(applause) >> Join us right now to talk about the 2026 governors, race, the US Senate race, and a whole lot more.

Two public media political journalists who are the best in their field.

Mary Lahammer handles the political beat at Twin Cities PBS and host of our sister program, Almanac, at the Capitol.

Brian Bakst is a senior political editor for MPR News and host of Politics Friday.

Good to see you guys.

Glad to be here.

You know, I think, Maryla Hammer, was it last year on this very stage we were wondering if Senator Klobuchar would run for governor?

Yeah, I know we have a lot of regulars.

Does anybody remember exactly one year ago when we floated what seemed like an absolutely preposterous theory and there were gasps and aaws from the crowd?

And Senator Klobuchar said people had spent too much time in the beer garden when we dared suggest the rumor that she was going to enter the race for governor.

And Governor Walls was not going to run for re-election.

We reminded her of that exactly one year later.

And gosh, isn't that what happened?

What a swirl and what a lot of new energy.

Minimum is for a long time about three decades now.

So many new faces, so much new energy at the opening gate, at all those candidate booths.

A lot of young new people too standing in line.

I think there is fresh energy in Minnesota politics right now.

What do you think?

>> Well, it's going to be a blockbuster year no matter what.

Everything that's important to Minnesota in the state, in terms of offices, the Senate, the legislatures on the line, all the constitutional offices, there are a lot of new candidates, a lot of new faces, and as Mary said, it's just who knows which kind of voters are going to show up.

We learned a little bit from the primary, but there's still a lot more to learn.

And should we just say out loud, women, women at the top of the ticket, Governor, U.S.

Senate, that is exciting and the first time ever.

Are we hoping to get some fresh ideas and some ideas for changes that could be made with all this fresh energy?

What is it go back to kind of the greatest hits of immigration in fraud and crime and affordability?

I think it's a bit of both.

You have probably the two most substantive governor candidates that you've had in the wild, people who are steeped in policy.

So the makings are there.

There could be a very substantive debate over the direction of the state, how to move forward in this new economy with AI on the doorstep and all kinds of things that could really disrupt the way Minnesota gets its tax revenue and the way that Minnesotans live.

And so there's the makings of it, but as you know the easy bumper sticker messages tend to win the day.

Those easy bumper sticker messages also, I wonder how data centers plays into this.

That's a fresh issue.

>> Yeah, and a total unknown.

And it's playing on the left, on the right, bringing very interesting folks on the far left and far right together.

And a lot of not in my backyard, we don't know how data centers are playing.

And then also to come back to Brian and that question, the US Senate race, who is bringing a lot of new energy, flanagan, a lot of new energy, to foyer a lot of new energy.

Both of them are kind of disruptors within their own party.

So that is bringing new faces out too.

- What do we know about debates for the statewide candidates?

Please, let's have them.

As many as we can, let's let the voters hear.

Why are the issues stand?

Why is this such an effort to get people to debate?

It's really part of this campaign to change where candidates want to be in the controlled environments.

They want to do, they want to speak to their audiences on their platforms and maybe comingle with everyone else.

Everyone's in a while.

And they don't want to answer a lot of the questions.

A lot of the follow-up questions and that's what debates are.

So we're pushing for them.

We hope to have an open invitation if you're running for big offices here.

Come on, Ira.

>> Yeah, on public radio and TV.

In fact, and we know that Craig and Flanagan did a lot in the center race.

And I talked to Michelle Tafoya specifically about it yesterday.

I've asked her more than once every time we've talked.

I said, are you going to debate?

And she said, absolutely.

She comes from media.

She wants to do it.

She's been saying yes to a lot more interviews, and she promises that she will debate.

With about 90 seconds left, what about the attorney general's race?

That is a close one according to polls.

- Now the last two have been very close.

This one will be close as well, no matter what.

I mean, you have Keith Ellison who's running for a third term.

He's got the fraud issue that he's working to to contend with.

You have Ron Schutz, a respected twin city's attorney running.

But he's got a lot of questions to answer about what types of cases he would pursue as Attorney General, what ones he would drop that Keith Ellison has brought.

So there's going to be a lot of conversation in that one.

Don't think that that one is all settled just yet.

Yeah, and don't sleep on the auditor's race.

That is an open seat.

Almanac had the first debate recently, so that one should be an interesting race to watch as well.

How about Damon taking a page out of the Ventura book and going for the lower tab fees?

Yeah, a lot of the things that she's put out there, tax cuts, and she hasn't really answered exactly where the money would come from in the long term, and that'll be the question that she'll have to answer.

Ventura got his start here at the State Fair.

Absolutely, that's where he took off, and it'll be interesting to see Damon at the spending time here.

She has a booth, you noticed in my piece there.

Peggy Flanagan is the only top tier candidate that did not spend the money on a booth.

Is that strange?

It feels like it is.

Well, she said it's not about money.

She said she won with 20 million spent against her.

So she said this isn't about money and isn't about spending.

She's going to be at the party booth.

You guys are great as always.

Brian Bakst Mary Lahammer Thank you so much.

You're welcome.