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I almost forgot to mention this: at the precinct caucuses (held in March), people also selected delegates to go on to the next level: in this case, the County Unit/Senate District convention. At these conventions, endorsements are made for the state-level and/or county-level offices, like the state legislature, state senate, county commissioners, etc. Delegates are also elected to go on to the Congressional District conventions and the state convention too, where endorsements are made for congress and state-wide offices, like governor, state auditor, Sec. of State, etc.
Most of the time, if an endorsement is made, the losing candidates drop out. However, they may choose to run in the primary in September, if they wish. But as an "unendorsed" candidate, they don't have the same access to the party apparatus as does the endorsed candidate.
The caucus system is very easy to participate in, if you have a spare hour on a tuesday night in March. It may seem "elitist" to some, but half of politics (at least in MN) is just showing up. Anybody can run to be a delegate to the CU/SD, CD, state or even national convention. I know of several people this year who are going to Boston as national delegates who have not been involved in party politics before. You don't have to apply to be on a slate, or pass some party selection process, as that's all decided by the people who participate-- even those who have never done so before.
For the most part, MN's system is the best of both worlds in most respects. The parties are very "amateur", and easy to get involved with on any level with which you feel comfortable. There's some meritocracy, but for the most part ANYBODY can be a delegate to state or even to national.
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