How 6 Minnesota Democrats feel about the presidential race ahead of the DNC

Joy, humor and snark from the newly formed ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz has some Democrats feeling more hopeful and optimistic than they have in years.

The Minnesota Star Tribune invited six Minnesota Democrats into the newsroom to talk to reporters after a statewide call for participants to discuss the 2024 presidential race. The newspaper did the same with conservative voters right before the Republican National Convention.

With concerns ranging from the fate of democracy to reproductive rights, gun safety and Gaza, here's what these Democrats had to say Thursday, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

Omar Adams, 52, Plymouth

Adams was a Biden delegate to the Democratic National Convention and is now pledged to Harris. He feels the same excitement he did as a delegate for President Barack Obama in 2008, a shift after the post-debate doldrums. "I was 'woe is me,' wringing my hands, trying to defend President Biden," Adams said.

A teacher and father of a 10-year-old daughter, Adams is hoping for common sense gun control and full funding of special education by the federal government as well as a cease-fire in Gaza. But he doesn't require a candidate to check all the boxes on issues he cares about.

"A friend of mine said that voting is a subway ride, it gets you in the vicinity," he said. "It's not like an Uber ride where you get exactly to your destination. Your candidate is not going to have every single thing."

Lea Assenmacher, 58, Chatfield

She's married to a physician, has two grown children and two dogs and is familiar with Walz as he represented her in Congress for 12 years. She liked his willingness to change positions, notably shifting his support to new gun safety measures as governor. "He doesn't feel like he needs to hold onto the center," she said.

She also likes that Walz called the GOP ticket weird. "Oh my gosh it feels so sweet," she said. Her top priority: Defeating Trump. "He has to be beaten, God willing, in a landslide," she said. Assenmacher also said the next administration needs to overhaul health care. "They need to wipe it out and start from the ground up," she said.

Since Walz joined Harris, Assenmacher said she's been "joy scrolling," saying "it has been a lot of fun to watch the two of them."

Jean Doolittle, 74, Ham Lake

A retired school librarian, Doolittle is interested in environmental protections, commonsense gun restrictions and protecting reproductive rights.

"As someone who came of age in the 70s during the women's movement, I saw the doors opening for women to be who we could be," Doolittle said. She worries the doors are closing and is concerned about Republicans using the conservative Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 as a road map. "I'm a grandmother to an 11-year-old. I don't want to see her future in a world that's too hot, too dry and without opportunities to be all she can be," Doolittle said.

She's been nervous about politics for years. "Ever since Trump walked down that escalator and started talking about Mexicans, it was like, this can't happen. And then it happened."

The Harris-Walz ticket has her excited. "We have a fresh start and it's brought the joy," she said.

Logan Keith, 40, Minneapolis

He works in IT for Hennepin County and describes himself as a progressive, millennial, gay man. Protecting democracy is a big concern and he opposes Trump's agenda. "It's feeling like we're going backwards," he said.

Keith considers the Harris-Walz ticket to be a "little bit more progressive than Biden was." He's concerned about Gaza and U.S. funding of Israel. "I don't want my tax money going to bombs that are going to kill children, but at the same time there's a lot of domestic issues I'm interested in — reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights," he said.

But while he's progressive, Keith said, "I try not to be too loud about it in a lot of ways, because I know it can often be triggering for people."

He doesn't appreciate Republican attacks on the bureaucracy. "There are hundreds of thousands of Americans that are constantly being attacked for doing their jobs," he said.

Elizabeth Psihos, 60, Edina

She described herself as "3,000% behind Biden" and was sad that he was nudged out after a bad debate. "Trump has not gotten the same scrutiny," she said.

"My top issue is democracy and not far behind that would be reproductive freedom," said Psihos, who works for a commercial solar company. She too is concerned about the Project 2025 vision for a complete overhaul of the federal government. "Everything is at stake," she said, citing the conservative plans to replace government employees with partisan loyalists.

She's met Walz and calls him a "masterful pick" as a running mate. Psihos said excitement for Harris and Walz has spread to her three children — two in college and a college graduate — especially as the ticket is "all over TikTok."

"My 19-year-old said, 'I can't wait to vote,'" she said.

Adrita Rahman, 36, Minneapolis

Reading about and seeing images of the thousands of children wounded and killed in Gaza has deeply affected Rahman, and the conflict is her top issue. "I would see my daughter's faces in those kids' faces," said Rahman, a stay-at-home mom of a 3-year-old. "I can't even imagine having to look for the limbs of your children under the rubble."

Born in Bangladesh, Rahman is one of 11 uncommitted Minnesota delegates to the DNC and is hoping to move Harris toward a cease-fire and arms embargo. She said staking out that position would help the ticket, especially in the crucial swing state of Michigan.

But if voters concerned about Gaza feel politicians are indifferent, Rahman said they might stay home on Election Day. "We're not anywhere near getting our goals met," she said.