I’ve started getting e-mails asking if I’m going to write about the primaries, so it’s probably time to write about the primaries. Minnesota’s primary election this year will be on August 9th.

On everyone’s ballot in the state of Minnesota:

Governor
Attorney General
Secretary of State

In addition to multiple DFL and Republican candidates for Governor, AG, and SoS, there’s a contested primary in the governor’s race for both weed parties. In Minnesota, you can vote in whichever party primary you want — but you have to pick one and stick with it in all the partisan races on that year’s ballot. If you vote for Ole Savior for governor in the DFL primary, you can’t then vote for Sharon Anderson for AG in the Republican primary.

Both US House MN-04 (the seat currently held by Betty McCollum) and US House MN-05 (the seat currently held by Ilhan Omar) are having primaries — again, both DFL and Republican candidates are on the ballot. (There are primaries in lots of other districts but I only write about the races people vote on in Minneapolis and St. Paul, so like, local to us + statewide.)

In Hennepin County, there is a primary for County Attorney and one for County Sherriff. (This is a non-partisan primary: the top two vote-getters in each race advance.)

In Minneapolis, there is a primary for School Board At-Large and also for Minneapolis School Board District 5. The other Minneapolis school board seats up for election this year aren’t having primaries because not enough people are running to require them. These are also non-partisan and the top vote-getters advance (but it’s the top 4 for School Board At-Large because there are two open seats).

The following metro-area State House seats are contested, I think:

62A: Aisha Gomez (incumbent)
Osman Ahmed

65B: Anna Botz
Maria Isa Pérez-Hedges

66A: Leigh Finke
Dave Thomas

67A: John Thompson (incumbent)
Liz Lee

And the following metro-area State Senate seats are contested, I think:

62: Omar Fateh (incumbent)
Shaun Laden

63: Zaynab Mohamed
Todd Scott

65: Sandra Pappas (incumbent)
Zuki Ellis
Sheigh Freeberg

And there’s a Ramsey County Board race. At least one.

I’m starting out this year already tired (I mean, have you seen a newspaper this week?) so I’m going to prioritize the downticket races and save the top for the end or if I’m feeling burned out and need a break. I mean, you know I’m going to say to vote for Tim Walz, Steve Simon, and Keith Ellison — Tim’s DFL opponent is Ole Savior! Steve’s being challenged in the DFL primary by a Republican! Keith’s opponent hasn’t got an actual website! — you don’t actually NEED my help there.