Minnesotans gather at precinct caucuses with eye on critical midterm election

DFL activists focus on party platform, GOP caucusgoers vote for their preferred candidates in the governor's race

Feb 02, 20220

Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune count

White Bear Lake residents register before the start of a GOP Caucus Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022 at White Bear Lake Area High School in White Bear Lake, Minn.

Election season unofficially kicked off at precinct caucuses in community gathering spots and individual homes across Minnesota on Tuesday, nine months before the midterms that will decide control of the State Capitol and the makeup of its congressional delegation.

The two parties took divergent approaches to caucus night, a biennial tradition in which neighbors gather to debate candidates and the issues they think their party should include in its platform. With the omicron variant still surging in Minnesota, Democrats largely caucused remotely for the first time. Republicans aimed for a big in-person turnout, with activists energized by a belief in a favorable political climate for the party and more than a half dozen candidates running in the wide-open race to become the GOP nominee for governor.

"You can come out, join your neighbors, talk about issues that are important to you and start building the process that we're going to use to endorse our candidates going forward," Republican Party Vice Chair Donna Bergstrom said at a news conference Monday.

https://www.startribune.com/minnesotans-gather-at-precinct-caucuses-with-eye-on-critical-midterm-election/600142057/