The 2024 elections are still 16 months away, but Minnesota’s major political parties are already preparing for legislative races and the presidential contest. All 134 seats in the Minnesota House will be up for re-election as Democrats try to protect their “trifecta” control of the House, Senate and governor’s office.

“I think we have a great record to talk about right now,” DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said in an interview recorded for At Issue with Tom Hauser. “Things Minnesotans have been waiting years to happen. Like investing in our schools, investing in working families and making sure no one is falling through the cracks in this state. The accomplishments that were delivered by the DFL this session with not a lot of help by Republicans are truly miraculous.”

Minnesota Republican Party Chair David Hann says his party will make the case Democrats mislead voters in the last election. For instance, he says they approved a lot of new spending on education, but few reforms to improve education.

“The last election Democrats in most districts were campaigning on far different things than they actually enacted,” Hann said. “They talked about returning the surplus, cutting Social Security taxes, improving the education system, public safety. None of these things were on the agenda for the DFL legislature this year. They didn’t fulfill their promises and we’re going to remind voters of that.”

It’s looking like the 2024 presidential race could be a rematch of 2020 between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Several polls show most voters not happy about those two choices, but Martin claims Democrats are united behind Biden. 

“People are excited and already unified around our president and vice president,” Martin said. “Obviously all the excitement and speculation is on what happens in the Republican Party and I think you’re probably right that it’s probably likely to be Donald Trump as their nominee. That’s certainly what we’re preparing for.”

However, Trump faces legal problems on several fronts that could impact his path to the Republican nomination. Hann says he’s remaining neutral for now.

“We’ve got a lot of great candidates,” Hann says. “I’m a party chair. I’m a neutral observer at this point. The first debate is next month. I’ll be in Milwaukee for that. We’ll see what comes out of that process, who our candidate will be.”

You can see the entire interview with the two-party chairs Sunday at 10 a.m.