How well did DFL, GOP party leaders do in keeping Minnesota’s state conventions boring this year? So-so.

Deep down, state political party chairs want their conventions to be, well, boring.

A little rah-rah, a little fire-up-the-troops, maybe a little too much alcohol at the delegate party, before a final “go-get-’em and don’t forget to sign up for door-knock shifts.”

But too much drama could reveal divisions in the ranks, could sow resentment, could make the party look clownish to the less-than-devoted who might be looking in via news coverage.

Two weeks ago in St. Paul, the state Republican Party got a little too much of the latter and not enough of the former. An hours-long debate over which of two rival delegations from Otter Tail County would be seated marked Friday’s agenda. A surprise (and not very close at all) endorsement of former NBA player Royce White over retired U.S. Navy Commander Joe Fraser for the U.S. Senate made Saturday memorable, though not exactly unifying. White has been accused of making antisemitic and misogynistic comments and made potentially illegal expenditures from campaign funds. 

Then came the state DFL convention in Duluth this weekend. A campaign to elect uncommitted delegates to the national convention in Chicago had some success in Minnesota — 11 of the 75 national delegates from Minnesota are uncommitted. That mostly reflects the move to pressure President Joe Biden to stop supporting the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

An Abandon Biden movement has support in Minnesota, driven by some Muslim-American voters and others in the Free Palestine movement who say the only way Democrats will hear their message is if Biden loses in November. 

Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin addressed that sentiment in a welcoming speech at the Duluth Convention Center Friday.

“It is the height of privilege, as some in this room have said by the way, to try to lose an election to prove a point,” he said. Too much is at stake in November for such a result, he said.

“No one in this room should confuse unity with unanimity,” Martin said. “We can and will disagree. And I’m sure there will be a lot of disagreement this weekend. But the reality is, we can disagree and still come together around our values.”

“We’re a big tent, y’all and it can get real messy in here,” quipped Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

But one difference between GOP Chair David Hann in St. Paul two weeks ago and DFL chair Ken Martin this past weekend is that Martin had support of the delegates in the room, Hann did not. The positions of DFL convention rules and platform committees were generally supported from the floor.

That first became apparent Friday when party leaders agreed to change the agenda and let the endorsement for U.S. Senate move from Saturday to Friday. That would be the only endorsement vote at the convention, as endorsements for state House and U.S. House are done at conventions in those jurisdictions.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar was expected to win the endorsement easily. But Pro-Palestine delegates wanted to use the endorsement process to raise issues about the war in Gaza and what they see as Klobuchar’s support for Israel’s military action against Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack that left 1,200 people in Israel dead. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The move to amend the agenda triggered a minor fight on the convention floor, with supporters of Dan Engelhart trying to have his name entered into nomination for the endorsement. Engelhart is a longtime DFL activist and a public employee union organizer, who opposes Israel’s campaign as part of the Free Palestine Coalition. He said Friday that attempts to engage Klobuchar on the issue have been rebuffed.

“All of our hands are collectively bloody and dirty on this,” Engelhart said during an interview Friday. “And the senator keeps doing it again and again and it’s time to have a conversation. That’s why I’m running for the DFL endorsement for U.S. Senate.”

It would have taken 25% of the 740 delegates in attendance Friday (2,168 delegates were elected to attend the convention and 1,010 showed up Saturday) to allow Engelhart to be nominated and allowed to speak from the rostrum. The voice votes and divisions showed there were not nearly enough votes for that. Engelhart said the movement would have had more support Saturday when many activists had planned to attend, specifically for the U.S. Senate endorsement.

Martin said it was moved up because the Friday agenda was lighter than Saturday, and Klobuchar was already in Duluth. As it turned out, the convention went 14 hours on Saturday, adjourning at midnight. There was also a lengthy session on Sunday.

During her 25-minute speech accepting an endorsement that was given by acclamation, Klobuchar did address the war in Gaza.

“Today, I speak not just to those in this room, but to everyone who cares about the future of our country, including those who are disillusioned right now, those who want to see peace in the Mideast, and would I support a cease-fire, return of the hostages and ultimately a two-state solution. I am with you.”

Gaza was on the convention agenda formally, too, as delegates discussed the party’s platform.

The Free Palestine movement delegates, supported by several hundred demonstrators who took buses from the Twin Cities, successfully amended a key platform resolution. As proposed, it stated that the party “condemns antisemitism in all its forms, including the targeting of Jews as individuals, as a people, or denial of the right of the state of Israel to exist, and is committed to combating anti-Jewish bias in all of its manifestations.”

