The Minnesota DFL’s massive, behind-the-scenes political fundraising network explained

This graphic shows the movement of funding for state political campaigns so far in 2024. Campaigns are required to regularly report to the MN Campaign Finance Board (CFB). Federal political funding is not included. Arrows represent cumulative payments greater than $100,000 between people and organizations in 2024. The visualization is designed for a larger screen. You’ll have a better experience viewing this article on a laptop or desktop than on a phone or other mobile device.

It’s mostly behind the scenes, carried out by media-shy people who like it that way.

But it is as big a factor in DFL election success in Minnesota as issues and candidate quality.

It’s money, and the somewhat complex but very well-executed system developed over two decades by the DFL and its affiliated organizations — unions, wealthy donors, the state party, the two legislative caucuses and a triumvirate of committees that raise and spend millions of dollars each election cycle to elect DFLers.

Using state Campaign Finance Board data, MinnPost created an interactive graphic to show the web of money that fuels DFL campaigns. The network graphic shows the sources of money — mostly unions from member dues and wealthy individuals — and how it flows to the organizations that spend it to boost DFLers and damage Republicans.

But data doesn’t illustrate the relationships among organizers that year after year keep the system intact and effective with the state DFL party at the cohesive center.

“There’s no guarantee that they will continue investing in the DFL if the DFL wasn’t doing its job to build the infrastructure to win elections,” said state DFL party Chair Ken Martin, who was among the organizers of the funding and spending apparatus nearly two decades ago.

Funding from unions via dues payments cannot be underestimated. The predictable funding is the basis for DFL campaigns. That money goes to both political party committees and the primary DFL fundraising committee, the We All Do Better PAC. Public employee unions lead the way — Education Minnesota, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and AFSCME Council 5. But construction unions that often give some money to both parties give in larger amounts to DFLers.

A related organization run by the same political operatives — WIN Minnesota — collects primarily from wealthy individuals. The lead donor, and one of the founders of the system, is Alida Messinger, a Rockefeller heir and the former wife of former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Mark Dayton. Messinger has contributed $1.83 million to progressive organizations this year alone. Publisher and investor Vance Opperman is also a significant DFL donor.

But there are other organizations that are part of the network — collecting money from national affiliates and individuals to spend on Minnesota races. The Minnesota Prosperity Fund gets money from an arm of the National AFL-CIO; The PAC for America’s Future is funded by members of the Munger Family; Planned Parenthood raised funds from big and small donors and is a major player in DFL campaigns; Movement Vote PAC collects from donors nationally to fund Minnesota organizations such as Faith in Minnesota Action.

The network chart shows the dominance of the DFL and the GOP attempts to catch up. One illustrative finding on display: the House GOP caucus has just one contribution in excess of $100,000 while the House DFL caucus has 10.

The network chart does have some nodes that don’t connect anywhere. Some of those groups make their own donations to candidates or launch their own independent expenditure efforts. Others might be pooling money but hadn’t yet sent it to other groups at the time of the September CFB report.

It is also important to point out that the database is from the state campaign finance board and includes only activity on state reports. The two parties and many of the organizations also have Federal Election Commission reporting for finance activity for federal campaigns under federal rules. The state DFL, for example, has reported raising $6.75 million this election cycle to the state, but its FEC report shows $10.9 million raised and nearly $4.4 million in the bank as of Aug. 31, the last reporting period.

“There is no entity in the state of Minnesota — no PAC, no legislative caucus, no independent expenditure group — that raises or spends more money than the state party,” Martin said.

Unions as a ‘unique cornerstone’

The potent DFL apparatus might not be such a big factor in Minnesota politics if Republicans and their own affiliated organizations could come close to competing. While the legislative caucuses do have some success, they raise less than comparable DFL caucuses.

Some business-affiliated organizations are competitive — the Pro Jobs Majority, Renew Minnesota, the MN Jobs Coalition and the MN Business Partnership collect from affiliated members and give to GOP caucuses and conduct their own efforts to help individual candidates.

Some national GOP funding organizations give money to state affiliates – including GOPAC and the Republican State Leadership Committee both focus on state legislative campaigns around the country. Advance Minnesota works closely with GOPAC while the RSLC partners with Renew Minnesota and the Minnesota Jobs Coalition.

John Rouleau is the executive director of the Jobs Coalition who has watched the Minnesota campaign funding situation and the DFL coalition with some admiration and a bit of envy. While he said GOP groups have held their own despite being outspent — winning legislative majorities in the House and Senate over the last decade — it lacks some of the advantages the DFL has.

Not only do union dues provide “a big pot of money,” it is regular and predictable.

