Photos by Deb Gau Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, at right, leads Democrats in a discussion exercise in Wood Lake on Saturda

WOOD LAKE — She was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Senate District 15 DFL convention. But Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan told area Democrats she was there to listen.

“This is a moment for feedback, and I’m happy to take it. And if there are places where you think we should be, let me know,” Flanagan said.

She wanted to hear from Minnesotans as she started her campaign for U.S. Senate.

“We started early because we know that we have to have a lot of conversations,” Flanagan told the audience. “We want to build a campaign that’s not just about me — it’s actually about all of us, and leaving communities better than we found them.”

On Saturday, about 70 people gathered in Wood Lake for the DFL district convention. The crowd included 46 delegates from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Yellow Medicine, Lyon, Lac qui Parle, Brown and Redwood counties.

In addition to electing party officers, convention attendees also took part in a discussion with Flanagan. Flanagan said one reason she was running for Senate was to give back, and advocate for government services that made a difference for many people’s lives.

“For many of us, the attacks that we are seeing are really, really deeply personal. They’re personal for me, too,” Flanagan said.

Programs like public housing, the Child Care Assistance Program, SNAP and Medicaid all helped Flanagan’s family as she was growing up.

Flanagan led convention attendees in a “kitchen table conversation,” like ones that she had held around Minnesota.

“We need to have a lot of conversations with a lot of people across the state, and I’m going to spend a lot of time in Greater Minnesota because … we need to give people an opportunity to connect,” she said. The conversations were a chance to connect people from across the political spectrum, she said.

Flanagan asked people to write down their concerns about where the country was headed, as well as things that gave them hope. People wrote their answers on sticky notes, and placed them on pieces of flip chart paper on the wall. The list of concerns included national security, the potential dismantling of the Department of Education, cuts to health care coverage, and movement away from sustainable energy practices.

Flanagan also added agricultural concerns to the conversation.

“I will also just name that I have been stunned by, and I’ll just say this, the gigantic middle finger that this administration has been giving to farmers and to family farmers, from tariffs to USAID, to threats against SNAP,” Flanagan said. Some Minnesota farmers were faced with hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs for work that was supposed to be reimbursed by federal grants.

“That’s not right. It’s not fair. And there’s so much more that we need to do,” she said.

Flanagan said part of the reason to gather people’s stories was to then share them with members of Congress.

Audience members also pressed Flanagan on the need to have clear message for rural Minnesotans. Doug Peterson said Democrats needed to get out of regional centers and into coffee shops and rural communities.

Flanagan said she also planed to make farm visits.

“Here’s the deal. Invite me in, and I will be there,” she said. “I will spend time where I need to be, because this is not just about Democrats or Republicans or Independents. We are all under threat right now.”

Flanagan encouraged audience members to stay connected and keep organizing.

“We have so much work to do, and there’s not just one way to do it,” she said.

“There’s more work to do, and I’m eager to do this work in partnership with all of you,” she said.