At the end of the DNC, Minnesotan delegates thrilled with the ticket

CHICAGO – The Minnesota delegation danced, clapped and whooped its way through the final night of the Democratic National Convention, sporting purple Viking helmets and bursting with pride on the convention floor.

Most of the Minnesota Democrats were riding high on the energy of the convention, although the state’s 11 uncommitted delegates felt pushed aside. As the convention wrapped up, delegates for Vice President Kamala Harris said they were excited to work hard campaigning for the party’s nominee.

“It was a perfect pick,” delegate Charles Wright of Burnsville said of Harris’ elevation to the top of the ticket.

“I was hyped up like you wouldn’t believe,” said Latonya Reeves, a delegate from Minneapolis.

Minnesota delegates are especially enthused about the prospect of electing Gov. Tim Walz as vice president.

“For him to win would be incredible,” said Reeves, noting that the personal ties many delegates have to Walz makes it even more exciting.

The four-day convention played up contrasts between Harris and Walz and what Democrats see as the dire prospect of a second Donald Trump presidency, reminders of Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the overturning of abortion rights that were previously guaranteed by Roe v. Wade.

Harris accepted the party’s nomination Thursday after a night that connected her life story to her work.

Omar Adams of Plymouth, a Harris delegate, said he was eager to hear her flesh out her story and her platform, especially since she had been campaigning for only a month.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the party’s new chant, “We’re not going back,” and its theme of “freedom” show a new direction for Democrats.

“We actually own these words now because their party [Republicans] used to be the party of freedom,” she said, adding that now Democrats are freedom’s champions, particularly since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Restoring abortion rights were a major talking point every night of the convention, and Klobuchar talked about the patchwork of health care laws that has swept the country since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision that struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

But Republicans aren’t ready to give up Minnesota.

Rep. Tom Emmer, Trump’s Minnesota campaign chair, said during Republicans’ national convention in Milwaukee last month he thought Trump could “make history this November when we turn Minnesota red for the first time in 50 years.”

During the RNC, Emmer also worked to connect Harris to a Minnesota bail fund she promoted on social media during the 2020 riots in Minneapolis — a contrast to the prosecutor background Democrats have stressed for Harris.

Not all Democrats were feeling elated as the convention ended. Many uncommitted delegates, representing voters who cast primary ballots against Biden in protest of Israel’s war in Gaza, were upset that the Democratic National Committee refused their request to include a speaker to address Palestinian issues from the convention hall.

Before Walz took the stage Wednesday night, some of Minnesota’s uncommitted delegation left the convention hall to join a sit-in outside the United Center asking for a Palestinian speaker, with the demonstration stretching into Thursday.

Hassan Saffour, an uncommitted delegate from St. Paul, said it was difficult for him to not think of the war in Gaza during the convention as Democrats celebrated around him.

“Everybody’s having a great time,” Saffour said. “And in the meantime, people are being killed.”

Another uncommitted delegate, Adrita Rahman of Minneapolis, said she felt the Democratic Party had ignored the concerns of the people she was there to represent, and she worried people affected by the war might not turn out in November.

“How am I supposed to convince them to vote?” she asked.

The delegation spent Wednesday night cheering for more than an hour after Walz finished speaking until the lights were shut off at the United Center. The party kept rolling in the buses, DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said, and at the delegation’s hotel into the wee hours Thursday morning before the start of the breakfast at 7 a.m.

“I’m proud as hell to be a Democrat today, I’m proud as hell to be a Minnesotan today,” St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said.

Minnesotans were “puffing up a little” all week, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said during a caucus earlier in the week, bucking the Midwestern reputation for humility.

Democrats from other states also were excited for Walz to be on the ticket.

From the Tennessee delegation, state Rep. John Ray Clemons from suburban Nashville said he has been a Walz fan since before the governor got big. Clemons has spent years introducing a free school meals bill in Tennessee, he said, only to see it dashed by the Republican majorities. Clemons said he uses Walz’s talking points when he talks about the bill and hopes he will visit the Volunteer State.

“He reminds me of a lot of Tennesseans,” Clemons said of Walz. “He’s just a dad and wants to do what’s best for kids.”

Allison Russo, Ohio’s state House Minority Leader, said she thought Walz’s Midwestern image would play well in Ohio and is inspiring to frustrated progressives in Republican-controlled states.

“Democrats in Ohio have looked with a little envy — a lot of envy — at what you can do with a very slim majority,” Russo said.

Maybe Minnesota is an example for what could happen in Congress, she said.