Tuesday primary preview: Minnesota Democrats fight through a three-way primary for governor
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We have another big primary night Tuesday, as voters go to the polls in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin. We also have runoffs in South Dakota in races where no one took at least 35 percent of the vote in the June primary. The first polls closTuesday primary preview: Minnesota Democrats fight through a three-way primary for governor
We have another big primary night Tuesday, as voters go to the polls in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin. We also have runoffs in South Dakota in races where no one took at least 35 percent of the vote in the June primary. The first polls close at 7 PM ET in Vermont, with Connecticut closing at 8 ET. Minnesota and Wisconsin close an hour later at 9 PM ET. The portion of South Dakota in the Central time zone closes at 9 PM ET as well, with the remainder of the state closing at 10 ET. Our guide to the key races to watch Tuesday is below. We also invite you to join us at Daily Kos Elections that night for our liveblog starting at 8 PM ET of all of the races on the docket. You can follow our coverage on Twitter as well. ● MN-Gov (D & R): Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton is retiring after two terms, and both parties will fight hard to win this contest in the fall. The Democratic primary is a three-way race between Attorney General Lori Swanson, Rep. Tim Walz, and state Rep. Erin Murphy. Swanson only entered the race in early June, but she brought plenty of name recognition with her. However, her campaign has faced some tough stories in the two months since. News broke in July that Rep. Rick Nolan, who is Swanson's running mate, had hired a former employee for his 2016 re-election campaign even though the aide had previously left Nolan's legislative staff after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment. In the final week of the contest, former staffers at the attorney general’s office charged that Swanson had pressured government employees into doing political work for her. Two polls taken in July, before the Nolan story broke, showed Swanson leading the primary, but we have no new data since then. Walz, who represents a competitive congressional seat in the southern part of the state, looked like the frontrunner throughout most of the race, and he and his allies have outspent the rest of the field. However, Murphy, who has been trying to run to the left of the pack, has Dayton's support as well as the official endorsement of the state Democratic Party. On the GOP side, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty is seeking to regain his old seat eight years after leaving office and embarking on an unsuccessful presidential bid. He faces Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson, who lost the 2014 general election to Dayton 50-44. Pawlenty has considerably more money and name recognition, and the few polls we've seen have shown him far ahead. Johnson, however, has the state GOP’s backing, and he's tried to position himself to Pawlenty's right. The former governor went up with a negative TV ad last month, so he's at least taking Johnson seriously as a threat. Read more