the newspaper he'd only consider running under the No Labels banner if it's a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024. That story didn’t get into a seldom-invoked part of election codes around the country, the so-called sore loser laws . MPR weekend editor Todd Melby spoke to University of Wisconsin political science professor Barry Burden about it. Burden said Phillips would encounter problems. "Those laws prevent candidates who have run in a party primary, and not won the nomination, from then running on a different party label or running as an independent in the general election,” Burden said. “So that's got to be part of his calculation as he thinks about whether to jump ship from the Democrats and run under a different party label or run as a stand-alone independent candidate." The Phillips campaign issued a statement Sunday about the No Labels matter: "Rep. Phillips is committed to defeating Donald Trump, period. And when he wins the Democratic nomination he will."
Closer to home, the issue of abortion will get attention to start the week. MPR’s Dana Ferguson writes that opponents of legal abortion are holding their annual Capitol demonstration . Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life finds itself gathering amid cross currents this year, given laws that limit access in many states while protections are stronger than ever here. The 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upended a nationwide right to a legal abortion has reverberated differently in Minnesota, where all-Democratic statehouse control has translated into new laws ensuring abortion access. Both parties say they’ll make it a campaign issue.
Minnesota elections officials say they’re on guard for instances where artificial intelligence could pose threats to the voting process. But the Secretary of State’s office doesn’t regard AI as big of a concern for election administration as it could have on campaign disinformation. Chief Security Officer Bill Ekblad said AI does add a new wrinkle, but it’s not all downside either. “It's easy to forget that the good guys get to use AI too,” Ekblad said last week. Secretary of State Steve Simon said his team has been working with 50 Minnesota county election leadership teams, including county IT leaders, and state and federal partners to prepare for the challenges the election year may pose. They are also monitoring for potential threats of foreign interference in the election process.
More people who corner lawmakers or otherwise attempt to influence the arc of Minnesota legislation will have to register as lobbyists. New rules are an attempt to provide more transparency about who has Capitol sway. But, as the Minnesota Reformer reports, those rules will depend on enforcement, and there isn’t much by way of expanded regulatory staff. And there have already been efforts to get the state Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board to interpret the changes to give latitude to professional organizations. | 
