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This week I sat down with Richard Carlbom, the chair of Minnesota’s Democratic Party, in the middle of one of the most volatile weeks this state has seen in years.

A woman had just been killed in south Minneapolis during a federal operation. ICE activity was escalating across the metro. Schools were shutting down. Protesters were flooding the streets. At the same time, Minnesota’s governor announced he wouldn’t seek reelection, throwing the state into an open race for power.

Richard is one of the people quietly responsible for holding all of that together — managing the party’s response, keeping elections functioning, and figuring out how a democracy operates when pressure keeps rising.

We talk about what his job actually looks like when a crisis hits, why language and outrage suddenly matter so much in politics, and where the line is between protest, civil disobedience, and real political change. We get into misinformation, the way entire communities become scapegoated, and why Minnesota keeps finding itself at the center of national political flashpoints.

We also talk candidly about how candidates are really chosen, what an open governor’s race means behind the scenes, and what lessons he took from leading Minnesota’s marriage equality campaign — especially about listening instead of lecturing voters.

This is a grounded, honest conversation about power, fear, responsibility, and what it actually means to try to protect democratic systems when they’re under stress.