“The hardest part of budgeting on a campaign is trying to figure out what are you going to have for money,” Rouleau said. “If you start with labor union money, you know that those dues are getting paid and that money is sitting in the budget.

“It’s a unique cornerstone,” he said. “You have this predictable, repeatable money every cycle that you can count on.”

But it goes beyond that, Rouleau said. The DFL organizations work closely together, they pool resources such as polling and digital ad expertise, and they don’t duplicate efforts. The DFL also has a core of large money individuals who trust their contributions to professional campaign organizers, something the GOP doesn’t have in similar supply.

Republicans rely on business groups and trade groups that are more cautious in how partisan they appear. Rouleau recalls in 2010 when Target donated to an organization that was backing GOP nominee Tom Emmer for governor. The Alliance for a Better Minnesota attacked Target, partly because of Emmer’s opposition to LGBTQ issues. Target backed off and Rouleau said the incident still resonates with the state’s large businesses.

“You have a very different ecosystem on the right,” he said. Business groups have bipartisan membership and are more cautious. Donors are more likely to go out on their own in order to control how money is spent.

“It would be great if we had one vehicle on the Republican side that makes sure everything is being done and you’re not duplicating efforts, but I don’t know if that’s the Republican goal,” he said. What is an attainable goal, and has been reached sometimes and not reached other elections, is more coordination.

“You know what each group is doing, you know where everyone is going, you know what they are buying, you know what their strategy is,” he said. Still, state Republicans do outpunch their weight, he said.

“When you look at all the structural things that are working against Republicans, the fact that it is competitive speaks to the work that Republicans are doing to swim against those tides,” Rouleau said.

Losses and lessons learned

The backstory begins in Colorado where disappointed progressive Democrats decided they had to do something different. Using technology, organization and coordination with big donors, a group of progressive operatives turned the state from Red to Blue. Among the founders is now the governor of Colorado, Jared Polis.

Their methods — and some of the individuals — were imported and the system enhanced in Minnesota, to become a national model for funding and coordinating Democratic campaigns. Organized nationally as Progress Now, the Minnesota affiliate is the Alliance for a Better Minnesota.

Starting in 2006, after a string of DFL defeats in the state, the coalition began to change the outcomes, highlighted by the election of Mark Dayton in 2010 and the defeat of the GOP-backed marriage amendment in 2012. That same election delivered a DFL trifecta — the House and Senate majorities to go along with Dayton’s governorship.

Since then, ABM has led the attack on GOP nominees for governor — Jeff Johnson in 2014 and 2018 and Scott Jensen in 2022. ABM spent $15 million alone attacking Jensen. 

Martin said it was the 2006 defeat in the governor’s race by Tim Pawlenty over then-attorney general Mike Hatch by less than 1% that was a catalyst. At that time, the state party was relatively weak and the various DFL supporting organizations did not work closely. Also at that time, the GOP dominated money and organizing via non-party groups including think tanks, media and funding organizations.

“For 30 years before the ‘06 election the conservative movement had focused on building infrastructure outside the parties and outside the candidates,” Martin said. “While we were investing in candidates and political parties, they were investing in something more long-lasting and durable.”

Martin, who was running WIN Minnesota after managing the Hatch campaign, said changes were needed.

“In 2006 we had multiple independent expenditure groups, labor was on its own, Alida (Messinger) had her own independent expenditure group, Vance Opperman had his own group,” Martin said. “None of it was really coordinated. People were working crosswise with each other.

“I said that for us to win the governor’s race in 2010 we have to put everyone under one umbrella, we have to put our swords down and our various agendas down. We have to collectively unify and work together under one strategic banner.”

From that emerged the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, WIN Minnesota and the precursor t0 the We All Do Better Fund which have what Martin termed an unspoken arrangement to focus on different areas. The Alliance does direct messaging to voters via electronic and digital advertising, for example, while the state party concentrates on party building, statewide organizing and voter turnout efforts.

Martin became party chair after the Dayton victory in 2010 and continued the strategy. Republicans have begrudgingly admired the DFL infrastructure but haven’t been able to duplicate it. While Rouleau notes the built-in advantage from union support, Martin says he thinks it has more to do with the lack of an effective state Republican party.

The party was in debt in 2023, partly because of a legal dispute with the organization’s former chair, Jennifer Carnahan. It is now in better financial condition but remains far behind the DFL in fundraising with just $712,000 cash on hand, most in its federal account.

“Republican allied groups used to give a lot of money to the party,” Martin said. “They stopped investing in the Republican party because the Republican party has stopped being effective. They started giving money to outside groups and building around the party.

“The question is this: If we stop winning, will people stop giving? Who knows. But you have to build something if you want people to invest in it,” Martin said.

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