Minnesota primary fields set: Stanek, Hepola stay out; Wardlow files; Munson challenges Finstad

Bill Salisbury, Pioneer Press
·4 min read

The election rosters for Minnesota’s Aug. 9 primary elections are now set and offer few big-name surprises.

Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan head the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party ticket with only token opposition from a frequent but unsuccessful challenger, Ole Savior and his running mate Julie Parker.

Dr. Scott Jensen, the Republican endorsee for governor, and his running mate, former professional football play Matt Birk, also escaped high-profile primary challengers. They will face two political newcomers in Joyce Lacey and Kent Edwards, who have yet to launch visible campaigns.

Jensen escaped what was potentially his most competitive challenge when former Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek did not file to run from governor. Stanek had announced his candidacy earlier this year but after suffering injuries in a car crash, he did not seek his party’s endorsement last month but did not rule out jumping into the primary before filings for the office closed on Tuesday.

While the tops of the two major-party tickets for governor are set, one potential wild card was eliminated Tuesday when former Twin Cities broadcaster Cory Hepola announced that he wouldn’t file for governor as a centrist third-party candidate after all.

In March, Hepola, who has been a morning host on WCCO Radio and a morning anchor on KARE-TV, announced that he would seek the backing of the Forward Party of Minnesota, which was launched by former Democratic presidential and New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.

Beyond decrying the polarization of the two-party system and saying that a third party was unlikely to succeed this year, Hepola didn’t give an explanation for his decision.

Meanwhile, the obscure Legal Marijuana Now Party will host a nomination contest between the teams of Chris Wright and L.C. Converse v. James McCaskel and David Sandbeck.

The DFL, which holds all Minnesota statewide offices, managed to avoid attracting more than token primary election opposition to its other statewide candidates: Attorney General Keith Ellison and Secretary of State Steve Simon. Their respective DFL challengers are Bill Dahm and Steve Carlson. State Auditor Julie Blaha is unopposed in the DFL primary.

The hottest primary news on the Republican side is that former state Rep. Doug Wardlow filed to challenge GOP-endorsed attorney general candidate Jim Schultz. Wardlow ran for the office in 2018 and narrowly lost to Ellison by 4 percentage points.

After losing the Republican endorsement to Schultz, a business attorney, last month Wardlow said Schultz can’t beat Ellison and announced that he would run again even though he had promised to back the party’s endorsee.

“Since day one, the establishment in our state has fiercely opposed our campaign. The coordinated effort to keep actual conservatives off the ballot is the swamp at it worst,” Wardlow said in a statement Tuesday. “I am confident that, on Aug. 9, Minnesota Republicans will send the establishment a clear message: They want true conservatives who they can trust to secure our elections, restore law and order and stand up for our constitutional rights.”

Minnesota Republican Party Chairman David Hann responded: “Today Doug Wardlow broke his promise to abide by the endorsement and has instead proven himself to be a shameless politician motivated only by his personal ambitions. With this futile primary challenge, he will add one more loss to his record. Jim Schultz is the only candidate able to defeat Ellison in November, and our party is fully united behind him.”

In perhaps the biggest surprise of the day, state Rep. Jeremy Munson announced he would challenge Republican-endorsed Brad Finstad in southern Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District GOP primary — less than a week after Finstad, a former state legislator and U.S. Department of Agriculture official, had won the party’s endorsement to succeed the late U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died in February.

Munson had conceded last week but apparently had a last-minute change of heart. Matt Benda, another candidate who had been outpolled by Finstad, also filed Tuesday to challenge the GOP endorsee.

Filings closed Tuesday for Minnesota’s eight U.S. House seats and all 201 seats in the state Legislature.

After a court panel drew new district boundaries, all the lawmakers find themselves in new political territory. That resulted in a large number of seats with two or more candidates running. As of late Tuesday afternoon, 36 state legislative candidates — 19 in the Senate and 17 in the House — were running in contested primaries.

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