Five takeaways from Minnesota’s primary election

The votes are tallied and the candidates are mostly set for November after Minnesotans came out to cast their votes in the state’s August primary election.

While it was a quieter primary than in recent cycles, there were several high-profile races for Congress and primaries in key districts that could determine control of the Legislature.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s results:

After nearly losing her seat in a primary election two years ago, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar came into Tuesday night’s primary promising to take her opponent seriously. She did, outraising and outspending former Minneapolis City Council Member Don Samuels and vowing to not leave “a single door unknocked.”

When the final results were tallied, Omar had widened her margin against Samuels by double digits. She avoided the same fate as Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman, her fellow progressive “Squad” members in Congress, who were recently defeated in primaries after pro-Israel groups poured money into their districts.

The results have helped Omar solidify her standing in the Fifth District. She beat her first primary challenger, Antone Melton-Meaux, by 20 percentage points in 2020, and Tuesday’s margin helped show she’s a formidable incumbent when she is focused on her opponent.

The grassroots wing of the Minnesota Republican Party saw mixed results in the primary election.

Republican and ex-NBA player Royce White decisively won Tuesday’s primary over business executive and retired Navy intelligence officer Joe Fraser for the chance to challenge Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November. White had the backing of far-right national figures including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

But in Minnesota’s Seventh District, Steve Boyd, a staunchly religious small-business man and political newcomer from Kensington, failed in his bid to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Michelle Fischbach. She defeated him by nearly 30 percentage points despite his campaign to run to her right. The major difference between the two races: White had the official endorsement of the Republican Party, while Boyd did not.

In addition to Omar and Fischbach, nearly all incumbents prevailed in their intra-party battles on Tuesday night.

Seven incumbents in the Minnesota House were also facing challengers, and six of them prevailed, including longtime Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, who has chaired the chamber’s Tax Committee in the past. DFL Rep. Brion Curran, DFL-White Bear Lake, fended off a challenger, as did GOP Reps. Dawn Gillman, Ron Kresha and Jeff Backer.

Rep. Brian Johnson, R-Cambridge, was the only incumbent to be knocked off Tuesday night. He lost decisively to James Gordon, a business owner and mayor of Isanti.

Two races that could determine control of the Legislature are now set. In the House, DFL candidate Sarah Kruger beat Dwayne Voegeli to run in a Winona-area House seat that’s open after longtime Democratic Rep. Gene Pelowski retired. The seat is also a top target for Republicans, who picked Winona City Council Member Aaron Repinksi over fellow GOP candidate Stephen Doerr to run for the seat.

In a special election in the state Senate, former DFL Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart won a primary Tuesday and will take on Republican Kathleen Fowke in November. The seat is open after former Sen. Kelly Morrison stepped down to run for Congress, leaving the chamber deadlocked at 33-33.

Enthusiasm was down around this primary election compared to past years. The Secretary of State’s Office says based on the number of U.S. Senate votes cast and the amount of eligible voters from the state’s presidential nominating primary, around 12% voted in Tuesday’s primary.

That’s a preliminary estimate, but it’s still considerably lower than the more than 19% and 22% turnout in the state’s primaries in 2022 and 2020, respectively. Roughly 515,000 people voted in this year’s U.S. Senate primary compared to 826,000 in 2020.

But in neighboring Wisconsin, turnout was the highest in 60 years for a presidential year partisan primary, with over 26% of the state’s voting-age population casting ballots, based on unofficial results. Wisconsin’s primary was marked by voters rejecting two constitutional amendments that sought to limit the governor’s power to spend money and deciding a pair of hotly contested congressional primaries. The election was also the first under newly drawn legislative maps, creating dozens of competitive races in addition to other hot contests for local offices.

Star Tribune staff writers Ryan Faircloth and Sydney Kashiwagi and the Associated Press contributed to this story.