| Minnesota is guaranteed to have a new member in its congressional delegation next year, but that race isn’t the one garnering the most attention. Instead of the 3rd Congressional District race, the neighboring 2nd District has been the one in the 2024 spotlight. Mark Zdechlik explores how the pair of suburban districts are distinct in the level of interest they’re getting. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who would likely be House speaker if Democrats take the chamber in November, popped into the 2nd this weekend on behalf of Rep. Angie Craig. Her GOP challenger, Joe Teirab, was at a visit by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier in the campaign. Some good visuals, too, from our friends at the APM Research Lab.
Hennepin County has fired a courier for leaving ballots awaiting transport unsecured. KSTP-TV reports that no ballots were tampered with, but pictures taken in Edina of a vehicle with boxes just inside an open trunk showed a “lapse in protocol.” In a statement about the incident, the Hennepin County auditor said, “Election security is of utmost importance, and Hennepin County will reinforce its transfer protocols with all county staff and vendors. An incident like this underscores the value of strong chain-of-custody processes so that risk can be addressed and integrity can be verified.” Expect any miscue to get outsized attention as people and groups put increased scrutiny on election administration.
Former President Donald Trump wore his crisp white shirt and red tie to a heavily-staged shift in a fast-food restaurant yesterday, but was noncommittal about whether the regular workers should be paid more. The McDonald’s appearance by Trump in Pennsylvania featured pre-selected drive-thru customers and Trump working the window as well as the fry station. The restaurant where Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, the vice president now, worked in her youth has been a fixation with Trump, who disputes Harris’s account of being employed there. Trump also has a well-known fondness for fast-food fare. The optics aside, there was an attempt to pin Trump down on whether the federal minimum wage should get boosted. It has been at $7.25 since 2009 —the longest period of stall since the floor was first put in place in 1938. (Some states, including Minnesota, have higher state minimums.) Trump was asked if he’d favor increasing it and said in response: “These people work hard. They’re great.”
Trump’s event the day before, also in Pennsylvania, included some head-scratching comments about the genitals of iconic golfer Arnold Palmer. Trump spoke of locker-room talk — a bit ironic given his past — about Palmer. For what it’s worth, Palmer’s family was unhappy with the reference, calling it crude and saying the late golf giant was “appalled” by Trump. It wasn’t the only golf aside by the former president this weekend. He went on social media to slam billionaire Mark Cuban as having “really low clubhead speed.” Cuban has appeared lately with Harris, labeling Trump the “Grinch” at a La Crosse, Wis., rally last week for his tariff plan that he said will make goods more expensive. NPR has more about Trump’s oddly themed week.
The polls consistently show a super-tight race that will come down to … turnout. So that’s what makes the campaign and party operations significant. There have been numerous stories in recent days about the outsourced turnout operation for Trump, including groups that are dangling voter signup incentives (some of which could be legally dubious) and the quality of their voter data. This Washington Post story(behind a paywall) gets into the hitches that one group bankrolled by Elon Musk is encountering in this critical phase of the race. A story line to keep an eye on. Harris is also concentrating on the battleground states with just more than two weeks to go, including a weekend stop in Georgia focused on that state’s strict abortion law. Harris sees reproductive rights as a motivator for her base, especially women who turned out in large numbers in 2022 to support Democratic candidates after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed the Roe v. Wade precedent that summer. Harris is underscoring Trump’s role in the decision as the president who appointed three conservative court justices in his term. “Donald Trump still refuses to take accountability, to take any accountability, for the pain and the suffering he has caused," Harris said. Earlier Saturday, Harris was in Detroit where she appeared with Minnesota-polished singer Lizzo.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, is in New York to start the week. He’s there for fundraisers and for two major media appearances. One is on “The View” and the other is on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. He was in Michigan, Illinois and Nebraska over the weekend and has Wisconsin and Michigan among his stops this week.
In case you missed it, we talked extensively about judicial elections on Politics Friday last week. There are 100 judgeships on the fall ballot, although only nine races have multiple candidates. Two of three state Supreme Court races are contested, but not with much vigor from the challengers. There are six district court races. Incumbents rarely face defeat. Bonus if you listen to the episode: Dana Ferguson gave us an audio postcard of her recent campaign travels. | 
