When Tim Walz's (pictured) campaign poll-tested the effect of defining a candidate as progressive, “that did not move the needle, really, at all," Rick Kahn said. | Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via AP Photo Midwest Democrats' answer to Trump: White, conventional and boring Primaries in the heartland since May, including ones on Tuesday, offered a possible alternative for taking on Donald Trump in 2020

Democrats across the Midwest are opting for a conventional cast of technocrats and long-time public officials in the party's first response to Donald Trump’s 2016 victories — a rebuttal of sorts to the party's lunge leftward in the run-up to 2020.

It began with the governor’s race in Ohio in May, when Democratic voters picked Richard Cordray, the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, over the leftist firebrand Dennis Kucinich. Later, a businessman and former state Senate leader won primary contests in Iowa and Michigan, respectively.


And in Minnesota and Wisconsin on Tuesday, Democrats pinned their prospects on Tim Walz, a six-term congressman from Minnesota, and Tony Evers, Wisconsin’s 66-year-old state education superintendent in those states' gubernatorial contests.

Two years after a bombastic Trump swept through the upper Midwest, Democrats are arming themselves with general election candidates widely considered palatable to a broader electorate than the party’s progressive base. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, their victories serve as a reminder of the weight that establishment credentials still carry in the Midwest.

“I think what you will learn through the course of the general [election] is whether or not there’s going to be a real strategic push for someone who is more of ... a fit for those Midwestern voters, or if the [2020 presidential] primary is just going to be completely dominated by a combination of identity politics and old ideological constructs,” Democratic strategist Tom Russell said.

Russell, who ran former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold’s unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign in Wisconsin in 2016, said it remains unclear whether 2020 will feature any “down to earth, meat and potatoes” Democrat.

“You don’t see a hankering for that right now,” he said. “But depending on how these candidates do, or how these candidates do en masse in the Midwest, I think you might see a push for someone along those lines.”

Ideologically, the Democratic primaries for governor on Tuesday were ill-defined, with multiple Democrats in both Minnesota and Wisconsin competing for the progressive mantle — and Republicans already promising to define them as unabashed liberals in November.

In primaries for chief executive in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, Democrats cast in the most overtly progressive mold fell short. Erin Murphy, who was endorsed by Democratic-Farmer Labor Party activists, was running far behind Walz late Tuesday.

In Wisconsin, Evers overwhelmed a field that included both Mahlon Mitchell, a black, 41-year-old firefighter union leader endorsed by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif)., and Kelda Roys, a former state lawmaker endorsed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Roys made headlines when she breastfed her infant daughter in a campaign ad.

“Here we go, folks,” Evers told supporters in Madison on Tuesday night, pledging to “get results” on issues ranging from health care to crumbling roads. “I’m Tony Evers, and I’m going to be the next governor of the state of Wisconsin.”

Walz won't have to contend with an incumbent. He will face Republican Jeff Johnson, who defeated former Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the GOP primary.

For Harris, Gillibrand and a wide open field of other Democrats mulling presidential runs, the results in the Midwest offered a sharp contrast to gubernatorial primaries elsewhere in the United States. In Vermont, Democrats on Tuesday nominated Christine Hallquist, who is seeking to become the nation’s first transgender governor. Progressives such as Ben Jealous in Maryland and Stacey Abrams in Georgia have galvanized progressive activists in their states.

POLITICO's Ben Schreckinger sits down with Christine Hallquist, the leading Democratic candidate for governor in Vermont.

But in the Midwest, said Matt Bennett of the center-left group Third Way, “[Gretchen] Whitmer’s win in Michigan, and all these others, suggests that’s where Democratic and independent voters who are voting in these primaries want the party to go. And it is not consistent with the conventional wisdom of Washington, which is ‘To the barricades!’ or rather, ‘To the left!’”

Bennett said, “Everyone wants to fight. The question is with what ammunition.”

He said of the Midwestern primaries, “I hope it does serve as a note of instruction for 2020 candidates, but we’ll see.”

The relative moderation exhibited by Democrats in the Midwest follows a 2016 presidential nominating process in which Democrats in the region were less restrained. Sen. Bernie Sanders drubbed Hillary Clinton in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and he narrowly surpassed her in Michigan.

But after 18 months of Trump, Democrats appeared primed for campaign messages focused on electability and pragmatic governance over ideology. Evers leaned heavily on his record of statewide victories and on polling suggesting he could defeat Walker. In Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star Tribune endorsed Walz less for his politics than his “consensus-building” skills.

Rick Kahn, a friend and former campaign treasurer to the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, described Walz as “really progressive in terms of the values and on the important issues … But it’s more of a common sense approach.”

Kahn, who helped Walz in his primary bid, said that when the campaign poll-tested the effect of defining a candidate as progressive, “that did not move the needle, really, at all.”

“People were looking for substance on education, on health care,” Kahn said. “Tim is the one candidate who can draw independents and even Republican voters who are not sold on Trump’s vision of the future of America.”

Turnout in Minnesota and Wisconsin appeared to be running high. In Wisconsin, election officials reported a surge in early voting ahead of election day. And Minneapolis elections officials posted on Twitter, “There were nearly as many early voters in Minneapolis for the 2018 Primary as the previous 7 Gubernatorial (Midterm) Primaries COMBINED!”

The stakes in both states are enormous. In Minnesota, Republicans took control of the state legislature in 2016, and Democrats are desperate to maintain control of the executive office. In Wisconsin, Democrats see 2018 as their best chance yet to unseat Walker.

And the presidential campaign looms just over the horizon. Trump’s victory in Wisconsin in 2016 flipped the state red in a presidential election for the fist time since 1984. Trump is expected to compete heavily again there in 2020, as well as in Minnesota, which he lost by less than 2 percentage points.

Holding governor’s offices in those states would provide the governor’s party a structural advantage in fundraising and organizing in the 2020 campaign. But many campaign strategists hesitate to draw more sweeping conclusions from the primaries.

Not only does turnout in a midterm differ from a presidential year, but candidates for governor are more likely than presidential hopefuls to break across party lines, with some Democratic governors representing conservative states, and some Republicans representing liberal ones.

In Wisconsin, said Paul Maslin, a top Democratic pollster who splits time between Los Angeles and Madison, few voters appeared inclined to parse their choices.

“We’ve got the Packers coming on, the Brewers are in a pennant race, it’s 85 degrees here, and oh yeah, by the way there’s a primary for governor,” Maslin said. “Ninety percent of the electorate doesn’t give a hoot. It’s, ‘Let’s put someone out there who has a D after their name.’”

Now that one Democrat has emerged, Maslin said, “It’s going to be a real race.”