An amendment passed that removed “or denial of the right of the state of Israel to exist” because activists claimed it equated opposition to Zionism to antisemitism.

Proposed resolutions to the DFL platform from local and district party units had included several on the Hamas attack and the Israeli response. One proposed resolution called for “the halt of human atrocities and a prioritization of civilian safety for the Palestinian and Israeli people.” It failed.

Another resolution regarding the State Board of Investment also failed to get enough support to be approved. It would have stated that the party “supports the Minnesota State Board of Investment divest from any country or corporation which violates international or US laws prohibiting human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing, illegal land appropriation, terror and violence.” 

Still another stated that the party “supports immediate release of hostages, immediate humanitarian aid, and an immediate cease-fire through continued peace efforts in Gaza,” but was amended to remove language “as well as supporting a two-state solution that affirms the rights of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples each to have their own states within safe and secure borders.”

A measure that said the party “support(s) the end of financial and military aid to Israel until it complies with international law and respects the rights of the Palestinian people” also failed.

While the resolutions come from local party units, the state party platform remains in support of the state of Israel, endorsing “Israel’s right to exist within secure borders, Palestinian rights to self-determination, and continued peace efforts in the Middle East.” 

The debate over Gaza somewhat overshadowed what has been another intra-party conflict that would have been heightened by the convention’s location in Duluth. The Prove It First movement wants a moratorium on copper-nickel mining until its impact on the environment, especially water, is proven. Labor opposes the concept and argued that mining could be done safely and that the minerals are needed for climate change technology.

The resolution states that the party “supports the Minnesota Legislature holding hearings on the proposed Prove It First legislation, and supports withholding all permits for copper-nickel sulfide mines in Minnesota until it can first be proven that such mines can be operated safely in our water-rich environment and not violate state, federal, and tribal water quality standards.” The measure relates to the rejection of such hearings by DFL legislative leaders this past session.

Labor leaders, led by the Laborers International Union (LIUNA), said they would support the measure if the words “the proposed Prove It First legislation” was removed. It was and the resolution was easily adopted Saturday.

Klobuchar, like Martin, tried to focus on the opponents in the GOP, not disagreements among Democrats. She used her role in accepting the Electoral College votes in the early morning hours after January 6, 2021, through a U.S. Capitol strewn with debris, as a metaphor.

“For me, Democrats, that walk over the broken glass has never ended,” she said. “That march we took that night is the march you brought me to. That march is a march that must continue through 2024, all the way to the ballot box.” Trump will “take a wrecking ball to the foundations of democracy and the rule of law.

“That means we have only one choice — beat them,” she said.

Do conventions matter? Hann didn’t have a great convention, but there is little question that Republicans are supporting Donald Trump, some more enthusiastically than others. There is no longer internal dissent, and Trump’s appearance at a dinner on the first day of the convention was well received by the party members in attendance.

And while a Royce White vs. Joe Fraser U.S. Senate primary will expose a rift between party regulars and newer activists, neither candidate is expected to pose much of a challenge to Klobuchar in November.

Martin might have been less sure about a unified party, with Gaza being the flash point.

“There are lots of different beliefs on this issue,” he said later Saturday. “There are folks who really care deeply right now and want to be heard. But people need to be reminded of the difference between Biden and Trump on this issue.” Pointing to Biden’s endorsement last week of a new Israeli cease-fire proposal, Martin said, “The president is probably more aligned with where people are on this issue.”

Asma Mohammed, an uncommitted delegate to the Democratic National Convention, said the purpose of the campaign that attracted nearly 19% of the Democratic primary vote is to get Biden and Democratic delegates to listen to their concerns about the war.

“We’re afraid of a Trump presidency too,” she said Saturday. “We don’t want that. And the only way we can avoid that is if we get a cease-fire.” If uncommitted voters don’t show up in November, “we will lose this election.” She said she and the other 10 uncommitted delegates in the Minnesota delegation will try to convince other delegates that “we have a duty to other Democrats, to the rest of this country and to Palestinians to demand a cease-fire, to bring forward a better candidate for president.”

After the Klobuchar endorsement Friday, Engelhart said he wasn’t satisfied with Klobuchar’s speech comments on Gaza and, as one of the uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he will continue to push the issue.

“A lot of people in this room think what we’re doing is going to elect Trump,” he said. “But the opposite is true. Nominating people who won’t stand for something is costing us.” Engelhart, however, said he wouldn’t stay out of the presidential election.

“If it is the choice that no one wanted, I’ll vote for Joe Biden,” he said.

Editor’s note: Peter Callaghan wrote this story for MinnPost.com. Callaghan covers state government for MinnPost.

This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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