More than ever, Minnesota's political parties failed to fill their candidate slates

In two dozen legislative races this year, Minnesota voters had their choice made for them.

In rural corners of the state as well as in the Twin Cities metro, voters in 24 races were presented with one candidate for a House or Senate seat, as either Democrats or Republicans didn't find anyone to run. With 201 seats in the Legislature, that means just under one in eight seats was unopposed.

It's by far the largest number of solo races since 2008, the last year there were no unopposed legislative races. Since then, there have typically been about five to seven races each election cycle with only one candidate.

This year, however, that number more than tripled as a toxic political environment and a late legislative redistricting hindered candidate recruitment, party leaders and analysts said.

"The polarization in politics generally has made it harder to get people who aren't [already] involved in politics interested in running," said Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota DFL. "Given how toxic the environment has become, it's very difficult to convince people to give up a job that pays them more to become a member of the Legislature."

Larry Jacobs, a political scientist at the University of Minnesota, called modern politics "a horrible process: horrible for the candidates, horrible for their families. It's gotten more and more brutal.

"The abuse candidates are getting is almost insufferable," he said. "Recruiting candidates, it's not like you're inviting them on an all-expense-paid vacation." The expense of running a campaign — and the need to raise money for it — further fuels the reluctance of potential candidates to throw their hats in the ring, he added.

"There's less money for everyone, and more money for those with a good shot," Jacobs said. "If you're running against an incumbent with a strong track record, who wins with 60% to 65% of the vote, you're unlikely to get much" from donors.

A look at the districts where candidates ran unopposed backs up his point. Democrats failed to field candidates in a number of rural districts where Republican incumbents typically win by large margins.

Meanwhile, Republicans basically gave up on the DFL stronghold of Minneapolis this year, failing to field candidates for Senate in Districts 59, 60 and 61 and in five of the six corresponding House districts. Their candidate in 60A got less than 15% of the vote.

In Senate District 21, a southwestern district that includes the cities of Pipestone and Luverne, Republican Bill Weber of Luverne was unopposed in a redrawn district. Two years ago, in the previous district covering a similar area, he defeated his DFL opponent with 69% of the vote.

In Senate District 60, covering northeast Minneapolis, DFLer Kari Dziedzic won two years ago with 85% of the vote. This year, Republicans didn't field a candidate against her, and she was named Senate majority leader Thursday.

Mark Johnson, newly named Senate minority leader, ran unopposed in District 1, covering the extreme northwestern part of the state. Johnson, of East Grand Forks, said the lack of a DFL challenger could perhaps be traced back to the state of the economy earlier in the year.

"If you were a Democrat at the beginning of the year, the economy was looking bad, inflation was bad," he said. "It's a lot of work to run for an office. And to know how badly things are stacked against you at that time, I can envision people thinking, 'I'll just wait for another cycle.' "

But it wasn't a breeze, Johnson added, noting that he faced a primary that was "pretty hotly contested," as did several others who ultimately ran unopposed by the other party.

The state's late redistricting — new maps weren't completed until February — had a big impact on candidate recruitment, party leaders on both sides said.

"You cannot underestimate the effect redistricting had," Martin said. "People didn't know which district they'd be living in. Usually, we'd have candidates recruited well in advance of February, running their campaigns."

Rachel Aplikowski, communications director for the Senate Republican caucus, agreed.

"There was a much shorter recruitment window," she said. Going forward, she said Republicans will strive to make the part-time job more attractive to people with families and careers. For example, the Senate's Republican leadership kept in place several pandemic measures, including remote voting and remote committee meetings. Those helped senators with families spend more time at home.

Now that the DFL will be in charge, she said, it will be up to that party whether to keep those family-friendly policies in place.

Frank Hornstein, who represents portions of north, south and central Minneapolis, was unopposed in newly drawn House District 61A. He previously represented a southwest Minneapolis district where he typically got 80% or more of the vote.

During his 20 years in office, Hornstein said, "there was this feeling that you have to have someone on the ballot." He recalled instances where legislative staffers filed as candidates — not to campaign vigorously, but to make sure voters had a choice.

But his own experiences campaigning door-to-door have been good ones, he said, and he believes one-on-one conversations can go a long way toward reducing the current toxicity.

"We do see some of this national polarization and lack of civility," Hornstein said. "You do run into a little more anger out there.

"But there's a difference between campaign ads and flyers, and [talking to] people at the door."