The Minnesota Unity Pledge

THE MINNESOTA UNITY PLEDGE

Offered today for the signature of every DFL candidate for governor and lieutenant governor. We ask each candidate to sign by June 24, before Minnesotans begin voting on June 26.

Minnesota families need help they can feel. Rent is too high. Food costs too much. Care is hard to get. A hard primary is how voters choose, but hard primaries leave wounds, and the stakes this November are too high for Democrats to carry those wounds into the fall.

So we make this pledge, and we invite every DFL candidate to make it with us:

We will respect the voters. From now until August 11, we will make our case, our ideas, our differences, and what a governor can actually do, and let Minnesotans choose their nominee.

We will accept the outcome. The results as canvassed and certified under Minnesota law, including the outcome of any recount conducted under that law, will be final for us, and we will not bring, fund, or support a court challenge to them. We will congratulate the winner within twenty-four hours of a clear result, and no later than one day after certification. If we come up short, we will say so plainly, no excuses, no asterisks. If the margin is close enough for an automatic recount, we will let the count finish, and then say so plainly.

We will stand behind the nominee, all the way to Election Day. From the moment the outcome is clear, we will not campaign against the apparent nominee. We will publicly endorse the nominee within forty-eight hours of a clear result, and no later than three days after certification. From that day through Election Day, we will campaign for the nominee, headline at least one fundraiser for the nominee, and ask our volunteers and supporters to finish the race as one team.

Our differences matter. They do. Voters deserve a vigorous primary and the truth about what each of us would do in office. This pledge is not a promise to go easy on each other. It is a promise about what happens after the voters speak.

We are a big-tent party. We win by telling the truth. We win by protecting people. We win by lowering costs. We win by making government work for everyone.

And while the other party makes excuses for politicians who refuse to accept defeat, Minnesota Democrats will show the country what respect for voters looks like.

In November, one of us will be the DFL candidate for governor, and every one of us will work to elect the DFL candidate for governor.

How to sign: We are delivering this pledge to every DFL campaign this morning, and it is posted on our campaign website. Signed copies will be delivered to the DFL state chair, and we ask the chair to serve as custodian of every signature. We will keep signing it in public, beside any candidate who joins us, at any town hall, any forum, any debate stage. On June 26, as voting begins, we will publish every candidate’s answer, with the date each signed.

We have signed. The pen is waiting.

Kobey Layne, DFL Candidate for MN Governor

Paul Ference, DFL Candidate for Lt. Governor