A group of protesters against the war in Gaza gathered outside the Duluth Convention Center on the second day of the DFL State Convention Saturday, June 1, 2024 in Duluth. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

DULUTH - Minnesota’s top Democratic leaders stressed the need for party unity heading into the November election, even as fractures in the base were on display Saturday at the DFL state convention in Duluth.

Several hundred activists took buses from the Twin Cities area to protest outside the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center, hoisting “Stop the Bombs” signs and wearing pro-Palestinian T-shirts. Inside the convention hall, like-minded delegates pushed to have the party’s platform include a call to halt U.S. military aid to Israel and to support a permanent cease-fire in the war in Gaza.

DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said that while Democrats don’t expect unanimity on every issue, they must be united this year to defeat Republicans and their presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.

He described the November election as a “battle for the soul of our nation.”

“We have no right to gamble with our democracy and risk the safety and well-being of so many,” Martin said. “Our party and movement needs to approach this election united and ready to win. It is the height of privilege ... to try and lose an election to prove a point.”

With President Joe Biden struggling in the polls, some Democrats worry about his ability to pull together the same coalition that helped defeat Trump four years ago. While Biden won Minnesota by more than 7 percentage points in 2020, he eked out a narrow win in Wisconsin and flipped Michigan by about 154,000 votes. Both are considered battleground states.

“The blue pill is becoming hard to swallow,” Nancy Beaulieu, a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, said from the convention floor, referring to the Democrats’ defining color.

She said that because of Biden’s positions on the Israel-Hamas war, she couldn’t commit to voting for him this fall.

Biden and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, whom the party endorsed by acclamation Friday, will be at the top of Minnesota’s ballot this fall in an election that will also decide control of Congress and the state House.

Secretary of State Steve Simon speaks on the second day of the DFL State Convention on Saturday, June 1, 2024 in Duluth. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

House Speaker Melissa Hortman said the DFL trifecta of governor, House and Senate had the most productive two years since the Minnesota Miracle of 1971, which reformed public education funding. However, she told party activists Saturday that “[w]e need you to have our backs” as Republicans seek to flip four House seats and take control of the chamber.

“We are not done yet,” Hortman said. “We know all of this progress is threatened if Republicans take control of even one part of the state government.”

Speakers pleaded with activists to make phone calls, knock on doors and encourage their friends and relatives to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot this fall.

“We don’t agree on everything, but our values are aligned,” Gov. Tim Walz said from the convention floor. “This year we’re going to have to recognize that this is a grind-it-out, door-to-door.”

Gov. Tim Walz takes the stage to speak to the delegates on the second day of the DFL State Convention on Saturday, June 1, 2024 in Duluth. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Delegates debated dozens of changes to the party’s platform, including proposals to condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia. Other measures called for a cease-fire in Gaza, immediate humanitarian aid to Palestinians living there and continued peace efforts.

Will and Sheena Schar traveled to Duluth from Bloomington, eager to send uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August and debate the party’s platform. They said addressing the Gaza war now is “existential” for the party.

“If the party continues course, and Biden and the big mouthpieces of the party keep supporting Israel instead of speaking out against genocide, they’re going to lose a lot of the voters that came out in 2020, and I think Trump will win, which I don’t want to happen,” Sheena Schar said.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan repeated the message of unity while acknowledging the concerns among party activists over the war.

“We’re a big tent, y’all, and it can get real messy in here,” she said. “Some of you voted uncommitted in the primary, and that’s OK because we believe in democracy here. We can be ourselves and express our concerns and come together in a good way and move forward.”