On Tuesday, Feb. 3, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) held a precinct caucus at Carleton College’s Weitz Center for Creativity. The meeting took place in Weitz 236 and began at 6:30 p.m.
Precinct caucuses are part of the DFL endorsement process, which is separate from Minnesota’s primary election. Caucuses are used to elect delegates who can advance to later conventions and to consider resolutions that can move through the party’s platform process.
Senior Bea Culligan ’26, a head of CarlDems, said the DFL designates a campus caucus site to encourage student participation. Carleton is part of a larger Rice County precinct, Culligan said, but the party has “decided to give us our own caucus, in hopes that more students would come out.” She added that St. Olaf College also has its own caucus.
Culligan emphasized how maintaining an additional caucus site requires resources including rented space, printed materials and staff for the event. “It is actually a very large financial expense on the DFL’s part,” she said.
Attendees checked in at the front of the classroom and could participate in a straw poll by indicating which candidate they woudl support if the election were held that day. “It was rows of chairs, kind of classroom style, and then a microphone at the front,” she said.
The precinct chair opened the meeting with a review of rules. “He did a very, very great job,” Culligan said. “It’s very confusing,” she added, describing the caucus as an early stage in a longer process leading up to later conventions. The meeting began with the election of a chair to run the caucus. Culligan said the precinct chair was reelected unanimously.
Culligan said party rules require gender balance across leadership positions. “They make sure that if the chair is, say, a man, at least one of the vice chairs needs to not be,” she said, adding that the structure [JUMP] is intended to keep leadership balanced.
The caucus then selected delegates and alternates to advance in the endorsement process. Nineteen delegate slots and 19 alternate slots were available and attendees volunteered by writing their names on a whiteboard. Because there were fewer volunteers than available spots, most participants who signed up were selected. “It’s a really unique opportunity to be able to be a delegate and be in those rooms where the DFL is deciding who they are going to endorse,” she said.
Culligan said the caucus then considered resolutions, which she described as proposals that can advance to later statewide conventions. She said the precinct-level vote is on whether a resolution should continue forward for consideration, not a final adoption of policy. “It’s not like you’re affirming the resolution,” she said. “You’re more affirming that it should continue to be considered.”
While several resolutions were broad, others were more specific. One attendee submitted two resolutions related to missing older adults, Culligan said, including a proposed alert system “kind of like an Amber Alert” for older people who go missing. One resolution on nuclear energy drew more debate and took longer than the others. The question, she said, was whether nuclear power should be considered as an option for meeting certain clean energy commitments. “People have a lot of feelings about that,” Culligan said.
Sophomore Max Kroloff ’28, another head of CarlDems, said that about 30 Carleton students attended. He said CarlDems helped set up the caucus and promoted it to students.
“I helped set up the caucus as well as advertise it,” Kroloff said.
Kroloff said CarlDems promoted the event through email, social media and student organization meetings. He added that, in conversations prior to the meeting, he heard students express enthusiasm toward participating. “On the way, many students noted that they were excited to be involved in democracy,” Kroloff said.
Culligan said student interest can be shaped by the number of contested races in a given year. She said caucuses can feel more procedural when races are uncontested. She said contested primaries and competitive endorsement battles can increase the incentive for students to attend because delegates continue on to later conventions where endorsements are decided.
Culligan also pointed to students’ frustrations with party politics. “Party politics are very frustrating,” she said. She added that caucuses can still provide a way for attendees to influence the party’s platform through resolutions. “This is the one chance every year where you can change the DFL party platform,” Culligan said.
“We are a partisan student organization, and while the caucus interacted with the wider student community, it was a partisan event,” Kroloff said. “We strive to be a space that fosters community and civic engagement regardless of party,” he added.
Culligan said this year’s caucus drew additional attention because several Minnesota races have contested Democratic primaries. She added that campaigns have an incentive to recruit students as delegates when more than one candidate is seeking endorsement.
Delegates selected at the Feb. 3 caucus can attend additional conventions in the coming months as the endorsement process continues.