Minnesota’s GOP Senate Primary is Suddenly Competitive

Populist candidate Royce White and establishment favorite Joe Fraser are running for the GOP nomination to take on Sen. Amy Klobuchar in a longshot race.

Republican candidate for Senate Royce White (Back C) poses for a photo before a rally featuring former President Donald Trump and vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St Cloud, Minn., on July 27, 2024. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

MINNEAPOLIS—Minnesota is, ordinarily, a heavily Democratic Party state. No Republican currently holds state office, and the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party controls both houses of the state Legislature.

It has provided a pipeline for national politics of progressive champions, such as former Vice President Walter Mondale, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and state Attorney General Keith Ellison. And recently, Vice President Kamala Harris picked Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, who has a long record of progressive legislative achievements, as her running mate for the 2024 presidential election.