Minnesota Now

A beloved Twin Cities broadcast journalist has been telling people's stories, thousands of them, over his long career. It's been tough telling his own story, which has taken another twist. Boyd Huppert, of KARE 11, has been living with an uncommon kind of blood cancer, multiple myeloma, and was in remission following a successful bone marrow transplant in 2022. Things were looking good, Huppert was feeling good. He welcomed his first grandchild and was traveling. Earlier this year, Huppert went for a checkup and his doctor found that the cancer has flared up. He is now getting ready to undergo a cutting-edge therapy, and while he undergoes tests and other preparations, he's gracious enough to have found the time to talk with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer.

When you think about a political campaign ad or marketing, your mind probably doesn’t go straight to TikTok and Instagram. Most of the U.S. population grew up with an onslaught of television or radio ads during election season.

But social media has brought a new dimension to reaching voters. And for the first time, it seems that campaigns are doing it well.

The campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, known as Kamala HQ has 3.4 million followers and more than 75 million likes across all of their videos on TikTok. By comparison, Team Trump, the campaign for former President Donald Trump, has 210,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 200,000 likes, though Trump does have more than 7 million followers on Truth Social.

To understand how social media is playing a new role in reaching voters, MPR News reached out to April Eichmeier, an assistant professor of Emerging Media at the University of St. Thomas who is an expert on political messaging.

Two DFLers are vying to replace one of Minnesota’s longest-serving DFL legislators in district 26A in southeast Minnesota, which includes Winona. The area has long had a DFL stronghold with Rep. Gene Pelowski serving a whopping 38 years in the House, but Republicans believe they can flip the district on their way to winning a state House majority.

The GOP easily endorsed Aaron Repinski who is favored to win the primary over Stephen Doerr. But DFLers in the region have struggled to choose their candidate.

That’s what’s so unusual about the primary in Winona Tuesday: back in March, despite multiple rounds of voting from delegates in the Winona area, neither of the DFL candidates, Sarah Kruger or Dwayne Voegeli received 60 percent of the vote that is required for the DFL endorsement. Kruger and Voegeli joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about this unique race.

Minnesota’s primary election will take place Tuesday, narrowing the field of candidates who will appear on ballots in November’s general election. There are several contested primaries that will be closely watched this week.

That includes the 5th congressional district in Minneapolis. Rep. Ilhan Omar faces a rematch from former Minneapolis City council member Don Samuels.

Two years ago, Omar beat Samuels by just two percentage points. Experts say that whoever wins the DFL primary will likely win the seat in November. Joining MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about the tight race is MPR News senior politics reporter Clay Masters.

A brand new Olympic event is kicking off in Paris on Friday. You may know it as break dancing but in the professional world it is known as breaking.

It is a form of hip hop dance that was cultivated by young people in the 1970s in the Bronx. B-boys Jeffrey Louis and Victor Montalvo along with B-girls Sunny Choi and Logan Edra will represent the united states in the event.

The Twin Cities were — and still are— a hotspot for breaking throughout its history. J-Sun was a part of the Twin Cities breaking scene from the beginning and he’s been working on a project to gather an enormous archive of footage of people in Minnesota breaking through the program called MIXTAPE Dance.

He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about this history of the art.

They say it takes ten years to make an overnight success. We’ll hear how Gov. Walz took a little more than a year of careful orchestration to be thrust into the national spotlight this week.

And eleven uncommitted delegates will head to the Democratic National Convention. We’ll get their take on the Harris-Walz ticket.

We’ll look at Walz’s military history that has been placed under scrutiny.

Plus, a new competition is debuting at the Paris Olympics — it is called breaking, but it’s formerly known as break dancing. We’ll learn about the sport’s roots here in Minnesota from a hip hop scholar.

Ever wanted to submit your baked goods to the Minnesota State Fair? We’ll hear tips from a pro, in our segment Professional Help.

And we’ll get even more Olympics news, including how Minnesotan athletes are fairing in Paris, from our sports guys Wally and Eric.

Our Minnesota Music Minute was “Leather Soul” by ANT.

The Paris Olympics are entering their final weekend and there are still plenty of Minnesotans to watch. Stateside, the Minnesota Twins have an important series this weekend and the Minnesota Vikings kick off the preseason.

Wally Langfellow is the founder of Minnesota Score Sports Magazine and co-host of the sports talk show 10,000 Takes. Eric Nelson is the other host of that show and Minnesota Vikings NFL reporter for CBS’ Eye on Football and Sirius XM.

They joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share what they’re watching in Minnesota sports.

There are people living among us in Minnesota with special talents. You may be one of them. You may know one of them without realizing that at home in a drawer or on a wall, they have ribbons declaring their jam, pickles, or cookies the best in the state — at least for that one year.

The Minnesota State Fair is coming up and that means if you’ve been dreaming of a blue ribbon, there’s still time. But this is the state fair, a massive event with a long history and specific rules.

Plus, it seems kind of mysterious what would give one cookie an edge over the competition — especially with so many excellent and well-practiced bakers out there. We got the advice from a baker with countless blue ribbons.

Gov. Tim Walz is in Michigan on Thursday campaigning alongside Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential ticket continues barnstorming through swing states.

It’s only been two days since Harris chose Walz as her running mate and it may seem like his rise to the Democratic ticket happened in the blink of an eye. But as a new story in the New York Times tells it, there’s been a quiet, subterranean effort, started more than a year ago, where Walz and his aides to build his national profile — and they were successful thanks to a combination of careful strategy, luck and “Minnesota Nice.”

Walz was and has been demure about his political plans, until now. So to get a better understanding about his team's strategy, we wanted to talk to one of the New York Times reporters about the story out Thursday. Reid Epstein wrote and reported the story with his colleagues and he joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to explain.

The Democratic National Committee has announced Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz are officially certified as the party’s candidates for president and vice president.

Delegates held a virtual roll call that closed on Monday, with Harris getting support from 99 percent of delegates. In choosing Walz as a running mate, she’s brought him onto the official ticket. Delegates will gather in Chicago in less than two weeks for the party’s national convention, where they’ll hold a ceremonial roll call and try to keep enthusiasm going for the campaign.

But some voters and delegates on the left are still unsure of the ticket and what it would mean for people in Gaza. Several states including Minnesota are sending uncommitted delegates after a movement in the Democratic primaries to push for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Minnesota has 11 uncommitted delegates out of 75 total. Asma Mohammed is one of them. She joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to share her take on the new ticket.