Can the DFL save the Third District without Dean Phillips?

“We haven’t given up trying to win over these voters,” Hann said of suburbanites.

But Martin said he began to see the GOP’s control in the suburbs erode 20 years ago, when Democrat John Kerry defeated Edina in the 2004 presidential election.

“That was the moment when I really realized there was going to be a sea change in Minnesota politics,” he said. By then, DFL was competitive in suburbs like St. Louis Park, Richfield and Bloomington, but Martin thought Edina’s shot was “really quite outstanding,” he said. “You could see the wind starting to change.”

It took another 14 years for a Democrat to win the Third Congressional District.

Martin said that since he became DFL chairman in 2010, his main focus has been the suburbs. He said the party has spent a lot of time and resources recruiting candidates for the school board, city council and legislative contests.

“I think it would be simplistic to say I was the only one who flipped the district,” Phillips said of his 2018 victory. The victory came after years of organizing, he said, and amid growing dissatisfaction with former Republican President Donald Trump.