DFL’ers: Are you ready for 2018?  I hope so because it might be the most consequential election year in Minnesota history. It will certainly be the busiest.

Every Minnesotan will be voting for at least these eight races:

•       Governor/Lt. Governor
•       Attorney General
•       Secretary of State
•       State Auditor
•       US Senate – Six-year term
•       US Senate – Two-year term
•       US House Representative
•       MN House Representative

That’s six statewide races and two races in your district. That’s a lot of races to follow! Are these races really consequential? You bet! By electing two Democratic US Senators, we can help flip the Senate (a long shot). By electing, let’s guess, seven out of eight Democratic US Representatives (we’ll give them Emmer in District 6), we can help flip the House (not a long shot). The goal is to have a Democratic Senate and House to control the damage that Trump can do in his last two years.

It’s also extremely important for the Minnesota Government. As I have gotten involved in the Governor’s race, I’ve heard it said many times that we are one race away from becoming Wisconsin – a former progressive state that is now anti-union, anti-educators, and anti-working class. We need to elect a Democratic Governor and flip eleven MN House seats to take back the MN House.

And, that’s a concern. The endorsed candidates for all of these races will need our financial and volunteering support. It’s going to be easy to have volunteer fatigue and to underfund some candidates, while some candidates collect too much money (I’m looking at you, Amy Klobuchar).

The good news is that the Democratic party is blessed with great candidates with lots of energy up and down the ticket. Thank you, Donald Trump and the GOP tax bill.

The main reason to write this post is to urge every active DFL’er to contribute money to every one of these eight races (give more to your favorite race(s) and less to the other races) and volunteer time to at least four of these races. It starts with caucus night on February 6, 2018. So, DFL’ers, Are You Ready?